The Power of Critical Thinking: Canadian Edition [Paperback]

"I was unhappy with a lot of the critical thinking texts out there, and after some careful shopping I chose Vaughn and MacDonald's The Power of Critical Thinking. My students were almost universal in their appreciation for the text's layout, appearance, and understandable treatment of complex concepts. I found that students had a better knowledge of the major concepts, and they scored exceptionally well on the mid-term examination. The mid-term average went up by 14 per cent over past years using another text/test combo. My students learned the staple concepts of critical thinking and actually said they enjoyed it! In my experience, critical thinking courses can be intimidating, sometimes even profoundly negative experiences for students. I strongly recommend The Power of Critical Thinking as an effective tool for guiding students through this terrain." -- Ken Kirkwood, University of Western Ontario

This exciting new Canadian text covers the fundamentals of critical thinking, reasoning, argumentation, logic, and argumentative essay-writing. It also includes comprehensive coverage of inference to the best explanation, extensive discussion of scientific reasoning, and provides a thorough discussion of credibility and the evaluation of evidence, as well as of the psychological and social factors that can impede critical thinking. This new edition incorporates numerous references to Canadian persons, places, political events, and debates over issues that matter to Canadians, allowing students to place important concepts in a familiar context while at the same time maintaining the lively, informal tone that have made the original text so popular.

Chris MacDonald is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator in the Department of Philosophy at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.