Critical Thinking: Your Guide to Effective Argument, Successful Analysis and Independent Study

Tom Chatfield is an author, tech philosopher and educator with a focus on critical thinking skills. This really useful book is aimed at students but has a lot for ‘ordinary’ people who want to work on their critical thinking skills, including sorting through and questioning information, understanding biases and how to make a strong argument. It’s clearly written, easy to follow and has useful summaries at the end of each chapter.I picked this up because I’d previously read another book of Chatfield’s - THINK CRITICALLY - which is a mini guide covering the same topic, aimed at university students. This book is also aimed at students and professionals but I think there is a lot here for everyone because this is a pretty fundamental life skill. Certainly there were things I picked up in this book that I am putting into use in my day job as a lawyer.The book is divided into two sections. Part 1 (The Art And Science Of Being Reasonable) focuses on reasoning and arguments with Chatfield running through topics such as what an argument is, explanations, reconstructing arguments, induction and abduction. Part 2 (Being Reasonable In An Unreasonable World) looks more at ways of making arguments and spotting flaws, so Chatfield goes through rhetoric and rhetorical techniques and how to analyse the same, faulty reasoning, fallacies, cognitive bias (both in yourself and in others) and how to assess technology and information.I really like Chatfield’s writing style - he takes quite complicated ideas but breaks them down so that they’re easy to follow and there are plenty of examples, studies and exercises that the reader can do to test their understanding and the summaries at the end pull together the key points in each chapter.If I was pushed to come up with a criticism, then I’m not sure that some of the illustrations worked particularly well - there’s a mix of images and block colour with quotes over the same. I understand that they’re there to break up the text and stop it from looking dense (although to be honest, I don’t think that’s an issue because this is the type of book that you can dip in and out of rather than reading end to end) but I found them distracting and didn’t add anything to the rest of the book.All in all though, I think this is a really useful book and given that we’re in a world where you can be overwhelmed in terms of analysing information and have constant arguments thrown at you, it’s good to be equipped with skills to analyse and assess the same. As such, I definitely think that this is worth a few hours of your time.

I use critical thinking in work and life situations and have been reading the individual writers covered in this summary for most of my adult life. The book does a good job of breaking down individual strands, thinkers and approaches. And includes mini-tests to check your understanding before you proceed. And yet, the sheer density and scope of what's being covered tends to bring on the brain fog - it's just so much to take in. I've found with such books that it's often easier to read something on one of the approaches or individuals - the contribution of Plato and Socrates, for instance. Then once you have absorbed that, it can be helpful to challenge yourself in a different way eg by reading a book like 'How to Have Impossible Conversations' as there's a big difference between absorbing a single big idea and reading a succession of great ideas in one sitting. As such, yes it's comprehensive, but does it work in this format? I think that depends on how you take information in. I struggled with such a linear approach personally.

As a critical thinker already I got this book to help me navigate how to stay reasonable in an unreasonable world and how to keep my head when all around are losing theirs.It teaches critical thinking and...The art and science of being reasonable - and that is an art in itself when faced with the utmost un-reasonable of peopleThis book is a brilliant tool for helping me learn how to master that.It's clearly set out with each chapter taking you through the steps one by one in a practical and easy to digest manner.Well written and well catagorizedThere's questions along the way which makes it fun to engage with and connotationsThe author has done a good job understanding how people's minds and emotions work and teaches how best to engage in a rational non judgemental wayIt really is an excellent book.If you want to learn how to make less mis-judgements and deal with an argument in a rational and logical way then this book is definitely worth a readThe price has just been reduced so it's a bargain. I highly recommend this book.

I was quite impressed with this book and found it to be far more than I had expected.There is a lot in it, but it's well written and well laid out. I liked the fact that there is an element of interactivity in the book, with exercises to complete to reinforce the point. I also liked the fact that there are a lot of examples and real life applications given.Initially I was thinking this would be a useful study tool, but it seems to be a lot more than that as it's showing applications including discerning fact from fake news, dealing with the overwhelming stream of information and notifications of online life and even things like spam and email scams.There might be a lot to get through, but it's certainly a worthwhile read for everybody.

This critical thinking book help me be a better supervisor and conveying my ideas more clearly and effectively when writing emails.

Very good book

This was a textbook for class and it was rough. Book quality was good