Here are 49 books that When Critical Thinking met English Literature fans have personally recommended if you like
When Critical Thinking met English Literature.
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I have been working in critical thinking since 1987. This work has taken me to many countries in the world, working with both teachers and students, business people and other decision-makers, and it continues to excite me greatly. I always stress that critical thinking shouldn’t be seen as just a set of technical skills, but that it should make a real difference to people. For example, I’ve used it in working with juvenile offenders who had committed violent crimes and was impressed by how it got them to look at their lives in a much more positive way. These books provide a range of ways into and around the subject.
This book was one of the first to take critical thinking beyond a purely academic focus on informal logic, so that it deals with ‘real-world’ material (even including cartoon strips).
As the author explains, he was concerned that, though his students could learn from informal logic books how to identify and label errors in reasoning, they were unable to transfer this understanding to their own writing and to everyday material.
There are many useful exercises after each chapter, enabling the reader to apply their understanding of the content. The author hopes that the book is both rigorous and accessible, and this hope is indeed vindicated.
Building Arguments' offers a fresh new approach to informal logic - successfully combining an accessible style with a rigorous, systematic treatment of argument: -It integrates reasoning and writing, teaching readers to argue effectively and communicate ideas in persuasive prose. -It combines fundamental topics of critical thinking into broader discussions of reasoning. So where other books may treat fallacy identification and avoidance, induction and deduction, and validity and soundness as ends in themselves, 'Building Arguments' presents these topics in a practical yet philosophically sound context. -It includes entertaining and relevant examples and exercises drawn from sports, popular advertising, current events, and…
I have been working in critical thinking since 1987. This work has taken me to many countries in the world, working with both teachers and students, business people and other decision-makers, and it continues to excite me greatly. I always stress that critical thinking shouldn’t be seen as just a set of technical skills, but that it should make a real difference to people. For example, I’ve used it in working with juvenile offenders who had committed violent crimes and was impressed by how it got them to look at their lives in a much more positive way. These books provide a range of ways into and around the subject.
This book appealed to me when I first read it many years ago because of the way in which it explains the skills of critical thinking in a very approachable and interesting way.
It does this by using simple and everyday examples such that the reader develops the skills through applying the theoretical aspects of critical thinking to them. In addition, there are plenty of ‘self-tests’ for the reader to check and reinforce their learning.
It is clear that the author’s experience with teaching students gives him a good understanding of how critical thinking should be approached.
William Hughes's Critical Thinking, recently revised and updated by Jonathan Lavery, is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the essential skills required to make strong arguments. Hughes and Lavery give a thorough treatment of such traditional topics as deductive and inductive reasoning, logical fallacies and how to spot them, the importance of inference, how to recognise and avoid ambiguity, and how to assess what is or is not relevant to an argument. But they also cover a variety of topics not always treated in books of this sort - special concerns to keep in mind when reasoning about ethical matters…
I have been working in critical thinking since 1987. This work has taken me to many countries in the world, working with both teachers and students, business people and other decision-makers, and it continues to excite me greatly. I always stress that critical thinking shouldn’t be seen as just a set of technical skills, but that it should make a real difference to people. For example, I’ve used it in working with juvenile offenders who had committed violent crimes and was impressed by how it got them to look at their lives in a much more positive way. These books provide a range of ways into and around the subject.
This book provides a very important background to how critical thinking needs to be seen in terms of how it fits with the ancient skills of rhetoric.
The author demonstrates how the skills of argumentation (central to critical thinking) were central to how classical scholars (including Aristotle, Protagoras, Quintilian, and Cicero) saw the huge value in being skilled in rhetoric. For example, the maxim of Protagoras that there are two sides to every question is given (with a worry for us -is there?).
The celebrated discussion between God and Moses in the Midrash is a wonderful example of how one’s position with regard to power and authority cannot trump the quality of an argument (such that Moses wins the day). This is a lively and thrilling ride in critical thinking.
Michael Billig's rhetorical approach has been key to the discursive turn in the social sciences. His witty and original book examines argumentation and its psychological importance in human conduct, and traces the connections between ancient rhetorical ideas and modern social psychology. In a new introduction, he offers further reflections on rhetoric and social psychology, discusses the recent scholarship, and allows some forgotten voices in the history of rhetoric to be heard.
I have been working in critical thinking since 1987. This work has taken me to many countries in the world, working with both teachers and students, business people and other decision-makers, and it continues to excite me greatly. I always stress that critical thinking shouldn’t be seen as just a set of technical skills, but that it should make a real difference to people. For example, I’ve used it in working with juvenile offenders who had committed violent crimes and was impressed by how it got them to look at their lives in a much more positive way. These books provide a range of ways into and around the subject.
Though people might argue that this isn’t technically a book on critical thinking, they need to look at the detail of the contents to see that it very much fits.
Though the celebrated philosopher Schopenhauer stressed that we should dedicate our lives "to truth", he recognised that out in the world there are "places of narrow-mindedness and incapacity that are so closely allied to obstinacy, vanity and dishonesty".
The strategies given in the book fit very well with many of the flaws identified in critical thinking such as over-generalising, begging the question, appealing to authority, and using false syllogisms. In this way, the critical thinker can spot the strategies and so turn the tables on the argumentative opponent, thus making them not (always) right.
Controversial Dialectic is the art of disputing, and of disputing in such a way as to hold one’s own, whether one is in the right or the wrong — per fas et nefas. A man may be objectively in the right, and nevertheless in the eyes of bystanders, and sometimes in his own, he may come off worst. For example, I may advance a proof of some assertion, and my adversary may refute the proof, and thus appear to have refuted the assertion, for which there may, nevertheless, be other proofs. In this case, of course, my adversary and I…
My journey as a writer began in correlation with my career as a family doctor. After reading Dr. Jacques Ferron’s, books, I knew I wanted to be an author as well as a doctor. While pursuing my medical career, I wrote medical articles and books. My husband and I have also been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul of Quebecers with the story Witness of the Last Breath. This is the story of the last night of my daughter-in-law dying of lung cancer. Before she died, I promised Marie-Noëlle that I would pursue my writing career to change the world one young reader at a time. And I did.
The author of this short and easy-to-read chapter book goes beyond the story. I recommend this book because I like the last page of the book title “Notes for Adults.”
In busy life, it is easy to let our children read by themselves. It is easy to forget that books contain valuable lessons. It is easy to miss the opportunity to challenge reading skills and make the children read between the line to develop their critical thinking skills.
In this book, the author proposes before, during and after reading activities to support literacy skill. Wow! If you do all of them, this book is worth the money you have paid for it.
All parents and teachers should aim to develop children’s critical thinking.
Ella's next door neighbour, Mr Willis, is seriously mean. She stays out of his way as much as possible. But when she accidentally catapaults her baby brother's favourite teddy bear into Mr Willis' garden, Ella is forced to go over to his house. And Ella is in for a SHOCK!
Race Ahead with Reading is the perfect introduction to reading chapters with brand new page turning reads in five short bite size chapters, to encourage children to take the driving seat with their reading.
Of all my university courses, the one that had the greatest impact on me was called "Informal Logic." Accurate, but misleadingly dry and academic. One of the assignments in that course—and the one I remember most, of all my university assignments—was to prepare a "Crapbook": a collection of ten bits of crap—ads, arguments, whatever—that were full of crap (essentially, incorrect reasoning/logical fallacies). I loved it. So when, twenty years later, I was hired by a small university to teach Critical Thinking …
Most people are led through life by their feelings. Feelings are fine, they enrich our lives, but as the sole guide for making decisions, they fall short. Ruggiero, a huge name in critical thinking, starts from this point, the point of being led by our feelings. And that alone makes this a very good guide to critical thinking.
This succinct, interdisciplinary introduction to critical thinking successfully dares students to question their own assumptions and to enlarge their thinking through the analysis of the most common problems associated with everyday reasoning. The text offers a unique and effective organization: Part I explains the fundamental concepts; Part II describes the most common barriers to critical thinking; Part III offers strategies for overcoming those barriers.
By Sara Blanchard and Misasha Suzuki Graham
Author
Why am I passionate about this?
We are two biracial (Japanese and White) mothers with very mixed-race children, who believe that when we learn about our nation’s history and look more deeply at our personal experiences with race and identity, we gain the power to effect personal and systemic change. Some of that starts with the books that we read to, and with, our kids. We discuss these topics and more on our weekly award-winning podcast, Dear White Women. We hope that you love the books on this list as much as we do!
At first glance, you might not see why we think it’s a book for parents that addresses anti-racism. But digging deeper, you’ll see that one of the things we advocate for is developing the skills for introspection - to ask ourselves the tough questions, to challenge our own beliefs and assumptions, and think critically about the information that constantly surrounds us. Those skills are a fundamental part of our own anti-racism practices. Unfortunately, critical thinking is not a skill that’s been well taught, or evenly taught, throughout the schools in our country - so it’s important for each of us to help ourselves, and our children, learn this most foundational skill to succeed in the 21st century.
Critical thinking is the essential tool for ensuring that students fulfill their promise. But, in reality, critical thinking is still a luxury good, and students with the greatest potential are too often challenged the least. Thinking Like a Lawyer:
Introduces a powerful but practical framework to close the critical thinking gap.
Gives teachers the tools and knowledge to teach critical thinking to all students.
Helps students adopt the skills, habits, and mindsets of lawyers.
Empowers students to tackle 21st-century problems.
Teaches students how to compete in a rapidly changing global marketplace.
Colin Seale, a teacher-turned-attorney-turned-education-innovator and founder of thinkLaw, uses…
I am a lawyer, law professor, and author of legal history books. Mostly, though, I have much to learn. Importantly, then, I believe in the possibilities of learning. But how? Teaching, in the transitive sense of cramming something into another person's head, is impossible; yet learning is infinitely possible. Ideas are what excite us to learn. In widely varied ways, I have found engaging ideas in—and have learned importantly from—each of these books.
In my view, the capstone work of a preeminent scholar of law and the humanities. Explores the ways in which language—specifically, but not exclusively, of lawyers—works in one of two ways. It either is shaped by, and in turn shapes, authoritarian, reflexive, cliched, unthinking, and ultimately inhumane ways of life. Or, alternatively, it promotes thoughtful dialogue, respect for the reader or listener, critical thinking, and humane values. The former pattern of speech is deadening and itself dead; the latter is enlivening and alive. This insight, from a lifetime of thinking about language, gives White his title, Living Speech. The book reflects such a humane, educated, and generous mind, and is so fresh in some of its arguments, that I can say this without overstatement: it is one of very few books that has changed the way I look at my work and, more importantly, at any polity or community.
Language is our key to imagining the world, others, and ourselves. Yet sometimes our ways of talking dehumanize others and trivialize human experience. In war other people are imagined as enemies to be killed. The language of race objectifies those it touches, and propaganda disables democracy. Advertising reduces us to consumers, and cliches destroy the life of the imagination. How are we to assert our humanity and that of others against the forces in the culture and in our own minds that would deny it? What kind of speech should the First Amendment protect? How should judges and justices themselves…
I’ve always found the art of storytelling to be important. It’s taken me to places I’ve dreamed of as well as places others have created. Drawing has always been my passion, and the desire to entertain audiences of all ages has matured with time. When I realized I could make my own stories and illustrate them, it was clear that it was something I wanted to do. I always appreciated books that spoke up to me rather than down or too simply. The books on this list do just that.
The story itself evokes memories of dreams and nightmares, but Arthur Rackham’s drawings made me want to draw and tell stories through images.
I knew the curious story of Alice before seeing Rackham’s illustrations and loved the predicaments, characters and how random everything was. His drawings completed the story, and I saw the pair as a perfect match; they were rich and on point with how my imagination wanted them to be.
Arthur Rackham’s illustrations paint Alice’s fantasy world in dark, ethereal tones in this enchanting edition of Lewis Carroll’s beloved children’s story.
Tumbling down a rabbit hole, young Alice finds herself in an incredibly strange fantasy land full of curious characters. Lewis Carroll’s 1865 children’s book is one of the most well-known stories of all time. This edition of the beloved tale is accompanied by haunting illustrations from one of the greatest artists of the Golden Age of Illustration, Arthur Rackham. His portrayal of Wonderland is as disturbing as it is enchanting. A dark world painted in hues of brown,…
I’m fascinated by robots. As a former computer programmer, systems analyst, and consultant, I’ve had an interest in technology since my first programming class in high school. I’ve been to robotics labs in Boston, Massachusetts, and Lausanne, Switzerland. My husband is a mechanical/software engineer, so STEM is a big part of our lives. In addition to Robo-Motion, I’m the author of a number of Minecraft books with STEM and coding sidebars. I’ve also published many magazine articles, one of which was the inspiration for this book. I wrote about the CRAM cockroach robot for the March 2017 issue of MUSE.
I like a challenge, so I was drawn to how this concept picture book tackles a challenging topic, making it fun and accessible. While colorful robots dance and bicker, the text asks readers to evaluate statements to determine if they’re facts or opinions. Readers learn to question information and to respect the opinions of others, skills many adults haven’t mastered. The best thing about this book is that it fosters critical thinking.
Do you know the difference between a fact and an opinion? It can be a hard thing to understand. Some things are facts - like the number of robots in this book. Other things are opinions - like which robot would make the best friend, or which robot dances best. And sometimes to tell the difference between a fact and an opinion, you need to wait to get more information - that's because facts can be proven true or false, and opinions are things you feel and believe - but that you can't prove.
