Customer Reviews

The Art of Thinking: A Guide to Critical and Creative Thinking

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4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(4)

 

 

This title was the first text book I used in my first ever philosophy class at college some 20 years ago. It really inspired me to start "thinking" about how people think. The flow of the topics and the content successfully aroused my mind and the book actually helped me a lot on ways of thinking even until now. I just want to let everyone know that this title is an excellent read for teenagers to adults alike.

I am much taken with the approach to thinking as an activity with its own structure, a structure which once articulated can be effectively mapped onto its expressions in writing and speech. One of the things that concerns me very deeply about students, and it's perhaps just a cultural moment (but a long one, with no end in sight) is a presumption of determinism concerning their own ways of thinking. It's visible in the grammatical structures they use to describe current practices: "I'm not much of a reader;" "I need to be entertained to find a book worthwhile" -- they even extend it to the legibility of their handwriting. Ruggiero's assumption that one can modify the nature of one's thinking by a process of examination, insight and will, is bound to be liberating. In fact, it's a time honored principle of western intellectual and spiritual traditions, but not well suited to social constructivist models of cognition and composition in their cruder forms. The advice to "be creative" would be spectacularly useless without the quite accessible, though not at all reductive, inquiry into certain definable features of thought-processes which result in things we generally regard as pretty good creative thinking. The approach of the book overall has both conservative and innovative aspects, and as a totality it gains my respect. It assumes a reasonable tone of authority, and validates the claim by proceeding intelligibly through a jargon-free but theoretically sound account of the various processes we designate by "thinking," and distinguishing purposeful thinking from other kinds of mental activity. With the exception of a few unfortunate tics that have a certain unpleasant, 19th century tang to them ("bad habits" is not a phrase consistent with the overall tone of Ruggiero's book), the text communicates high expectations, and makes the attainment of them attractive to students.

On the whole, the exercises provide a pedagogically useful range for leading students through issues in which their own interests are directly and obviously involved, through analogy and homology to issues of wider cultural import, where the need for their own policy input may seem less urgent, and their own interests less directly involved. A sort of school for citizenship, if it works, and that is certainly among the explicit objectives of my own writing pedagogy. It's a good book for students who need to become comfortable with the idea of themselves as intellectuals, and who are overcoming the sociology of high school, which tends to assign intellectual ambitions to authority and its lackeys, and to have a fairly muddy- headed notion that purposeless consumption is a kind of political expression. I think the book will work best with bright students who have been underchallenged in the past.

The ethos of the book is competent, analytical (but not cold or sterile), not given to a lot of self-discourse. There are hints here and there that the author feels that the language of affect has come to overshadow patterns of reasoning in recent rhetorical history. The order of presentation is not inevitable -- nor does it claim to be -- but rational, and adaptable to a number of pedagogical purposes. It's not meant to be all things for all courses, and some instructors may find that they need compositional matters more explicitly and consistently frontloaded -- but then, they'll want a full-scale reader with a handbook of grammar and usage as well. Since this is the 6th edition, there must be a great many teaches who find this book useful, but I suppose I'm (pleasantly) surprised that a text this challenging finds a consistent niche.

I have been using Mr. Ruggiero's text, The Art of Thinking, in college writing classes for several years. It has been very useful in introducing ideas about thinking and organization to my students. I use the text and provide several exercises based on readings and real life situations. Many students have told me at the end of the semester that this book is a "keeper." In other words they were not going to sell the book back to the bookstore, but instead were going to keep it for further use in their lives. They particularly liked the section on the creative process as an organizational process, and the section on habits that hinder thinking. They said they found these sections helpful both in their college tasks and in their own personal lives. I plan to continue using this fine book.

Thinking is a very big topic. I have used this book for 10 years in a course that introduces freshmen and sophomores to use their minds to think. The book is easy to read and does not demand a lot of study time from readers. Consequently, students have more time to think about the problems at the end of each chapter. My students rate the book highly for the purpose of serving as an introduction.

Ruggiero has written the best book to date on critical thinking, in a time when it is most needed. There is clarity in his writing that is rare and required to hold the attention of those without critical skills.

Some of the critics claim that this book is "insulting to their intelligence". They should remember that you cannot insult intelligence, only pride. The book is clear and very direct in its presentation.

Other critics have attacked Ruggiero's appeal to control your emotions in making proper judgments. Its was Aristotle who said, "The young overdo everything. They love too much, hate too much, & the same with everything else." This is not saying that passion should be taken from all aspects of life. Alternatively, to use a contemporary example that the young can relate to, Stephen Colbert taught the young about the word "truthiness". Truthiness is the marriage of emotion and logic.

Every year it is reported how American students are falling further behind students of other countries. This world has real problems and these problems are very complex. The current generation lacks these skills; the next generation needs these skills in order to fix the mess that we have made. The pop culture that has surround the minds of our youth, originally conceived to develop the economy, has turned our people into unthinking followers.

The United States is the most powerful nation in the world, but power without critical thinking leaders is the most dangerous situation that we could throw ourselves into. Intelligence without power is worthless, save its influence. The United States has the power, resources, and the schools to produce something that has never happen in the history of this world; a chance to bring about the conditions for world peace.

Every political disaster that the United States has endured can be traced to the lack of use of these skills. The Art of Thinking should be required reading every year, over and over. Printed and scattered in every hotel room. And memorized before allowed to run for public office.

In the time we refer to as the Dark Ages, rhetoric was required to even be considered for a degree. Let us complement our technology with intelligence, let us balance our power with justice.

I first read this marvelous book while doing the research for my book "Why Didn't I Think of That? - Think the Unthinkable and Achieve Creative Greatness." Anyone serious about improving their thinking capacities simply must read Ruggiero's book. Used as the primary text in many college level critical and creative thinking courses, "The Art of Thinking" covers both basic and advanced concepts using well designed examples and artfully crafted exercises helping readers to learn both easily and completely. At signing events, and after speaking engagements, when readers of my book ask me to recommend other related works, I always place Ruggiero's book at the top of the list.

Ruggiero's text is about thinking and writing. For me as a composition instructor in community college, its three major strengths are its promotion of critical reading, its promotion of reflection, and its emphasis on learning by doing.

It makes me think of a saying I copied down so long ago I've forgotten its origin: "Better writers make better thinkers." Actually, I think this text is more about "better thinkers make better writers."

The book is conversational, respectful, helpful, and kind. I like the scenarios presented as examples of thinking principles at the beginning of each chapter. In addition to providing concrete examples of the principles presented in the chapter, they illustrate the principle "Show, don't tell," providing a useful model of effective writing for the students. The sample problems and issues elsewhere in the text are realistic, believable and engaging. They encourage students to think for themselves.

The book attempts to move readers from passive thinking to reflective critical thinking. Its neutral, distant but kindly voice works well to invite students into a world of academic discourse without intimidating them.

This text was required reading for my college freshman year critical thinking class (over 15 years ago) and I highly recommend it for students. The approach to problems and issues is very methodical and forces one to consider styles that may complement the habitual.

I've found myself coming back to the book when feeling "stuck" with a problem and feeling like I was not tapping the full range of creative solutions that could at least be considered. Our minds are naturally lazy and reach for the common or habitual answers - it's not a bad thing, it may just be the result of successful evolutionary survival to have gotten us to this point. Putting the discipline this book will teach you to use consistently will give you a structure to guide extra effort towards solving problems for which the same old answers fail to satisfy you.

Contrary to some of the criticism I've read here, I believe the author addresses how emotions can be used and incorporated in the process rather than being suppressed or ignored. One area that I believe the author can improve, is in the use of visuals* such as a process map or visual overview for the problem solving process. This would make the material more accessible, powerful and memorable. I've found in the workplace that creating visual flowcharts for business processes can enhance communication, absorption and adherence to the "best practices" you recommend. I plan to contact the author with this suggestion.

Hope you enjoy the book,
-Frank

*I have an older edition and this gap may have already been addressed by the author in subsequent versions.

I first read this marvelous book while doing the research for my book "Why Didn't I Think of That? - Think the Unthinkable and Achieve Creative Greatness." Anyone serious about improving their thinking capacities simply must read Ruggiero's book. Used as the primary text in many college level critical and creative thinking courses, "The Art of Thinking" covers both basic and advanced concepts using well designed examples and artfully crafted exercises helping readers to learn both easily and completely. At signing events, and after speaking engagements, when readers of my book ask me to recommend other related works, I always place Ruggiero's book at the top of the list.

Though a lot of the ideas were known to me before, I never organized them in a way this book does. It provides an insightful review of these ideas that help people become more creative and smart. However, the academic writing style is a little bit annoying.

Anyway, a great book with which you can reference frequently