How to Think Critically by Jeff Mclaughlin

How to Think Critically by Jeff Mclaughlin

Jeff McLaughlin's How to Think Critically begins with the premise that we are all, every day, engaged in critical thinking. But as we may develop bad habits in daily life if we don't scrutinize our practices, so we are apt to develop bad habits in critical thinking if we are careless in our reasoning. This book exists to instill good thinking habits: attentiveness to word choice, avoidance of fallacies, and effective construction and assessment of arguments.

With relatable and often amusing examples included throughout, the book adopts a degree of technical sophistication that is rigorous and yet still easily applied to ordinary situations. Readers are presented with a traditional step-by-step method for analysis that can be applied to all argument forms. Hundreds of exercises (with solutions) are included, as are several random statement generators which can be used to create thousands of additional examples. Venn diagrams, truth tables, and other essential concepts are presented not as definitions for academic study but as tools for better thinking and living.

“Jeff McLaughlin’s How to Think Critically covers all of the topics important for introductory courses in Critical Thinking, and it does so without bogging down the reader or instructor with extraneous materialThe examples and illustrations will, I believe, resonate well with students, and, in particular, with students at Canadian universities. I look forward to using this text the next time I offer Critical Thinking.” — G.K.D. Crozier, Laurentian University

“How to Think Critically is a very good text. It is clear and comprehensive and includes an abundance of examples. It provides a plausible and sensible take on arguments as they really do occur.” — Michael Stack, University of Manitoba

“McLaughlin’s book is clearly written and infused with an engaging sense of humour that sustains interest in a subject area that too often is presented in a dry and uninteresting fashion. McLaughlin uses pedagogically sound techniques and strategies to build competency and confidence in thinking critically.” — Jill Hunter, Athabasca University

In This Section:

I. Author Bio

II. Author Letter

I. Author Bio

Dr. Jeff McLaughlin teaches philosophy at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops BC Canada. He received his PH.D. from the University of Alberta. He is author/editor of Comics as Philosophy and Conversations: Stan Lee (both by University Press Mississippi).

II. Author Letter

Dear Colleague,

Just the word 'philosophy' can make our first year students feel a little bit intimidated. Many sign up because they want to think and discuss some of the questions that they've had about their world and their place in it, while others may have just fallen into the course because of scheduling issues! But even still, they are all going to be curious about what philosophy is.

My book An Introduction to Philosophy: In Back, White and Color presents a broad range of articles and topics to meet this challenge. Yes, the articles within are ones you've seen in other places, but that is because I've compiled a list of the readings from the top-selling introductory readers. However, unlike the other texts on the market, I selected what I hope to be a very useful collection that is broad enough and diverse enough to satisfy the needs in your introductory course.

The most important distinction of my book is the pedagogical approach that I took in offering these readings. In each chapter I discuss and explain some of the themes and issues raised in each reading (or grouping of readings) by drawing examples from movies. In general, students like movies and see their favourites over and over again. They are comfortable with the way movies tell stories, so I've tried to tap into their comfort level to ease their potential apprehension with philosophy.

Reading philosophy is hard enough, but when students have to read works that are hundreds of years old about difficult concepts, it can be discouraging and perhaps prima facie irrelevant to them. So if we can relate Plato's Cave Allegory to a science fiction film that they like, then this helps bridge the gap between just reading philosophy and understanding it. I don't just mention a movie in passing, but use the actual dialogue!

Ultimately hundreds of films are used or alluded to in the text, and the online companion website presents thousands more in all sorts of relevant categories. You might even want to show some of the clips in class, or assign entire films. But whatever you do, students will start to look at movies as more than mere entertainment, and most importantly for our purposes, they will see philosophy as more than just an academic exercise.

Another feature I'd like to mention is that the online companion has a 'how to do' philosophy section that my students have found quite helpful; indeed earlier versions of it have been linked to many universities over the past decade or so. It gives the students practical tips on how to read and write in our discipline, etc. I encourage you to review it!

I could go on, but I rather you consider examining a copy and see if it will work for you. I hope it does and look forward to hearing any feedback that you might have. Please feel free to email me at: jmclaughlin@tru.ca.

Sincerely,

Jeff McLaughlin

Thompson Rivers University

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781554812165
ISBN 10	155481216X
Title	How to Think Critically
Author	Jeff Mclaughlin
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Broadview Press Ltd
Year published	2014-08-30
Number of pages	208
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.