Critical Thinking Unleashed

From alcohol and drug addiction to rage on national highways and in airports, many human beings have kept themselves in perpetual turmoil and despair. From encroachment on individual rights and liberties to wars of attrition and mass genocide, human history has continually repeated itself due to a failure to see the light. Containing numerous skill-building exercises, Critical Thinking Unleashed seeks to cultivate the reasoning skills required to overcome such destructive human tendencies and to live meaningful and productive lives in a democratic society. In contrast to other treatments of practical reasoning, Elliot D. Cohen not only teaches students how to identify and refute irrational premises_he also teaches them how to construct rational antidotes to combat the personal, social, and political obstacles they confront in everyday life. Moreover, Cohen encourages students to use the theories and ideas embodied in the history of philosophy in order to construct these rational guides, drawing examples from many contemporary sources. Demonstrating the practical relevance and import of many historically significant philosophers (e.g. Socrates, Aristotle, Epictetus, Hume, Kant, Mill, Sartre, and Nietzsche), the book presents a practical, non-technical, and comprehensive approach to critical thinking.

Autorentext
Elliot D. Cohen is professor of philosophy and chair of the Department of Humanities at Indian River State College in Florida. He is executive co-director and co-founder of the American Society for Philosophy, Counseling, and Psychotherapy; professor and chair at the Indian River College; editor-in-chief and founder of The International Journal of Applied Philosophy and The International Journal of Philosophical Practice. Author of twelve books and numerous articles, his most recent books are New Rational Therapy: Thinking Your Way to Serenity, Success, and Profound Happiness and What Would Aristotle Do? Self-Control through the Power of Reason. Other recent books include Philosophers at Work: Issues and Practice of Philosophy; The Virtuous Therapist: Ethical Practice of Counseling & Psychotherapy; and News Incorporated: Corporate Media Ownership and its Threat to Democracy.

Inhalt
1 Table of Contents
2 Preface to the Student
Chapter 3 Introduction: Free Thinking
Part 4 I. Kinds of Reasoning
Chapter 5 1. The Nuts and Bolts of Reasoning
Part 6 Deduction
Chapter 7 2. Deductive Reasoning
Chapter 8 3. Hypothetical Syllogisms
Chapter 9 4. Disjunctive Syllogisms
Chapter 10 5. Truth-Functional Logic
Chapter 11 6. Categorical Statements
Chapter 12 7. Immediate Deductions
Chapter 13 8. Categorical Syllogisms
Part 14 Induction
Chapter 15 9. Generalization
Chapter 16 10. Prediction
Chapter 17 11. Testimonials
Chapter 18 12. Hypothesis
Chapter 19 13. Causation
Part 20 Behavioral and Emotional Reasoning
Chapter 21 14. Behavioral Reasoning
Chapter 22 15. Refutation in Practical Reasoning
Chapter 23 16. Emotional Reasoning
Part 24 II. Informal Fallacies
Part 25 Fallacies that Promote Self-Destructive Emotions
Chapter 26 17. Inferences from "Must," "Awful," and "Can't"
Chapter 27 18. Damning Thoughts and Dutiful Worrying
Part 28 Fallacies that Impede Successful Interpersonal Relations
Chapter 29 19. Bandwagon Arguments
Chapter 30 20. Emotional Appeals
Chapter 31 21. Irrelevant Appeals
Chapter 32 22. Sophistical Arguments
Chapter 33 Appendix: Venn Diagrams
34 Index