Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

(Chris Devlin) #1
FURTHER READING 187

Excellent introduction to, and then extended discussion of, the way that social
and cultural theorists have developed more sophisticated understandings of
'knowledge' as a product of social and cultural forces in the past fifty years.


Morton, Adam, Philosophy in Practice, Blackwell, Oxford, 1996.
Covers many issues relating to both epistemology and other aspects of philos-
ophy (such as identity, ethics, and so on); particularly useful for its discussions of
certainty and doubt.


Schirato, Tony and Yell, Susan, Communication and Culture: An Introduction,
Sage, London, 2000.
A very comprehensive treatment of the way meaning is generated by context,
intertextuality, and discourse within culture and society. This book, unlike many
critical thinking texts, is grounded in the insights of post-structuralist
philosophy and will significantly assist your understanding of the way 'objective'
truth is a construct of social processes as much as it is a property of objects in
the world.


Stefik, Mark, Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors, MIT Press,
Cambridge, Mass., 1996.
An eclectic collection of primary and secondary analysis of the early days of the
Internet. Used here for the work of Licklider but an interesting commentary on
why technologies of information and communication do not substitute for
reasoning in our search for information.


Further reading on reasoning


Bowell, Tracy and Kemp, Gary, Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide, Routledge,
London, 2002.
Alternative book to the larger reasoning textbooks listed below: good concise
explanations and advice.


Browne, M. Neil and Keeley, Stuart M., Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to
Critical Thinking, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 2003 (7th edn).
An excellent book that organises its ideas around the key concept of analytical
questioning, which I deploy in chapters 8 and 9.


Cederblom, Jerry and Paulsen, David W., Critical Reasoning, Wadsworth,
Belmont, CA, 2000 (5th edn).
A large reasoning textbook that contains an excellent discussion of the problems
and advantages of relying on experts and authorities.


Dowden, Bradley H., logical Reasoning, Wadsworth, Belmont, CA, 1998.
Another textbook with a particularly good chapter on explanations and on
causal reasoning.


Little, J. Frederick, Groarke, Leo A., and Tindale, Christopher W., Good

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