Critical Reasoning in Contemporary Culture

Edited by Richard A. Talaska

Subjects: Philosophy Of Education
Series: SUNY series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Paperback : 9780791409800, 422 pages, December 1992
Hardcover : 9780791409794, 422 pages, January 1993

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART I: THEORIES OF CRITICAL REASONING AND EDUCATION

The Problems of Skills versus Content

1. Conflicting Views on Teaching Critical Reasoning
Robert H. Ennis

Theories That Emphasize Content

2. Teaching Critical Reasoning through the Disciplines: Content versus Process
John E. McPeck

3. Cultural Literacy and Critical Literacy
Donald Lazere

Theories That Emphasize Skills

4. Critical Reasoning and Informal Logic
Ralph H. Johnson

5. Education and the Fostering of Rationality
Harvey Siegel

6. Creativity, Critical Reasoning, and the Problem of Content-Oriented Education
Robert J. Sternberg

Beyond Skills and Content

7. Teaching Critical Reasoning in the Strong Sense: Getting Behind World Views
Richard W. Paul

8. The Imperative Focus: A Prerequisite for Critical Reasoning
Lenore Langsdorf

PART II. PROBLEMS FOR THEORY OF CRITICAL REASONING

The Problem of Methodology

9. Taking Cover in Coverage: Critical Reasoning and the Conflict of Theories
Gerald Graff

10. Whose Reason? Which Canon? Critical Reasoning and Conflicting Ideas of Rationality
R.W. Sleeper

The Problem of History

11. Postmodernism and the Possibility of Critical Reasoning
Stanley Rosen

12. Critical Reasoning and History
Richard A. Talaska

The Problem of the Unity of Source for Critical Reasoning

13. Critical Reasoning and the Second Power of Questions: Towards First Questions and First Philosophy
Eva T.H. Brann

14. Theology and Critical Reasoning: Ignatius' Understanding of the Jesuit University
Michael J. Buckley, S.J.

The Problem of Values

15. Evaluation and Critical Reasoning: Logic's Last Frontier?
Michael Scriven

Biographical Sketches of Contributors

Index

Description

Here we have, for the first time in a single volume, diverse perspectives on the meaning, conditions, and goals of critical reasoning in contemporary culture. Part One emphasizes critical reasoning and education, engaging the debate over the connection between critical reasoning skills and the learning of the content.

Part Two offers analyses of the theoretical, methodological, and historical debates concerning critical reasoning abilities. The authors represent a variety of disciplines and theoretical approaches which lend the book valuable intellectual pluralism.

The book evaluates other aspects of critical thinking such as creativity, insight, questioning, learning, practical thought, interpretation, intellectual prejudice, and the historical and temporary aspects of thought.

Richard A. Talaska is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Xavier University in Cincinnati.