Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, 9th Edition [Paperback]

M. Neil Browne (Author), Stuart M. Keeley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 23, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0205506682 | ISBN-13: 978-0205506682 | Edition: 9

Used in a variety of courses in various disciplines, Asking the Right Questions helps bridge the gap between simply memorizing or blindly accepting information, and the greater challenge of critical analysis and synthesis.  Specifically, this concise text teaches how to think critically by exploring the components of arguments--issues, conclusions, reasons, evidence, assumptions, language--and on how to spot fallacies and manipulations and obstacles to critical thinking. 

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 9 edition (January 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0205506682
• ISBN-13: 978-0205506682
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transofrmational !!!, February 20, 2011

By 

Ahmad Alhour - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, 9th Edition (Paperback)

This book is the strongest introduction to critical thinking I have read so far. And by "strongest" I mean it teaches you critical thinking in a step-by-step process where you will be introduced to each topic of critical thinking one at a time with precision & clarity. And the approach the authors use is unique! Where it's centralized around asking key and important questions that would shed light on the dark spots of arguments.

It begins by explaining the benefits of being a critical thinker (Chapter 1.)
Then, it takes you to how to be a critical thinker and what are the attitudes of a critical thinker, it's more of the common-sense of critical thinkers (Chapter 2.)
After that, you will be introduced to the most basic elements of critical thinking and argument-analysis: The Issue and Conclusion (Chapter 3)
Next, is also another step of analysis which is concerned about the Reasons supporting the argument (Chapter 4)
Now, after having the structure of arguments analyzed you will be spotting influential elements in the argument that would play key roles in persuading you... Such elements are like the use and abuse of ambiguity (Chapter 5) and it's other sisters - the Assumptions and unstated beliefs the arguer hides behind their arguments (Chapter 6)

Reaching chapter 6 means the end of analysis and the start of evaluation of arguments... You will do your first evaluation of soundness and validity of arguments by spotting the tricks and ploys the author induces between the lines, these are called FALLACIES (Chapter 7)
The following 3 steps are concerned with evaluating the truth & validity of the evidence supporting the reasons of argument (Chapter 8 + 9 + 10)

After that the journey of evaluation will start to take an explore-and-conquer approach... hehehe... "Chapter 11" is concerned with the soundness of the provided statistics as evidence!
Where "Chapter 12" is concerned with the important information that have been omitted by the arguer and if it would influence the minds of people and listeners.
"Chapter 13" explores the possibilities of deriving new conclusions and judgments other than the one(s) inferred by the arguer himself.

The journey reaches the end as the authors of the book discuss with you some obstacles to critical thinking and how it's important to avoid them and even conquer them if possible, such obstacles will function as barriers to stop you from developing your skills of being a critical thinker.

--- Bottom line, get this book! It's serious business!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Methodical, August 25, 2011

By 

Ali Alsam (Norway, Trondheim) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, 9th Edition (Paperback)

At the university where I work as a professor of science, I was asked to teach a course called "science in practice". My first question was: Which textbook should I use? I read some books on the philosophy of science but concluded that the ideas are too abstract even for a trained scientist. I wanted a book that teaches the student how to think like a scientist. I also found it difficult to use examples from my research work. To do that I had to teach first year undergraduate students about image processing before I could move on to the actual topic. Luckily, I came across this book!

This book is about critical thinking. How asking a set of well defined questions would reveal to us the worth of an argument in a speech, article or amazon-book-review. The authors make the claim that by learning the meaning behind those questions and asking them we can become critical thinkers. In my experience, their claim is true. Having taught the course for three years, I can say that almost all the students learn something very valuable and in addition enjoy the process of learning. I have myself become better at structuring my arguments when I write scientific papers. Some books have the power of being able to change your thinking- This is one of them.

As a side note, may I say that it isn't right to add a review that affects the ranking of a book when the review is based on feedback to a certain book seller?!
In this book we learn that the conclusion has to be an answer to the issue which we are exploring. The issue when reviewing this book is: Is this a good introduction to critical thinking? My conclusion is yes. Highly recommended.

20 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Asking the Right Questions, 9e, September 27, 2009

By 

L. Narkevicius "quick reader" (california) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, 9th Edition (Paperback)

The book is short and sweet. A very quick overview of Critical Thinking. If I didn't need this book for a class, I wouldn't have purchased it. I would prefer something that is more in depth and more complete. It is fine for a quicky, crash course on critical thinking.