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Books on Critical Thinking
- troughway 7y agoIt is unfortunate that Thinking Fast and Slow has received some negative feedback over the years, mostly due to questionable sources and conclusions. https://retractionwatch.com/2017/02/20/placed-much-faith-underpowered-studies-nobel-prize-winner-admits-mistakes/ https://retractionwatch.com/2017/02/20/placed-much-faith-und...
- hgibbs 7y agoWhy is it unfortunate?
- OnlineGladiator 7y agoI am guessing he means it is unfortunate because it was considered a good book for critical thinking but over time people have come to realize a lot of its studies, reasoning, and arguments are flawed - but many people have already read the book without knowing that. I've never read the book, so I don't have an opinion on it.
- soledades 7y agoThe link you supplied only affects a single chapter in the book, but your phrasing suggests there is more to this story...
- amortize 7y agoI believe Daniel Kahnemann was asked about this in his interview to Farnam Street: https://fs.blog/daniel-kahneman/ https://fs.blog/daniel-kahneman/ It was refreshing how open he was to accepting that his research, even decades after its original publication, could have lapses and errors. Research, after all, builds on corpus of knowledge existing at the time, and we should expect corrections as the underlying base shifts & corrects itself.
- kashyapc 7y agoBe careful, it's only the priming-related chapter (called 'The Associative Machine' in the book) that put "too much faith in underpowered studies". Not the entire book! Take six months to slow-read it. The book is a synthesis of forty years of Kahneman's research and his collaboration with his late colleague, Tversky. A range of topics are covered; it still absolutely merits reading.
- ultra_nick 7y agoSkeptics Guide to the Universe https://www.amazon.com/Skeptics-Guide-Universe-Really-Increasingly/dp/1538760533 https://www.amazon.com/Skeptics-Guide-Universe-Really-Increa...
- mistermann 7y agoDoes anyone know of any particular critical thinking genre books, that somehow focus more on the particulars of language usage? Something that gets into things like the shortcomings of language in properly describing the complexity of reality, as well as detecting usage (both intentional and unintentional) that would indicate potential underlying rhetorical manipulation (intentional), or fallacious thinking (unintentional)?
- bananamerica 7y agoThis may be an example of the equivocation fallacy[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation
- mistermann 7y agoThat would be one example of a fallacy.....I guess maybe what I'm trying to get at is more so something that addresses the more common (frequency of occurrence) examples of ~"imperfect communication" (fallacies &/or rhetorical techniques, intentional or not), that can be most commonly observed in modern day media, both traditional (news) and social (forums, facebook/twitter, etc).
- bananamerica 7y agoI think you're describing a very broad scope of phenomenons. Maybe this will become clearer if you either narrow it a bit or divide them into different, more precise, cases.
- mistermann 7y agoOh, very much so, the entire spectrum, but sorted by most commonly used/abused. How might one accomplish such a feat would be tough, but even something reasonable accurate with examples of usage would be interesting to read.
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- bananamerica 7y agoI find it more productive to study logic instead. I have a hard time seeing the difference between logic and critical thinking. If you think I'm wrong, just take a look at a bunch of kinds of logic[1] and tell me if critical thinking is not subsumed into at least one of them. I put my money on inductive logic[2]. For beginners, I recommend the wonderful Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments[3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_logic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_logic [2] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-inductive/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-inductive/ [3] https://bookofbadarguments.com/ https://bookofbadarguments.com/
- astine 7y ago'Logic' as a topic generally centers around processes of formal reasoning whereas critical thinking usually also discusses human cognitive biases which is not something usually covered in discussions of formal reasoning. This is important because nobody engages is formal logic all (or even most) of the time. That would be very inefficient and probably impossible. Developing the habit (which is what discussions of critical thinking often center around) of thinking critically, rather than simply understanding the process of formal reasoning is essential.
- billfruit 7y agoI think part of that is covered in Rhetoric. A good book for Rhetoric, is "Modern Rhetoric" by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brookes.
- bananamerica 7y agoAbsolutely. The study of rhetoric greatly enhances our ability to identify and evaluate persuasive language. In order words, it gives us a more accurate bullshit sensor.
- jgwil2 7y agoThis probably depends on what people are looking for. I agree with you that developing the habit of thinking critically is important (this is ostensibly the goal a liberal arts education and was once highly valued). However, I think many on seeing the title "Books on Critical Thinking" will expect resources for learning about and improving formal reasoning. For this, there's no substitute for the study of mathematical logic and math more generally.
- cosinetau 7y agoA week or two ago, in a post about books on leadership, someone posted about the US Army's ADRP 6-22 Army Leadership handbook, which I started reading. https://www.benning.army.mil/mssp/PDF/adrp6_22_new.pdf https://www.benning.army.mil/mssp/PDF/adrp6_22_new.pdf Apparently, they keep track of terminology they deprecate in former revisions of the handbook. "Critical Thinking" being one of them as it is "No longer a formally defined term." (Page vi) So, what does "Critical Thinking" mean to you?
- sidcool 7y agoI have read the art of thinking clearly, but was quite unimpressed.
- input_sh 7y agoWhat's with fivebooks? This is the 4th link from that domain in the last 24h.
- DrScump 7y agoIt's all spam. The book links are local but redirect to Amazon Affiliate links (and lack the required disclosure).
- Breza 7y agoI'm not affiliated with that website, but it's worth noting that the footer of every page has this disclosure notice: "Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases."
- agustif 7y agoSomeone hired a new lazy social media manager with too many hn accounts or friends? lol
- Breza 7y agoI'm not sure why they're being posted now, but I really like Five Books. You get more depth than most book aggregation websites.
- jgwil2 7y agoFor those coming here interested in learning about formal/mathematical logic, see "Teach Yourself Logic: A Study Guide" (previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18757972 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18757972)
- misiti3780 7y agoUnfortunately "The Art of Critical Thinking" is completely plagiarized: https://fooledbyrandomness.com/dobelli.htm https://fooledbyrandomness.com/dobelli.htm
- oarabbus_ 7y agoPretty damning.