Critical Thinking for College Students

The purpose of critical thinking, according to this text, is rethinking: that is, reviewing, evaluating, and revising thought. The approach of Critical Thinking for College Students is pragmatic and pluralistic: truth is viewed in terms of public confirmation and consensus, rather than with regard to naive realism, relativism, or popular opinion. The value of empathy and the legitimacy of diverse points of view are stressed. Nevertheless, it is necessary to use specific linguistic, logical, and evidential standards in order to evaluate thought. The primary elements of critical thinking are: —proper definition —paraphrasing —reconstruction —empathy —analysis of arguments —evaluation of reasoning —brainstorming —imagination —problem solving The opening chapters of the text provide a thorough discussion of linguistic standards of meaning. A detailed examination of logical inference and informal fallacies follows. The final chapters of the book cover standards of evidence and problem solving. Instructor's Manual: ISBN 0-8476-9603-0

Finally, a text that is not only about critical reasoning but is itself an excellent piece of philosophical thinking in its own right. We have needed a book like this for a long time. . . . It meets students where they are and takes them to a fresh and interesting engagement with the world of thinking., Jon Stratton's textbook is a welcome, well-written approach to the study of critical thinking. It analyzes the character of arguments comprehensively—not only by examining standards for good reasoning, but by looking at the underlying communicative and emotional structure of discourse.

Jon Stratton has taught critical thinking, informal logic, and symbolic logic at Walla Walla Community College in Washington State for over twenty-five years.