Thinking Critically - Softcover

John Chaffee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0395831059 ISBN 13: 9780395831052

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin College Div, 1997

Synopsis

This text teaches the fundamental thinking, reasoning, reading, and writing abilities that students need for academic success. This Fifth Edition offers sophisticated reasoning skills required for abstract, academic contexts. Exercises, discussion topics, and writing assignments encourage students to participate actively.

About this title

About the Author

John Chaffee, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at The City University of New York, where he has developed a Philosophy and Critical Thinking program that annually involves 25 faculty and 3,000 students. He is a nationally recognized figure in the area of critical thinking, having authored leading textbooks and many professional articles. He also has conducted numerous conference presentations and workshops throughout the country. In developing programs to teach people to think more effectively in all academic subjects and areas of life, he has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He was selected as New York Educator of the Year and received the Distinguished Faculty Award for Diversity in Teaching in Higher Education.

Christine McMahon was a professor in the Department of English Composition, Literature, and Professional Writing at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland. She planned and coordinated "Critical Literacy," a professional development program for Montgomery College faculty, librarians, and counselors on educational theory and techniques for fostering critical thinking across the curriculum. In 1997, she received a NISOD Excellence Award (National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development from the University of Texas at Austin) for this work. Her work has been published in Teaching Writing in the Two-Year College.

Barbara Stout was professor of English at Montgomery College. She was chairperson of the Department of English and helped establish the "Writing Across the Curriculum" and "Critical Literacy" programs. Professor Stout was secretary of the Conference on College Composition and Communication and is active in the Two-Year College English Association. She has made presentations at CCCC, TYCA-Northeast, NCTE, and other conferences. Her publications include chapters in NCTE publications and books about two-year college writing programs.

Review

1. THINKING. Thinking Critically About Visuals: The Mystery of the Mind. Living an "Examined" Life. Thinking Critically About Visuals: You Are the Artist of Your Life. A Roadmap to Your Mind. Working Toward Goals. Achieving Short-Term Goals. Achieving Long-Term Goals. Images, Decision-Making, and Thinking About Visual Information. Images, Perceiving, and Thinking. Thinking Critically About Visuals: Disaster and Perspective. Thinking Passage: The Autobiography of Malcolm X. From The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X with Alex Haley. An Organized Approach to Making Decisions. Living Creatively. "Can I Be Creative?" Becoming More Creative. Thinking Critically About Visuals: "Expect the Unexpected" - Heraclitus. Thinking Critically About New Media: Creative Applications. Thinking Passage: Nurturing Creativity. 'Original Spin," by Lesley Dormen and Peter Edidin. "Revenge of the Right Brain," by Daniel Pink. Thinking Critically About Visuals: 'Express Yourself!" Chapter Summary. Suggested Films. 2. THINKING CRITICALLY. Thinking Critically About Visuals: "Now It Is Time for Us to Part ..." Thinking Actively. Influences on Your Thinking. Becoming an Active Learner. Carefully Exploring Situations with Questions. Thinking Independently. Viewing Situations from Different Perspectives. Thinking Critically About Visuals: Thinking Independently. Supporting Diverse Perspectives with Reasons and Evidence. Thinking Critically About Visuals: "You Leave, I Was Here First!" Discussing Ideas in an Organized Way. Listening Carefully. Supporting Views with Reasons and Evidence. Responding to the Points Being Made. Asking Questions. Increasing Understanding. Reading Critically. Asking Questions Using a Problem-Solving Approach. Thinking Critically About Visuals: Complex Issues, Challenging Images. Becoming a Critical Thinker. Thinking Critically About New Media: Issues with Communication. Analyzing Issues. What Is the Issue? What Is the Evidence? What Are the Arguments? What Is the Verdict? Thinking Passage: Jurors' and Judges' Reasoning Processes. "Jurors Hear Evidence and Turn It into Stories," by Daniel Goleman. Thinking Critically About Visuals: "Members of the Jury, Don't Be Deceived..." Analyzing On-Line Trends in Higher Education. Will the Web Kill Colleges?" by Zephyr Teachout. Chapter Summary. Suggested Films. 3. SOLVING PROBLEMS. Thinking Critically About Problems. Introduction to Solving Problems. Solving Complex Problems. Accepting the Problem. Step 1: What Is the Problem? Step 2: What Are the Alternatives? Step 3: What Are the Advantages and/or Disadvantages of Each Alternative? Thinking Critically About Visuals: "I Have a Creative Idea!" Step 4: What Is the Solution? Thinking Critically About Visuals: "Why Didn't I Think of That!" Step 5: How Well Is the Solution Working? Solving Non-personal Problems. Thinking Critically About New Media: Surfing Dangers and Addictions. Thinking Critically About Visuals: Advertising to Change Behavior. Thinking Passage: The Influence of New Media "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" by Nicholas Carr. Chapter Summary. Suggested Films. 4. PERCEIVING AND BELIEVING. Actively Selecting, Organizing, and Interpreting Sensations. People's Perceptions Differ Thinking Critically About Visuals: The Investigation. Viewing the World Through "Lenses". What Factors Shape Perceptions? Thinking Critically About Visuals: Witnessing a Martyrdom. Five Accounts of the Assassination of Malcolm X. Thinking Passage: Experiences Shape Your Perceptions. Untitled by Luis Feliz (student essay). Thinking Critically About Visuals: Perceiving and Managing Fear. Perceiving and Believing. Believing and Perceiving. Types of Beliefs: Report, Inferences, Judgments. Thinking Critically About Visuals: Observing a Street Scene. Reporting Factual Information. Inferring. Judging. Differences in Judgments. Thinking Critically About New Media: Distinguishing Perception from Reality. Thinking Passage: Perception and Reality on Reporting the Earthquake in Haiti. Haiti," by Jonah Lehrer. "Making Sense of Haiti," by Amy Davidson. "Suffering," by George Packer. "Aftershock," by Bryan Walsh, Jay Newton-Small, and Tim Padgett. Chapter Summary. Suggested Films. 5. CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE. Believing and Knowing. Knowledge and Truth. Stages of Knowing. Thinking Critically About Your Beliefs. Thinking Critically About Visuals: "I Knew That Aliens Existed!" Using Perspective-Taking to Achieve Knowledge. Several Accounts of Events at Tiananmen Square, 1989. Beliefs Based on Indirect Experience. How Reliable Are the Information and the Source? Thinking Critically About New Media: Evaluating Online Information. Before You Search. Choose Sources Likely to Be Reliable. Was the United States Justified in Dropping Atomic Bombs on Japan? Thinking Critically About Visuals: After the Bomb. Thinking Passage: Seeking the Truth vs. Winning a Battle. "The Story Behind the Story," by Mark Bowden. Chapter Summary. Suggested Films. 6. LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT. The Evolution of Language. The Symbolic Nature of Language. Semantic Meaning (Denotation). Perceptual Meaning (Connotation). Syntactic Meaning. Pragmatic Meaning. "Jabberwocky". Thinking Passage. "How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect," by Benedict Carey. Using Language Effectively. Thinking Critically About Visuals: Reading the Unwritten. Thinking Passage. From Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon. Using Language to Clarify Thinking. Thinking Critically About Visuals: Words Paint a Picture. Improving Vague Language. Using Language in Social Contexts. Language Styles. Standard American English. Thinking Critically About Visuals: "What's Happening?" Slang Jargon. The Social Boundaries of Language. Using Language to Influence. Euphemistic Language. "Ancient Greece to Iraq, the Power of Words in Wartime," by Robin Tolmach Lakoff. Emotive Language. Thinking Passage: Persuading with Political Speeches. Thinking Critically About New Media: How to Write for the New Media. "How to Write for the New Media," by Neal Jansons. Thinking Passage: Will Twitter Make Us Nit-Twits? "Twitter, Communication, and My Inner Luddite," by Yves Smith. "The Hidden Problem With Twitter," by Carin Ford. "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live," by Steven Johnson. Thinking Critically About Visuals: "You're Not Going to Believe This..." Chapter Summary. Suggested Films. 7. FORMING AND APPLYING CONCEPTS. What Are Concepts? The Structure of Concepts. Forming Concepts. Applying Concepts. Thinking Critically About Visuals: Fashion Statements as Concepts. Thinking Passage: Femininity and Masculinity. "Women and Femininity in U.S. Popular Culture," Susan Grayson. "The Second Coming of the Alpha Male," by Michael Segell. Thinking Critically About Visuals: "Pose!" Using Concepts to Classify. Thinking Critically About Visuals: "A Tree Is Just a Tree, Is Just a Tree ..." Defining Concepts. Thinking Passage: Defining Cultural Identity. "Identify Yourself: Who's American?" by Gregory Rodriguez. Thinking Critically About Visuals: Who Is an American? Relating Concepts with Mind Maps. Thinking Passage: The Concepts Religion and Religious Experience."What Is Religion?" by Frederick J. Streng. Thinking Critically About New Media: Using New Media to Research a Concept. Chapter Summary. Suggested Films. 8. RELATING AND ORGANIZING. Chronological and Process Relationships. Chronological Relationships. Thinking Passage "Back, But Not Home," by Maria Muniz (student essay). Process Relationships. Comparative and Analogical Relationships. Comparative Relationships. Analogical Relationships. Thinking Passage: Thinking Literally. Thinking Literally: The Surprising Ways that Metaphors Shape Your World. Thinking Critically About New Media: New Media Metaphors for Our World. Causal Relationships. Thinking Critically About Visuals: The Places We Think. Causal Chains. Contributory Causes. Interactive Causes. Thinking Critically About Visuals: Why...? Thinking Passage: Environmental Issues. "Playing God in the Garden," by Michael Pollan. "Eating the Genes," by Richard Manning. Chapter Summary. Suggested Films. 9. THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT MORAL ISSUES. What Is Ethics? Your Moral Compass. I Would Follow My Conscience. I Do Not Know What I Would Do. I Would Do Whatever Would Improve My Own Situation. I Would Do What God or the Scriptures Say Is Right. I Would Do Whatever Made Me Happy. I Would Follow the Advice of an Authority, Such as a Parent or Teacher. I Would Do What Is Best for Everyone Involved. The Thinker's Guide to Moral Decision-Making. Make Morality a Priority. Thinking Critically About Visuals: "What Homeless Person?" Recognize That a Critical-Thinking Approach to Ethics Is Based on Reason. Include the Ethic of Justice in Your Moral Compass. Include the Ethic of Care in Your Moral Compass. Thinking Critically About Visuals: Ethics and Emotions. Accept Responsibility for Your Moral Choices. Seek to Promote Happiness for Oneself and Others. Seek to Develop an Informed Intuition. Discover the "Natural Law" of Human Nature. Choose to Be a Moral Person. Thinking Critically About New Media: Ethical Issues with the Internet. Thinking Passage: Thinking and Acting Morally. "The Disparity Between Intellect and Character," by Robert Coles. Solving the Problem of World Hunger. "The Solution to World Hunger," by Peter Singer. Chapter Summary. Suggested Films. 10. CONSTRUCTING ARGUMENTS. Thinking Critically About Visuals: 'Let Herbs Grow Free!" Recognizing Arguments. Cue Words for Arguments. Thinking Passage: Legalizing Drugs. "Drugs" by Gore Vidal. "The Case for Slavery." by A. M. Rosenthal. Arguments Are Inferences. Evaluating Arguments. Truth: How True Are the Supporting Reasons? Validity: Do the Reasons Support the Conclusion? Thinking Critically About Visuals: The Changing Rules of Love. The Soundness of Arguments. Understanding Deductive Arguments. Application of a General Rule. Disjunctive Syllogism. Thinking Critically About New Media: Freedom of Speech on the Internet. Constructing Extended Arguments. Writing an Extended Argument. Thinking Passage: Should We Ration Health Care? "Why We Must Ration Health Care," by Peter Singer. "Rationing Health Care: A Second Opinion," by Leonard Laster. Thin...

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin College Div
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0395831059
• ISBN 13: 9780395831052
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 576