Title: Could critical thinking textbooks explain poor thinking skills?
Product review: This book was assigned when I was in college eight or nine years ago. I wasn't impressed with it then, and rereading bits of it now showed me I was right not to be.Two examples, he has a section on free will and determinism. It seems he has never heard of compatibilism, the dominant philosophical view, and doesn't actually understand determinism. The real problem though is that he tells us we should believe in free will because it is necessary for us to have control over what will happen and what we believe.Now really, telling people to believe X because it would be really useful if X is true? That is critical thinking?The other example, this one really bothered me when in college, he tells us that it is really sophisticated to realize that things don't have to be just good or bad. They can be really bad, kinda bad or some where in between. What? That is sophisticated? Maybe if you are a third grader.
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