Book
How to become a really good pain in the ass : a critical thinker's guide to asking the right questions / Christopher DiCarlo.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781616143978 (pbk.)
- ISBN: 1616143975 (pbk.)
- Physical Description: 398 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
- Publisher: Amherst, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 2011.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (p. 355-381) and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Why become a really good pain in the ass? -- The Tools of the Trade: the ABCs and (DEFs) of Critical Thinking. A is for argument ; B is for biases ; C is for context: time, place, and circumstance ; D is for diagramming ; E is for evidence ; F is for fallacies -- The Best Damn Pains in the Ass in History. The method of Socrates and the modes of the ancient Skeptics -- Answering the Big Five. Preamble ; What can I know? ; Why am I here? ; What am I? ; How should I behave? ; What is to come of me? |
| Summary, etc.: | In this guide to critical thinking the author provides you with the tools to allow you to question beliefs and assumptions held by those who claim to know what they are talking about. These days there are many people whom we need to question: politicians, lawyers, doctors, teachers, clergy members, bankers, car salesmen, and your boss. This book will empower you with the ability to spot faulty reasoning and, by asking the right sorts of questions, hold people accountable not only for what they believe but how they behave. By using this book you will learn to analyze your own thoughts, ideas, and beliefs, and why you act on them (or don't). This, in turn, will help you to understand why others might hold opposing views. And the best way to change our own or others' behavior or attitudes is to gain greater clarity about underlying motives and thought processes. In a media-driven world of talking heads, gurus, urban legends, and hype, learning to think more clearly and critically, and helping others to do the same, is one of the most important things you can do. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Reasoning. Critical thinking. Question (Logic) Conduct of life. |
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Library Journal Review
How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass : A Critical Thinker's Guide to Asking the Right Questions
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Concerned by the inability of far too many people to think carefully and responsibly about why they believe what they do, DiCarlo (advisory fellow, Ctr. for Inquiry, Canada) provides tools to help readers question the assumptions of those who claim to know what they are talking about. He aims to empower readers to spot faulty reasoning and with the right questions hold others accountable. He specifies five essential questions-What can I know? Why am I here? What am I? How should I behave? and What is to become of me?-and outlines critical thinking tools for analysis of beliefs and behavior. Wisely, he reminds readers that becoming a good "pain in the ass" can result in loneliness. Verdict This is a handy introduction to philosophy, logic, and reasoning and with the 2012 U.S. presidential campaigns heating up should be required reading for all voters. It will appeal to readers of Brooke Noel Moore and Richard Parker's Critical Thinking, Michael Shermer and Stephen Jay Gould's Why People Believe Weird Things, the many works of Mortimer Adler (How To Read a Book), Skeptic magazine, and anyone interested in philosophy.-Dale Farris, Groves, TX (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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