Critical thinking books

Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (8th Edition)
by M. Neil Browne

The habits and attitudes associated with critical thinking are transferable to consumer, medical, legal, and general ethical choices. When our surgeon says surgery is needed, it can be life sustaining to seek answers to the critical questions encouraged in Asking the Right Questions This popular book helps bridge the gap between simply memorizing or blindly accepting information, and the greater challenge of critical analysing the things we are told and read. It gives strategies for responding to alternative points of view and will help readers develop a solid foundation for making personal choices about what to accept and what to reject.



Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide
by Lois Tyson

This new edition of the classic guide offers a thorough and accessible introduction to contemporary critical theory. It provides in-depth coverage of the most common approaches to literary analysis today: feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, reader-response theory, new criticism, structuralism and semiotics, deconstruction, new historicism, cultural criticism, lesbian/gay/queer theory, African-American criticism, and postcolonial criticism. The chapters provide an extended explanation of each theory, using examples from everyday life, popular culture, and literary texts; a list of specific questions critics who use that theory ask about literary texts; an interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby through the lens of each theory; a list of questions for further practice to guide readers in applying each theory to different literary works; and a bibliography of primary and secondary works for further reading. This book can be used as the only text in a course or as a precursor to the study of primary theoretical works. It motivates readers by showing them what critical theory can offer in terms of their practical understanding of literary texts and in terms of their personal understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. Both engaging and rigorous, it is a "how-to" book for undergraduate and graduate students new to critical theory and for college professors who want to broaden their repertoire of critical approaches to literature.



Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life
by Richard Paul

Critical Thinking is about becoming a better thinker in every aspect of your life: in your career, and as a consumer, citizen, friend, parent, and lover. Discover the core skills of effective thinking; then analyze your own thought processes, identify weaknesses, and overcome them. Learn how to translate more effective thinking into better decisions, less frustration, more wealth Ñ and above all, greater confidence to pursue and achieve your most important goals in life.
(Please note: This copy looks like it was pulled off a webpage, and it has a stupid header about registering some kind of software across the top of every page. However I've checked through it and all the text/formatting etc is fine)



How To Think About Weird Things : Critical Thinking (4TH Edition)
by Theodore Schrick

This brief, inexpensive text helps the reader to think critically, using examples from the weird claims and beliefs that abound in our culture to demonstrate the sound evaluation of any claim. The authors focus on types of logical arguments and proofs, making How to Think about Weird Things a versatile supplement for logic, critical thinking, philosophy of science, or any other science appreciation courses.
Review on amazon: This book is my go-to book for so many things: entertainment, leisure, education, deep thought, humor, argument building, and on and on and on.
There are complete paragraphs in this book I've memorized, because this book is able to put into words those ideas and beliefs I've always had but have never been able to articulate with any substantial strength or conviction. The book basically is a tutorial on debunking the ridiculous, the metaphysical, the belief systems of unproveable hocus-pocus. It does so in a way that is both unintentionally humorous, while at the same time quite empowering. It's a perfect book for agnostics or aethiests, myself being the former. It's also a great book for practicioners of stoicism and/or cynicism, again myself being the former.
My whole life I'd been looking for a book exactly like this. I feel more well-rounded for reading it. And again, I believe like me, if you purchase this book and are of liberal mind, you will refer to it time and again.
(Please note: scan is slightly dodgy, you can see the text is a bit blurry on some pages, however completely readable)



As usual, all credit to original uploaders.