Asking the Right Questions : A Guide to Critical Thinking

Guide to critical thinking for students. Includes revised text and Companion Website, new practice passages, rewritten chapters, and an emphasis on the positive dimensions of critical thinking. Previous edition: c2001. Softcover. DLC: Criticism.

As a book ages, it becomes less and less the product of its original authors. The success ofAsking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinkingis a tribute to the sound advice we have received from the many readers who thought we could do better next time around and who told us so. In fact, one of our biggest challenges has been to pick and choose from among the suggestions. Always uppermost in our mind has been the desire to retain the primary attributes ofAsking the Right Questions,while adjusting to new emphases in our own thought and the evolving needs of our readers. For instance, while we can always think of dozens of additions that would, we believe, enhance new editions ofAsking the Right Questions,we want most of all to keep the book readable and short. We are willing to pay the price of omitting several things that would be apposite in a more weighty treatment of critical thinking because those who adopt or learn fromAsking the Right Questionshave noted the crispness and cohesion of our approach so frequently. Individual readers who do not see their suggestions included will surely understand that writing for a general audience requires us to omit many valuable components that we would certainly include were we writing for a more specialized group of readers. This new edition, like its predecessors, has been modified while retaining basic framework of a simplified guide to critical thinking. Several new practice passages have been inserted. In addition, we have completely rewritten the fallacies chapter to make it more coherent and to provide new illustrations. But what is particularly fresh about the seventh edition are three new foci: Emphasizing the positive dimensions of critical thinking so that users will be more eager to use the skills and attitudes they are learning; Reminding readers frequently that each skill is but one part of a critical and constructive process that should culminate in tentative commitment; and Creating a Web site containing multiple, diverse practice opportunities. Learning critical thinking is neither simple nor easy. But even after critical thinking has been learned to some degree, there is still the challenge of desiring to use a process that can often be seen as rude, mean, or arrogant. None of us wishes to exhibit habits of mind that brand us as obnoxious. Yet at the same time, we do not want to base our behavior solely on the reactions of others to it; otherwise, we would just be a puppet of the crowd. So we need to frame critical thinking in a manner that emphasizes its role in assisting us to make decisions that are both more reflective and caring as well. We learn critical thinking to be helpful to ourselves and to others. Critical thinking prevents us from courses of action that are inconsistent with whom we want to become. In addition, it assists others who are seeking beliefs and commitments built on relatively sound structures of reasoning. In those regards, critical thinking can be an act of friendship, moving others toward more reasonable beliefs and actions. The seventh edition tries to make that point in several contexts. The second new focus in this edition is based on the fear that learning individual steps in any process can prevent our appreciation of the power of the entire process wherein all the steps are used in tandem.Asking the Right Questionsbuilds the critical-thinking process one step at a time; each chapter introduces a particular critical-thinking skill. Subsequent chapters then add to the list of accumulating critical-thinking skills. But the entire rationale for learning the steps of critical thinking is to get ready to use them as a package, a cohesive assemblage of complementary abilities. Using the entire process of critical thinking is the most rewarding pathway to finding better arguments. Finally, one thing that our readers request again