Customer Reviews

Critical Thinking: Step by Step

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This is an excellent text book with which to introduce students to habits of critical thinking while developing a strong philosophical style. The International Baccalaureate Diploma course, the two year European advanced placement program, includes "Theory of Knowledge" as a compulsory subject. For a long time there was no single text book suitable for this curriculum; most university philosophy texts are too advanced. Popular books, such as Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World" which is excellent for parts of the curriculum, typically do not cover all the areas required for a well rounded TOK course. Teachers of TOK often found themselves thrown back on their own imagination and dependent on a mélange of resources. This book is the best publication for teaching TOK which I have found. It is strongly recommended for International Baccalaureat and other introductory philosophy courses.

If you're looking for a guide to introduce you to the world of logic and critical thinking, this may well be your best bet. With the poise of a logician who's spent decades teaching college students, Dr. Cogan presents complicated concepts in a clearly-organized style. Designed as a textbook for classroom use, step-by-step examples illustrate each section and a series of test-length exercises are provided in the back.

Particularly notable is the real-world approach to abstract concepts, bringing theory to a level of common understanding with college-appropriate context and humor. But perhaps more significant is that the text can also function as stand-alone reading material, as in my case. Overall, the word "comprehensive" is perhaps the best descriptor--there's enough information here to fill several challenging undergraduate courses!