Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life

You are what you think...Everything you do in life is determined by the quality of your thinking. If you aren't thinking clearly, you're at the mercy of everyone else-from dishonest politicians to aggressive, stop-at-nothing ad agencies. Unfortunately, many people never give any thought to how they think. No wonder they're susceptible to the frustration, pain, ineffectiveness, and financial loss that result directly from poorly considered thinking. Critical Thinking is about becoming a better thinker in every aspect of your life - as a professional, as a consumer, citizen, friend, parent, and even as a lover. Drs. Richard W. Paul and Linda Elder, leaders of the Center for Critical Thinking, identify the core skills of effective thinking, then help you analyze your own thought processes so you can identify your weaknesses and overcome them. As you learn how to think more effectively, you'll empower yourself as never before, discovering new opportunities, avoiding disastrous mistakes, and gaining new clarity throughout your entire life. The six stages of thinking: which stage are you in? Discovering where you stand in the hierarchy of effective thinking. Getting past the egocentrism and sociocentrism that shackle our progress. Setting higher standards for our thinking. Imbuing our thinking with clarity, relevance, logic, accuracy, depth, significance, precision, breadth, and fairness. Thinking more effectively in the workplace. Overcoming the unique obstacles to effective thinking in businesses and organizations. Strategic thinking: taking responsibility for your own growth; Directing your thinking toward your most important goals and purposes; Critically assessing the views of experts; Assessing matters of fact, matters of opinion, and matters of judgment; Practical techniques for making more intelligent decisions; Applying critical thinking to life's key decisions; The ethical implications of effective thinking: Why thinking and character are inextricably linked-and how to become a more ethical thinker. Get smarter - in every part of your life! decisions; Thinking strategically: using effective thinking to achieve your goals and enhance your life; Evaluating thinking: yours and everyone else's; Overcoming the obstacles to effective thinking; Thinking more effectively in your personal and business relationships; Includes exercises for honing your thinking skills every day. The world gets more complex every day. There's only one way to cope - get smarter. Thinking more effectively gives you greater control over your life, helps you overcome adversity, and makes it easier to transform your dreams into reality. Effective thinking is no mystery. It consists of practical skills anyone can learn, practice, and improve. Critical Thinking gives you those skills. Richard W. Paul and Linda Elder show you how to take thinking apart and assess it for quality. You'll learn how to improve all three components of thinking - analysis, evaluation, and re-thinking. Then, through brains-on exercises, you'll discover and hone new thinking skills that'll soon become second nature. Critical Thinking will help you in hundreds of ways. recognize pathological thinking, and avoid being manipulated. Above all, it will give you the confidence and courage to recognize the path that's right for you-and take it.