Book description
Turbocharge your reasoning with Critical Thinking
Just what are the ingredients of a great argument? What is the secret to communicating your ideas clearly and persuasively? And how do you see through sloppy thinking and flim-flam? If you've ever asked any of these questions, then this book is for you!
These days, strong critical thinking skills provide a vital foundation for academic success, and Critical Thinking Skills For Dummies offers a clear and unintimidating introduction to what can otherwise be a pretty complex topic. Inside, you'll get hands-on, lively, and fun exercises that you can put to work today to improve your arguments and pin down key issues.
With this accessible and friendly guide, you'll get plain-English instruction on how to identify other people's assumptions, methodology, and conclusions, evaluate evidence, and interpret texts effectively. You'll also find tips and guidance on reading between the lines, assessing validity - and even advice on when not to apply logic too rigidly!
Critical Thinking Skills for Dummies:
Provides tools and strategies from a range of disciplines great for developing your reflective thinking skills
Offers expert guidance on sound reasoning and textual analysis
Shows precisely how to use concept mapping and brainstorming to generate insights
Demonstrates how critical thinking skills is a proven path to success as a student
Whether you're undertaking reviews, planning research projects or just keen to give your brain a workout, Critical Thinking Skills For Dummies equips you with everything you need to succeed.
Table of contents
-
- Cover
- Introduction
- Part I: Getting Started with Critical Thinking Skills
- Part II: Developing Your Critical Thinking Skills
- Part III: Applying Critical Thinking in Practice
- Part IV: Reason and Argument
-
Part V: The Part of Tens
-
Chapter 16: Ten Logical Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
- Claiming to Follow Logically: Non Sequiturs and Genetic Fallacies
- Making Assumptions: Begging the Question
- Restricting the Options to Two: ‘Black and White’ Thinking
- Being Unclear: Equivocation and Ambiguity
- Mistaking a Connection for a Cause: Correlation Confusion
- Resorting to Double Standards: Special Pleading
- Thinking Wishfully
- Detecting the Whiff of Red Herrings
- Attacking a Point that Doesn't Exist: Straw-Man Arguments
- Redefining Words: Playing at Humpty Dumpty
-
Chapter 17: Ten Arguments that Changed the World
- Suggesting That Only a Small Elite Is Clever Enough To Be In Charge
- Crossing the Line: An Argument for Breaking the Law
- Staying on the Right Side of the Law: An Argument for Always Obeying the Law
- Arguing that Human Misery is Due to a Greedy Elite Exploiting Everyone Else
- Proving That, ‘Logically’, God Exists
- Proving That, ‘in Practice’, God Doesn't Exist
- Defending Human Rights
- Making Everything Relative
- Getting All Relative with Einstein
- Posing Paradoxes to Prove Your Point
-
Chapter 16: Ten Logical Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
- About the Author
- Cheat Sheet
- Advertisement Page
- Connect with Dummies
- End User License Agreement
Product information
- Title: Critical Thinking Skills For Dummies
- Author(s):
- Release date: April 2015
- Publisher(s): For Dummies
- ISBN: 9781118924723
You might also like
book
Critical Thinking
Mistakes occur for many reasons. This book takes a hands-on approach to the reasons mistakes happen, …
book
An Introduction to Critical Thinking
An Introduction to Critical Thinking, useful for undergraduate students, discusses critical thinking, relation between critical thinking …
book
A Practical Guide to Critical Thinking, 2nd Edition
A thoroughly updated introduction to the concepts, methods, and standards of critical thinking, Applying rigor when …
book
The Critical Thinking Toolkit
It’s not just for geniuses. Everyone can learn to think creatively, analytically, and quickly with brain-boosting …