Using Questions to Think: How to Develop Skills in Critical Understanding and Reasoning - Softcover

Dickman, Nathan Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1350177717 ISBN 13: 9781350177710

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021

Synopsis

Our ability to think, argue and reason is determined by our ability to question. Questions are a vital component of critical thinking, yet we underestimate the role they play. Using Questions to Think puts questioning back in the spotlight. Naming the parts of questions at the same time as we name parts of thought, this one-of-a-kind introduction allows us to see how questions relate to the definitions of propositions, premises, conclusions, and the validity of arguments. Why is this important? Making the role of questions visible in thinking reasoning and dialogue, allows us to: - Ask better questions - Improve our capability to understand an argument - Exercise vigilance in the act of questioning - Make explicit what you already know implicitly - Engage with ideas that contradict our own - See ideas in broader context Breathing new life into our current approach to critical thinking, this practical, much-needed textbook moves us away from the traditional focus on formal argument and fallacy identification, combines the Kantian critique of reason with Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics and reminds us why thinking can only be understood as an answer to a question.

About this title

About the Author

Nathan Eric Dickman (PhD, The University of Iowa) is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Ozarks, USA. He researches in hermeneutic phenomenology, philosophy of language, and comparative questions in philosophies of religions, with particular concerns about global social justice issues in ethics and religions. He has taught a breadth of courses, such as Critical Thinking, Islam, Ethics, Zen, Existentialism, and the Historical Jesus. Using Questions to Think (Bloomsbury, 2021) examines the roles questions play in critical thinking and reasoning, and Philosophical Hermeneutics and the Priority of Questions in Religions (Bloomsbury, 2022) examines the roles questions play in religious discourse.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350177717
• ISBN 13: 9781350177710
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264