Logic, Ancient Greek Philosophy - General & Miscellaneous, Philosophical Methodology

Thinking Socratically

Name: Thinking Socratically
Author: Sharon Schwarze, Harvey Lape
ISBN: 9780134386317

by Sharon Schwarze, Harvey Lape

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Overview

A different approach to critical thinking, both conceptually and pedagogically, Thinking Socratically encourages students in a user-friendly way to improve their own natural reasoning skills. An enjoyable collection of readings presents students with real-life situations that raise questions about the basic assumptions of rationality, naturally engaging them in open dialogue - the hallmark of the rational person. The situations range from the problem of evidence at a trial to the absence of an explanation of why two children died in the same day care center on the same day. While the important objectives of more standard texts are not ignored, this book goes beyond the usual. Thinking Socratically considers topics that are not generally covered by other textbooks, such as the advantages of rationality over irrationality, the limits of rational thinking, the web of belief, the values implicit in science, the weaknesses of dogmatic and relativistic thinking. Thinking Socratically stresses understanding rather than gimmickry and rule memorization. It focuses on the connections between language and the world and what makes statements about the world acceptable or unacceptable. This is not an informal logic text but a genuine critical thinking text.

About the Author, Sharon Schwarze, Harvey Lape

Dear Colleagues,

When we first started teaching critical thinking over twenty-five years ago the available textbooks fell into two camps: some were simplified "introduction to logic" texts, while others were little more than rhetoric handbooks fortified with a section on informal fallacies. The first group offered models for critical thinking but provided no material to think critically about. The second analyzed devious ways of persuasion used in everything from advertising to politics. We soon began constructing our own materials for critical thinking, using the stories, news events, and issues that our students encountered in their daily lives. We believed then, and we believe now, that students need to learn critical thinking skills in a variety of contexts and from actual instances, not from concocted textbook examples.

Our approach to critical thinking also has a strong philosophical underpinning. This helps students understand how their own beliefs are formed and how they fit together into webs of belief and ultimately into a view of the world which is shaped by their experience and which shapes their experience. Having this philosophical understanding helps them to monitor their own critical thinking in a new way, and it helps them to understand why we sometimes have arguments with each other. All of this points to our definition of critical thinking which is open rational dialogue with our friends – and with ourselves.

We include the usual topics found in critical thinking texts such as deductive and inductive reasoning and the fallacies, but we also present critical thinking as anchored in a much broader philosophical context. Thus we include excerpts from Plato, Descartes, and Kant, among others. Moreover, we show how critical thinking applies in such diverse disciplines as history and science. Finally, we conclude Thinking Socratically with a whole section on ethics because, like Socrates, we think critical thinking can help people be better people, not just better critical thinkers.

We have found that students at every level enjoy and benefit from Thinking Socratically. It has been used around the country by students from the undergraduate to the graduate level.

Even teachers in K-12 programs have used earlier editions to teach themselves how to teach critical thinking to their pre-college students. We hope that you will consider using this text if you are not using it already.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at Cabrini College with your comments, questions, and suggestions. We began this text with the desire to make our students better critical thinkers and that is still our goal – to make students everywhere more able to use critical thinking skills in their everyday lives. Our email addresses are [email protected] and [email protected].

Sincerely,

Sharon Schwarze and Harvey Lape

Cabrini College