How to Reliably Pilot Your Own Mind will be available to ship in July. It includes many of those items you will find in any critical thinking textbook: a definition of the subject, barriers to critical thinking, definitions, deductive and inductive arguments, fallacies, and more. It is exceptional, however, in that it also includes chapters on Worldview Exploration, and a specific chapter on reasoning in support of Normative Claims. Students will also appreciate chapters on writing argumentative papers, critical thinking standards, and Aristotle’s division of rhetoric into ethos, pathos, and logos.
Marcelo Pimentel is the Chair of Humanities and Full Professor of Philosophy at Santiago Canyon College in Orange, California. He was the Orange County Teacher of the Year for 2006.
Table of Contents
Introduction: What Is Critical Thinking All About & Why Does It Matter? 1
Chapter One: The Difference Between Uncritical Thinking & Critical Thinking 29
Chapter Two: Self-Assessment & Some Uncritical Methods & Mindsets 61
Chapter Three: Critical Thinking Methods & Mindsets 82
Chapter Four: Evaluation & How to Argue a Normative Thesis 98
Chapter Five: Developing and Presenting Arguments 111
Chapter Six: The Standards of Critical Thinking 120
Chapter Seven: The Features of Good Arguments 132
Chapter Eight: Rhetoric & Three Mechanisms of Persuasion: Pathos, Ethos & Logos 155
Chapter Nine: Fallacies of Reasoning 180
Chapter Ten: Analyzing Your Worldview 208
PART TWO: Thinking Critically About Current Affairs 227
Chapter Eleven: Love & Marriage 228
Chapter Twelve: Gay Marriage 237
Chapter Thirteen: The Media: Gender, Race, Labor & Democracy 247
Chapter Fourteen: War in Iraq 256
Chapter Fifteen: Drug Legalization 260
Chapter Sixteen: Capital Punishment 274
Chapter Seventeen: Euthanasia 284
Chapter Eighteen: Affirmative Action 291