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by Martin Cohen
Critical Thinking Skills For Dummies
Cover
Cover
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I: Getting Started with Critical Thinking Skills
Chapter 1: Entering the Exciting World of Critical Thinking
Opening the Doors to the Arguments Clinic
Developing Critical Thinking Skills: Reading between the Lines
Understanding What Critical Thinking Isn't
Chapter 2: Peering into the Mind: How People Think
Thinking Logically or Instinctively: Evolution and Consciousness
Watching How the Brain Thinks
Getting Inside Scientists’ Heads
Answers to Chapter 2’s Exercises
Chapter 3: Planting Ideas in Your Head: The Sociology of Thinking
Asking Whether You're Thinking What You Think You're Thinking
Thinking and Indoctrination: Propaganda
Appreciating the Difficulties of Staying Impartial
Appealing to Feelings: The Psychology of Argument
Manipulating Minds and Persuading People
Answers to Chapter 3’s Exercise
Chapter 4: Assessing Your Thinking Skills
Discovering Your Personal Thinking Habits
Busting Myths about Thinking
Exploring Different Types of Intelligence: Emotions and Creativity
Answers to Chapter 4’s Exercises
Part II: Developing Your Critical Thinking Skills
Chapter 5: Critical Thinking Is Like . . . Solving Puzzles: Reasoning by Analogy
Investigating Inventiveness and Imagination
Confused Comparisons and Muddled Metaphors
Becoming a Thought Experimenter
Answers To Chapter 5’s Exercise
Chapter 6: Thinking in Circles: The Power of Recursion
Thinking Like a Computer Programmer
Combining the Thinking Spheres
Sort, Select, Amplify, Generate: Using Design Skills to See New Solutions
Ordering Yourself a Nice, Fresh Argument! (Exercise)
Answers To Chapter 6’s Exercises
Chapter 7: Drawing on Graphical (and Other) Tools for Thinking
Discovering Graphical Tools: Mind Mapping and Making Concept Charts
Putting Graphical Tools To Use
Considering Other Thinking Tools
Answers to Chapter 7’s Exercises
Chapter 8: Constructing Knowledge: Information Hierarchies
Building the Knowledge Pyramid with Data and Information Blocks
Turning the Knowledge Hierarchy Upside Down
Maintaining Motivation: Knowledge, Skills and Mindsets
Answers to Chapter 8’s Exercises
Part III: Applying Critical Thinking in Practice
Chapter 9: Getting to the Heart of the (Reading) Matter
Appreciating Critical Reading as a Practical Skill
Reading between the Lines
Playing Detective: Examining the Evidence
Filtering out Irrelevant Material
Answers to Chapter 10’s Exercises
Chapter 10: Cultivating Your Critical Writing Skills
Structuring Your Thoughts on the Page
Choosing the Appropriate Style of Writing
Getting Down to the Specifics of Critical Writing
Answers to Chapter 10’s Exercise
Chapter 11: Speaking and Listening Critically: Effective Learning
Getting the Most from Formal Talks
Participating in Seminars and Small Groups
Noting a Few Notes
Democratising the Learning Environment
Answers to This Chapter
Part IV: Reason and Argument
Chapter 12: Unlocking the Logic of Real Arguments
Introducing Real-Life Arguments
Delving Deeper into Real Arguments
Chapter 13: Behaving Like a Rational Animal
Setting out Laws for Thinking Logically
Seeing How People Use Logic
Putting Steel in Your Arguments with Logic
Answers to Chapter 13’s Exercises
Chapter 14: Using Words to Persuade: The Art of Rhetoric
Introducing Rhetoric: When an Argument Isn't an Argument
Winning When You're Right
Debating Successfully When You're Wrong
Discerning a Message
Answers to Chapter 14’s Exercise
Chapter 15: Presenting Evidence and Justifying Opinions
Challenging Received Wisdom about the World
Digging into Scientific Thinking
Counting on the Fact that People Don't Understand Numbers: Statistical Thinking
Answers to Chapter 15’s Exercise
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
About the Author
Cheat Sheet
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End User License Agreement
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