M. Neil Browne
Author of Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking
About the Author
Works by M. Neil Browne
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Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
- Short biography
- Neil Browne is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Economics and Law and Senior Scholar at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. In addition to teaching courses in Critical Thinking and Great Ideas, he manages the admissions, mentoring, and programming needs of a learning community of 40 students whose interdisciplinary curriculum and research is anchored in critical thinking and ethical reasoning. He is fortunate to have won numerous national, state and local teaching awards. His published research articles range broadly from the role of markets in distorting values to rhetoric in the social sciences, the role of metaphors in shaping disciplinary perspectives, the implications of cross-cultural differences in attitudes toward individualism, pay equity, cognitive biases and the pretentions of expertise, the inappropriateness of the customer metaphor for students, and the conflict between students evaluations and the encouragement of an optimal learning environment. Among his more than 50 books and editions in developmental education, economics, business law, business ethics, and cognitive skills he is most proud of Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (10th ed.).
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/speaki...
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I find myself in consideration of social media posts, political movements, etc. saying (to myself), "What we need is more critical thinking here...." So, I decided to peruse a college textbook on the topic myself. This is an efficient presentation with guided exercises helping the reader to coolly identify the issue and conclusion, spot opinions as basis, qualify assumptions (descriptive and prescriptive) and spot fundamental errors in reasoning and logic such as false dichotomies. Much show more emphasis is placed on dissecting paragraphs into sentence-length portions and consider each individually as well as their relationship. I think this is a good exercise and slows down to help avoid the quicker and more shallow emotional gut reaction.
The final chapter (14) summarizes the framework of the approach taught here:
The final chapter (14) summarizes the framework of the approach taught here:
show less
Question Checklist for Critical Thinking
What are the issue and the conclusion?
What are the reasons?
Which words or phrases are ambiguous?
What are the value conflicts and assumptions?
What are the descriptive assumptions?
Are there any fallacies in the reasoning?
How good is the evidence?
Are there rival causes?
Are the statistics deceptive?
What significant information is omitted?
What reasonable conclusions are possible?
Strategies for Effective Critical Thinking
[...]
Be certain to demonstrate that you really want to grasp what is being said. Ask questions that indicate your willingness to grasp and accept new conclusions.
Restate what you heard or read and ask whether your understanding of the argument is consistent with what was written or spoken.
Voice your critical questions as if you are curious. Nothing is more deadly to the effective use of critical thinking than an attitude of "Aha, I caught you making an error."
Request additional reasons that might enable the person to make a stronger argument than the one originally provided.
Work hard to keep the conversation going. If critical thinking is deployed like a bomb, thinking on that topic is halted.
Ask the other person for permission to allow you to explore any weaknesses in the reasoning. The idea with this strategy is to encourage the other person to examine the argument with you.
Convey the impression that you and the other person are collaborators, working toward the same objective - improved conclusions.
A must-read for any intellectual who takes themselves seriously. This provides a guided framework for filtering information both in and out. In an age where information is cheap and sorting it is expensive, this is a valuable resource for those who don't wish to be swept away in currents of misinformation and opinionated struggles. Truly a timeless guide should you put the effort in to understand and apply it.
I feel like Browne, in an effort to try and make sure everything was explained perfectly, ended up only further confusing the reader. In his chapter about ambiguity, he ended up sounding very ambiguous, and there were many times where I felt like he writing like a student trying to hit a word count.
An excellent guide to not only the analysis of other people's arguments, but also in responsibly creating good arguments to be presented to others. Unfortunately, the book was slightly more by the authors' politically correct agenda. In a book that purports to teach objectivity, the social agenda of the writers' should not be so readily apparent. They're critical thinking becomes blurred times when it involves what is apparently some of their pet social concerns. Other than this minor show more concern, it's an excellent book and I highly recommend it. show less
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- Works
- 15
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- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
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- ISBNs
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