Critical Thinking Unleashed

By (author) Elliot D. Cohen

Paperback - £68.00

Publication date:

16 September 2009

Length of book:

416 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742564329

From alcohol and drug addiction to rage on national highways and in airports, many human beings have kept themselves in perpetual turmoil and despair. From encroachment on individual rights and liberties to wars of attrition and mass genocide, human history has continually repeated itself due to a failure to see the light. Containing numerous skill-building exercises, Critical Thinking Unleashed seeks to cultivate the reasoning skills required to overcome such destructive human tendencies and to live meaningful and productive lives in a democratic society. In contrast to other treatments of practical reasoning, Elliot D. Cohen not only teaches students how to identify and refute irrational premises_he also teaches them how to construct rational antidotes to combat the personal, social, and political obstacles they confront in everyday life. Moreover, Cohen encourages students to use the theories and ideas embodied in the history of philosophy in order to construct these rational guides, drawing examples from many contemporary sources. Demonstrating the practical relevance and import of many historically significant philosophers (e.g. Socrates, Aristotle, Epictetus, Hume, Kant, Mill, Sartre, and Nietzsche), the book presents a practical, non-technical, and comprehensive approach to critical thinking.
In Critical Thinking Unleashed, Elliot D. Cohen takes the reader through the various parameters of reasoning. It is complex, yet fascinating stuff. But what I found most important perhaps was how so much of what he wrestles with, from deconstructing the news stories behind Iraqi WMD to 'spin' in political campaign ads, cuts to the heart of the challenge we face as citizens in today's democracy.