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Asking the Right Questions 12th edition
A guide to critical thinking (subscription).
M Neil Browne , M Browne , ...more
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Asking the Right Questions (12th edition)
Book Details
| Full Title: | Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (Subscription) |
|---|---|
| Edition: | 12th edition |
| ISBN-13: | 978-0134425689 |
| Format: | ebook |
| Publisher: | Pearson (6/15/2017) |
| Copyright: | 2018 |
| Dimensions: | 0 x 0 x 0 inches |
| Weight: | < 1 lb |
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Publisher Description
This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. This print textbook is available for students to rent for their classes. The Pearson print rental program provides students with affordable access to learning materials, so they come to class ready to succeed.
For courses in argument, linguistics, and composition — or in any course where critical thinking is key. Think critically, analyze objectively, and judge soundly when you know the right questions to ask. Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking bridges the gap between simply memorizing or blindly accepting information, and the greater challenge of critical analysis and synthesis. Authors M. Neil Browne and Stuart Keeley teach readers to think critically by exploring the components of arguments — the ¿¿issues, conclusions, reasons, evidence, assumptions, and language — ¿¿and showing how to spot fallacies, manipulations, and faulty reasoning. They demonstrate how to respond to alternative points of view and make the best personal choices about what information to accept or reject. Now in its 12th Edition, this current and concise book greatly extends the understanding of critical thinking to writing and speaking. Additionally, the updated practice passages and exercises, as well as an enhanced visual program, add to this book’s appeal in a variety of courses and disciplines.
Table of Contents
1. The Benefit and Manner of Asking the Right Questions
The Noisy, Confused World We Live In
Experts Cannot Rescue Us, Despite What They Say
The Necessity of Relying on Our Mind
Critical Thinking to the Rescue
The Sponge and Panning for Gold: Alternative Thinking Styles
Weak-Sense and Strong-Sense Critical Thinking
The Importance of Practice
Critical Thinking and Other People
Primary Values of a Critical Thinker
Keeping the Conversation Going
Creating a Friendly Environment for Communication
Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
2. What Are the Issue and the Conclusion?
Kinds of Issues
Searching for the Issue
Searching for the Author’s or Speaker’s Conclusion
Clues to Discovery: How to Find the Conclusion
Practice Exercises
Sample Responses
3. What Are the Reasons?
Initiating the Questioning Process
Words That Identify Reasons
Keeping the Reasons and Conclusions Straight
Reasons First, Then Conclusions
4. What Words or Phrases Are Ambiguous?
The Confusing Flexibility of Words
Locating Key Terms and Phrases
Checking for Ambiguity
Determining Ambiguity
Context and Ambiguity
Ambiguity, Definitions, and the Dictionary
Limits of Your Responsibility to Clarify Ambiguity
5. What Are the Value and Descriptive Assumptions?
General Guide for Identifying Assumptions
Value Conflicts and Assumptions
From Values to Value Assumptions
Typical Value Conflicts
The Communicator’s Background as a Clue to Value Assumptions
Consequences as Clues to Value Assumptions
More Hints for Finding Value Assumptions
The Value of Knowing the Value Priorities of Others
Values and Relativism
Identifying and Evaluating Descriptive Assumptions
Illustrating Descriptive Assumptions
Common Descriptive Assumptions
Clues for Locating Assumptions
6. Are There Any Fallacies in the Reasoning?
A Questioning Approach to Finding Reasoning Fallacies
Evaluating Assumptions as a Starting Point
Discovering Other Common Reasoning Fallacies
Looking for Diversions
Sleight of Hand: Begging the Question
Summary of Reasoning Errors
Expanding Your Knowledge of Fallacies
7. The Worth of Personal Experience, Case Examples, Testimonials, and Statements of Authority as Evidence
Fact or Opinion?
The Need for Dependable Evidence
Sources of Evidence
Personal Experience as Evidence
Case Examples as Evidence
Testimonials as Evidence
Appeals to Authority as Evidence
8. How Good Is the Evidence: Personal Observation and Research Studies?
Personal Observation as Evidence
Biased Surveys and Questionnaires
Research Studies as Evidence
General Problems with Research Findings
Generalizing From the Research Sample
Generalizing From the Research Measures
When You Can Most Trust Expert Opinion
Research and the Internet
9. Are There Rival Causes?
When to Look for Rival Causes
The Pervasiveness of Rival Causes
Detecting Rival Causes
The Cause or a Cause
Multiple Perspectives as a Guide to Rival Causes
Confusing Causation with Association
Confusing “After This� with “Because of This�
Explaining Individual Events or Acts
Evaluating Rival Causes
Rival Causes and Your Own Communication
Exploring Potential Causes
10. Are Any Statistics Deceptive?
Unknowable and Biased Statistics
Confusing Averages
Measurement Errors
Concluding One Thing, Proving Another
Deceiving by Omitting Information
Using Statistics in Your Writing
11. What Significant Information Is Omitted?
The Benefits of Detecting Omitted Information
The Certainty of Incomplete Reasoning
Questions That Identify Omitted Information
But We Need to Know the Numbers
The Importance of the Negative View
Omitted Information That Remains Missing
12. What Reasonable Conclusions Are Possible?
Dichotomous Thinking: Impediment to Considering Multiple Conclusions
Grey Thinking: Two Sides or Many?
Productivity of If-Clauses
The Liberating Effect of Recognizing Alternative Conclusions
13. Speed Bumps Interfering with Your Critical Thinking
The Discomfort of Asking the Right Questions
Thinking Too Quickly
Stereotypes
Mental Habits That Betray Us
Halo Effect
Belief Perseverance
Availability Heuristic
Answering the Wrong Question
Egocentrism
Wishful Thinking: Perhaps the Biggest Single Speed Bump on the Road to Critical Thinking
Final Words
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Asking the Right Questions with Readings: A Guide to Critical Thinking
- M. N. Browne , S. Keeley
- Published 4 September 2010
- Philosophy, Education
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Review: Asking the Right Questions by Browne & Keeley
The first step in the process is to look for the issues and conclusions. The authors emphasize this: we cannot critically evaluate until we find the conclusion. Once we know the conclusion, we can look for the reasons for that conclusion and evaluate the reasons. Reasons plus a conclusion makes an argument; the stronger the reasons, the stronger the argument.
So much of the content of this book is just nugget after nugget of great information, instruction, and insight. The book helps the reader to understand the underlying assumptions and processes behind much of the thinking he encounters. The reader is encouraged to watch out for ambiguous language, look for assumptions, identify fallacies, and identify good evidence.
When it comes to evidence, the authors offer excellent insights into how the critical thinker can separate good evidence from bad evidence. Intuition, personal experience, testimonials, appeals to authority, and other types of evidence are all evaluated by asking the right questions. The content of the book entails fourteen chapters, each dedicated to a particular line of question, listed here:
1) What are the issues and the conclusions? 2) What are the reasons? 3) Which words or phrases are ambiguous? 4) What are the value conflicts and assumptions? 5) What are the descriptive assumptions? 6) Are there any fallacies in the reasoning? 7) How good is the evidence? 8) Are there rival causes? 9) Are the statistics deceptive? 10) What significant information is omitted? 11) What reasonable conclusions are possible? 3
Of course, critical thinking is not simply knowing a list of questions. Each chapter is like a meal to be enjoyed in its own right. Speeding through this book is not the way to benefit from the insights. Careful reading and re-reading would be encouraged in order to build new habits of thought and to internalize the content.
In their conclusion, the authors end with an exhortation to the critical thinker to use his skills to become a better person. A humble tone is encouraged: “You seek…not to elevate yourself above those who have other conclusions, but to move us all forward to some better understanding of who we are. All the while, you will be improving yourself as a thinker.” 4
In sum, Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking is a superb book. Easy to read, engaging, and remarkably beneficial, it is sure to be a significant title in the critical thinker’s library.
1 M. Neil Browne & Stuart M. Keeley, Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007), p. 2. 2 Ibid., p. 4. 3 Ibid., p. 13. 4 Ibid., p.206.
Written by Brian Auten
Brian Auten is the founder emeritus of Apologetics315. He is also director of Reasonable Faith Belfast. Brian holds a Masters degree in Christian Apologetics and has interviewed over 150 Christian apologists. His background is in missions, media direction, graphic design, and administration. Brian started Apologetics315 in 2007 to be an apologetics hub to equip Christians to defend the faith.
Critical analysis
Critical thinking is an essential skill at university. It includes making judgements, forming your own opinions and developing your own arguments in response to classes and seminars, and during the reading and writing process. It involves applying rational and logical thinking while deconstructing the texts you read (and write) at university. Browne and Keeley (2001, p. 2) define critical thinking as:
- an awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions
- the ability to ask and answer critical questions at appropriate times
- the desire to actively use the critical questions.
In answering the questions you have posed about a text you will develop a body of useful insights and knowledge about it. You can then use this information in discussions, in seminars, in your thinking and decision making and in your academic writing.
Asking questions
Asking questions – and then answering them – is the foundation of critical analysis. Start by asking questions that relate to the context of a text. Then ask questions about the author's argument and the evidence provided to support it. You should also consider the style of writing and how it affects the clarity with which the author's argument is presented.
Thinking critically in science and the arts
When we think critically, we are not passively accepting everything we read and hear, but questioning, evaluating, making judgements, finding connections and categorising. It means being open to other points of view and not being blinded by our own biases. Although critical thinking involves asking questions and identifying problems in all disciplines, there are different processes associated with science and the arts.
Understanding the terminology, which describes how we think critically, can help you to formulate arguments and organise your ideas in preparation for assignments.
| Logic | The study of correct and incorrect reasoning and the application of correct reasoning. |
|---|---|
| Argument | A group of statements or premises leading to a conclusion. If the premises are false or if the argument is invalid, the conclusion is also likely to be incorrect. |
| Premise | A beginning statement of an argument. |
| Deductive argument | One that arrives at a conclusion that is inherent in the premise. These arguments are either valid or invalid according to the correctness of the logic. |
| Inductive argument | One that examines the real world to find evidence towards a conclusion. (These are what are mostly used in writing essays in the arts and social sciences). Such arguments should be assessed according to whether they are weak or strong. |
(Windschuttle & Elliot 1999)
Browne, M & Keeley, S 2001, Asking the right questions: a guide to critical thinking , 6th edn, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Windschuttle, K & Elliot, E 1999, Writing, researching, communicating: communication skills for the information age , 3rd edn, McGraw-Hill, Sydney.
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Browne and Keeley define weak sense critical thinking as The inability to defeat an opponent in an argument The use of critical thinking to defend one's current beliefs Only having the ability to excel in one singular discipline The opposite of common sense
Explanation
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COMMENTS
Weak-Sense and Strong-Sense Critical Thinking. The Importance of Practice . Critical Thinking and Other People. ... Authors M. Neil Browne and Stuart Keeley teach readers to think critically by exploring the components of arguments — the ¿¿issues, conclusions, reasons, evidence, assumptions, and language — ¿¿and showing how to spot ...
Asking the right questions: a guide to thinking/M critical Nei. l Browne, Stuart M. Keeley.—8th ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN -13-220304-9 1. Criticism. 2. Critical thinking. I. Keeley, Stuart M., 1941 II. Title. ... Weak-Sense and Strong-Sense Critical Thinking 10 The Satisfaction of Using the Panning-for-Gold 1 Approac1 h
Authors M. Neil Browne and Stuart Keeley teach readers to think critically by exploring the components of arguments â€" the ¿¿issues, conclusions, reasons, evidence, assumptions, and language â€" ¿¿and showing how to spot fallacies, manipulations, and faulty reasoning. ... Weak-Sense and Strong-Sense Critical Thinking. The ...
Neil Browne, Stuart M. Keeley, +1 author. Kritik Sastra. Published 2010. Philosophy, Education. Preface Key ongoing features of Asking the Right Questions The special features of this new edition Chapter 1: The Benefit and Manner of Asking the Right Questions The Sponge and Panning for Gold: Alternative Thinking Styles Tan Example of the ...
Contents Preface Chapter 1: The Benefit of Asking the Right Questions Introduction Critical Thinking to the Rescue The Sponge and Panning for Gold: Alternative Thinking Styles An Example of the Panning-for-Gold Approach Panning for Gold: Asking Critical Questions The Myth of the "Right Answer" The Usefulness of Asking the Question, "Who Cares?" Weak-Sense and Strong-Sense Critical Thinking The ...
Browne and Keeley define weak sense critical thinking as the use of critical thinking to justify or defend established ideas. In this method, individuals may utilize critical thinking abilities to defend their opinions rather than to challenge or assess them.It reflects a type of reasoning that, rather than encouraging open-minded inquiry, is primarily concerned with preserving or defending ...
Chapters 1, 2, & 3 Browne, M.N. & Keeley, S.M. (2018). Asking the right questions: A guide to critical thinking (12th ed.). ... Strong-sense critical thinking requires us to apply the critical questions to all claims, including our own. ... Weak-sense critical thinking is the use of critical thinking to defend your current beliefs. True False ...
tion of critical thinking as "the appropriate use of reflective scep ticism [sic]" (p. 170). It is also consistent with Paul's (cited in Siegel, 1988) contrast between "weak sense" and "strong sense" critical thinking. In the weak sense, one uses his/her battery of critical thinking skills to attack positions and assumptions that
Professor M. Neil Browne has taught critical thinking, great ideas, economics, and law at Bowling Green State University for five decades. During that time, he authored 55 books and 170 professional research articles in multiple disciplines. In addition, he consulted and trained - focusing heavily on critical thinking - the faculty, corporate managers, and government leaders at some of the ...
How do Browne and Keeley define critical thinking? Critical thinking; consists of an awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions, ... Weak-sense: the; use of critical thinking to defend your current belief. Strong-sense: the; use of the same skills to evaluate all claims and beliefs, especially;
In sum, Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking is a superb book. Easy to read, engaging, and remarkably beneficial, it is sure to be a significant title in the critical thinker's library. 1 M. Neil Browne & Stuart M. Keeley, Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007 ...
Critical Thinking. by Browne and Keeley (2007) NIL Seminar. January 18, 2007. Presented by Yoonsuck Choe. Asking the Right Questions. Critical thinking refers to: • Awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions; s at appropriate times; and• Desire to actively.
Browne • Keeley Asking the Right Questions A Guide to Critical Thinking ELEVENTH EDITION M. Neil Br owne • Stuart M. Keeley This is a special edition of an established title widely used by colleges and universities throughout the world. Pearson published this exclusive edition for the beneit of students outside the United States and Canada ...
according to Browne and Keeley what are the primary values that promote a positive attitude toward critical thinking? argument a systematic attempt to convince someone that a particular point of view is correct or valid
Critical thinking. - refers to evaluation skills activated by the following: (1) awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions, (2) ability to ask & answer these critical questions in an appropriate manner, (3) desire to actively use the critical questions. Weak sense critical thinking. - use of critical thinking to defend your current ...
evidence, this book addresses critical thinking as a generic skill with many applications while emphasizing values and moral reasoning as an integral part of critical thinking. It provides extensive treatment of evidence while analyzing the biases that hinder critical thinking. It includes a chapter-length illustration of the system of right ...
"Asking the Right Questions" is a guide to making personal choices: what to accept and what to reject. It helps readers develop critical thinking skills that improve their ability to make rational decisions without formal training. The text's focus on integrated evaluation skills encourages readers to apply critical thinking to a wide variety of material.
It involves applying rational and logical thinking while deconstructing the texts you read (and write) at university. Browne and Keeley (2001, p. 2) define critical thinking as: an awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions; the ability to ask and answer critical questions at appropriate times; the desire to actively use the critical ...
This definition is distinct from the other options provided, which do not accurately describe weak sense critical thinking as defined by Browne and Keeley. <br />Weak sense critical thinking is not about the inability to defeat an opponent in an argument, nor is it about excelling in only one discipline, nor is it the opposite of common sense.