Critical Thinking

First comes clear thinking—then comes clear writing.  This handbook distills the essentials of critical thinking into an ideal supplementary textbook for introductory philosophy and composition courses.  And now in the 5th edition - chapters that provide the basics for students to begin the study of any science: explanations, experiments, the scientific method, and models and theories.

Epstein's CRITICAL THINKING sets new standards of clarity for teaching how to reason well in daily life and how to write well. With over one thousand everyday examples and exercises, the text engages and challenges the student.  Featuring its own cast of cartoon characters, it is the only text on critical thinking in which students work with illustrations to convert non-verbal information into lucid reasoning.  A comprehensive instructor's manual, and many free supplements on the ARF website, make teaching the course a pleasure for instructor and student alike.  Now with chapters on reasoning in the sciences.

Too often we’re guided by what we last heard, by our friends’ approval, by impulse—our desires, our fears.  Without reflection.  Without even stopping to think.In this book you’ll learn how to reason and find your way better in life.  You’ll learn to see the consequences of what you and others say and do.  You’ll learn to see the assumptions that you and others make. You’ll learn how to judge what you should believe.  These are the skills we all need to make good decisions.

New drugs, climate change, whether cats can reason, the universe—how can we understand?  Starting a science course, how can we make sense of the methods of reasoning? In this extension of How to Reason you’ll learn how scientists make definitions, what an experiment is, what can go wrong with an experiment, how scientists reason with models and theories, what counts as a good explanation in science, and how to distintinguish science from magic, religion, and fraud.  No background in science is needed, just a healthy appetitite for learning.

La Guía breve para el pensamiento crítico te ayudará a desarrollar las habilidades necesarias para razonar bien en tus estudios y en la vida cotidiana.  Con sus cientos de ejemplos claros y detallados aprenderás a analizar argumentos, escribir bien y tomar mejores decisiones.