Product Description

In 1975, the Environmental Fund sponsored a full-page advertisement in leading newspapers, which predicted that "the world as we know it will likely be ruined before the year 2,000," due to the assumed inability of world food production to keep pace with the increase in population. The statement was endorsed by some of the finest thinkers of the time--scientists, scholars, and other professionals who had spent their careers applying the principles of critical thinking to their chosen disciplines. Nonetheless, in this instance, they all failed to use the same rigor in assessing the probability of looming disaster and badly miscalculated.

This is just one example of how even the best thinkers can sometimes go astray, and it illustrates how easily unconscious biases can undermine the critical thinking process. In this insightful analysis of the mental pitfalls that trip up even elite critical thinkers, psychologist Todd C. Riniolo makes a compelling case that under certain circumstances everyone is vulnerable to accepting erroneous beliefs. Riniolo begins by reviewing the hallmarks of critical thinking related to the evaluation of claims, such as the use of the double-blind procedure and the law of parsimony. He then provides an evolutionary framework and empirical supporting evidence from cognitive psychology to explain why being inconsistent in the use of critical thinking is part of our evolutionary heritage. Each of us possesses cognitive biases that make us prone to maintaining our current beliefs (both true and false). He concludes by focusing on a wide range of claims--environmental, political, economic, multicultural--to illustrate how in certain contexts we all are tempted to abandon critical thinking. Thoroughly researched yet written in a lively, witty style, this unique approach to critical thinking will interest students, teachers, and anyone who wishes to become a better thinker.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #187003 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 236 pages

Review
"The perfect primer on critical thinking, not just for critical thinkers but for everyone. Not only should this book be the primary text of critical thinking courses throughout the land, but the chapters on how to think critically about political, economic, and social issues should be required reading for all members of Congress, along with the White House staff and the President himself...." -- Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, author of Why People Believe Weird Things and Why Darwin Matters.

About the Author
Todd C. Riniolo (Grand Island, NY) is an associate professor of psychology at Medaille College. He has written many peer-reviewed articles in the psychological literature.

Customer Reviews

A Fun & Interesting Read
This is a very interesting book written in a style that is very readable. The author's major thesis is that everyone, even elite critical thinkers, will because of the biases that are part of humans evolutionary heritage, be prone to believe in nonsense. With that in mind, the book is separated into three parts. Part one is really advocating critical thinking as the best method to evaluate claims, and the author reviews some of the basics. Part two provides an evolutionary explanation why everyone is prone to "bad thinking" sometimes. The author speculates that certain biases helped to maximize humans' pattern-seeking abilities. Finally, part three is the most controversial portion of the book. The author uses a wide range of examples (global warming, political claims, multicultural claims, economic claims, even Santa Claus) to show how even "good thinkers" can abandon their skepticism under certain conditions. While I did not agree with all of the authors conclusions (he often takes a position that is the opposite of many critical thinkers), the book will make you think about how much evidence you have to support certain beliefs, which I guess was the point of the book in the first place.

Well Done
Riniolo demonstrates that even commonly accepted notions typically held by skeptics need to be challenged. As a result, he questions some of the assertions of skeptical giants such as Isaac Asimov. Riniolo even dared to mention that some of his own prior conclusions needed to be reevaluated. This is a primary strength of this book. In addition, readers will find enjoyable prose on several hot-button topics. A fun read.

This is a good low-density reference!
Now what does that mean? Simply that you will find yourself coming back to this book to look up certain examples, argument points, and general "rules" of good thinking from time to time, and it does not read "thick" - dense - like a dictionary, say. This makes it fun and easy to thumb through for later look-ups, after having been fun to read through the first time.

A book with this rather forbidding title actually becomes less intimidating when picked up, because it consists of only 215 paperback pages. The three parts of this work are: the characteristics of good thinking ("rules," loosely, although not called this by the author), how good thinking evolved, and examples of good & faulty thinking. Those examples will likely hold some surprise for most readers. Also, there is an early short example of how Isaac Asimov, a brilliant and incisive thinker, ended up making a terrible boo-boo of a prediction at mid-20th century. As with most boo-boos, this was a result of a hard-to-let-go prejudice on Dr. Asimov's part. The author uses himself as a bad example in telling of his own preconceptions about the Spencer Tracy movie, "Inherit the Wind" (fictional tale paralleling the Scopes trial), and how the facts turned out to be quite different that what he had always assumed. This may be the most interesting example in the book.

A minor criticism: the author uses many clichéd phrases. "To make a long story short..." was a personal ear-grater, and showed up too many times in the text. Some would argue that ONE time is too many. Anyway, just get past those, and chalk it up to a dearth of good English teachers in his youth! Buy this one, rather than checking from the library, to be able to thumb through it many times.