学会提问（第11版）·英文版（新时代·职场新技能）

M.尼尔•布朗

博林格林州立大学（Bowling Green State University）的杰出经济学教授。获有托雷多大学法学博士学位和得克萨斯大学的博士学位。曾经合著7本书，并在专业期刊发表100余篇研究论文。曾被威斯康星大学、印第安纳大学、科罗拉多大学等几十所大学聘请，协助其培养教职员工的批判性思维技巧。他是《韩国批判性思维》期刊的编委会成员，还是“国际批判性思维大会”的主要发言人。2001年获博林格林州立大学“终生成就奖”，2002年获博林格林州立大学“杰出教学能力奖”，以及美国教育促进与支持委员会的“全国年度杰出教授”银牌奖章、“俄亥俄州年度杰出教授”等许多全国性和地方性的荣誉称号。近期为美国国家安全部、IBM公司、乐高公司、新加坡K2B国际公司、美国商学院联盟、美国空军研究院等众多机构及公司提供批判性思维的训练及咨询服务。

斯图尔特•M.基利

美国伊利诺伊大学心理学博士。现为美国博林格林州立大学心理学教授。

本书具有简明扼要、清楚易懂以及篇幅短小的特色。这本小书出色地完成了它的既定目标——传授批判性思考和提问的技能。40多年向学生传授批判性思维技能的经验也让我们确信，尽管学生们能力有差异、术业有专攻，只要我们用简单易懂的方法向他们传授批判性思维的技能，他们很快就能成功地将其应用于各种实践。在学以致用的过程中，他们的信心逐步增强，在重大社会问题和个人问题方面，他们做出理性抉择的能力也与日俱增，哪怕面对从前极少经历过的重大问题，他们也一样可以应对自如。

虽然本书主要是从我们的课堂教学经验中总结出来的，但它的目标在于指导绝大多数人培养更佳的阅读和倾听习惯。对于它旨在培养的种种技能，任何一个不盲从、盲信的读者都需要将之拿来用作理性判断的基础。本书所反复强调的批判性问题可以提高我们的论证能力，不管我们受过的正规教育有多少。你在书里的收获，相信会大大出乎你的意料。

CHAPTER 

1 

The Benefit and Manner of Asking the 

Right Questions 1 

The Noisy, Confused World We Live in 1 

Experts Cannot Rescue Us, Despite What They 

Say 4 

The Necessity of Relying on Our Mind 5 

Critical Thinking to the Rescue 6 

The Sponge and Panning for Gold: Alternative 

Thinking Styles 8 

Weak-Sense and Strong-Sense Critical Thinking 10 

The Importance of Practice 12 

Critical Thinking and Other People 12 

Values and Other People 12 

Primary Values of a Critical Thinker 14 

Keeping the Conversation Going 16 

Creating a Friendly Environment for 

Communication 19 

CHAPTER 

2 

Speed Bumps Interfering with Your Critical 

Thinking 20 

The Discomfort of Asking the Right Questions 21 

Thinking Too Quickly 21 

Stereotypes 22 

Mental Habits That Betray Us 23 

Halo Effect 24 

Belief Perseverance 24 

Availability Heuristic 26 

Answering the Wrong Question 27 

Egocentrism 28 

Wishful Thinking: Perhaps the Biggest Single Speed 

Bump on the Road to Critical Thinking 29 

CHAPTER 3 What Are the Issue and the Conclusion? 33 

Kinds of Issues 34 

Searching for the Issue 36 

Searching for the Author’s or Speaker’s 

Conclusion 37 

Using This Critical Question 39 

Clues to Discovery: How to Find the Conclusion 39 

Critical Thinking and Your Own Writing and 

Speaking 40 

Narrowing Your Issue Prior to Writing 41 

Cluing Your Reader into Your Conclusion 42 

Practice Exercises 42 

Sample Responses 44 

CHAPTER 4 What Are the Reasons? 47 

Initiating the Questioning Process 50 

Words That Identify Reasons 52 

Kinds of Reasons 52 

Keeping the Reasons and Conclusions Straight 53 

Using This Critical Question 54 

Reasons First, Then Conclusions 54 

Critical Thinking and Your Own Writing and 

Speaking 55 

Exploring Possible Reasons before Reaching 

a 

Conclusion 55

Identify Major Publications That Cover Your 

Issue 56

Helping Your Readers Identify Your Reasons 57

Practice Exercises 57 

Sample Responses 59 

What Words or Phrases Are 

Ambiguous? 62 

The Confusing Flexibility of Words 63 

Locating Key Terms and Phrases 64 

Checking for Ambiguity 67 

Using This Critical Question 67 

Determining Ambiguity 68 

Context and Ambiguity 70 

Using This Critical Question 72 

Ambiguity, Definitions, and the Dictionary 72 

Ambiguity and Loaded Language 75 

Limits of Your Responsibility to Clarify Ambiguity 76 

Ambiguity and Your Own Writing and Speaking 77 

CHAPTER 

5

Keeping Your Eye Out for Ambiguity 77 

Practice Exercises 79 

Sample Responses 80 

CHAPTER 

6 

What Are the Value and Descriptive 

Assumptions? 84 

General Guide for Identifying Assumptions 87 

Value Conflicts and Assumptions 88 

From Values to Value Assumptions 89 

Typical Value Conflicts 91 

The Communicator’s Background as a Clue to Value 

Assumptions 92 

Consequences as Clues to Value Assumptions 92 

More Hints for Finding Value Assumptions 94 

The Value of Knowing the Value Priorities of 

Others 95 

Using This Critical Question 96 

Values and Relativism 96 

Identifying and Evaluating Descriptive 

Assumptions 97 

Illustrating Descriptive Assumptions 97 

Common Descriptive Assumptions 100 

Clues for Locating Assumptions 101 

Avoiding Analysis of Trivial Assumptions 103 

Assumptions and Your Own Writing and 

Speaking 104 

Practice Exercises 106 

Sample Responses 108 

CHAPTER 

7

CHAPTER 

8

Are There Any Fallacies in the 

Reasoning? 110 

A Questioning Approach to Finding Reasoning 

Fallacies 112 

Evaluating Assumptions as a Starting Point 114 

Discovering Other Common Reasoning 

Fallacies 116 

Looking for Diversions 123 

Sleight of Hand: Begging the Question 126 

Using This Critical Question 127 

Summary of Reasoning Errors 127 

Expanding Your Knowledge of Fallacies 128 

Practice Exercises 128 

Sample Responses 130 

How Good Is the Evidence: Intuition, Personal 

Experience, Case Examples, Testimonials, 

and Appeals to Authority? 133 

The Need for Evidence 134 

Locating Factual Claims 136 

Sources of Evidence 137 

Intuition as Evidence 139 

Personal Experience as Evidence 140 

Case Examples as Evidence 141 

Testimonials as Evidence 143 

Appeals to Authority as Evidence 145 

Using This Critical Question 149 

Your Academic Writing and Evidence 149 

Practice Exercises 150 

Sample Responses 152 

CHAPTER 

9 

How Good Is the Evidence: Personal 

Observation, Research Studies, and 

Analogies? 153 

Personal Observation as Evidence 153 

Research Studies as Evidence 154 

General Problems with Research Findings 156 

Generalizing from the Research Sample 162 

Generalizing from the Research Measures 164 

Biased Surveys and Questionnaires 166 

Analogies as Evidence 169 

Identifying and Comprehending Analogies 170 

Evaluating Analogies 171 

When You Can Most Trust Expert Opinion 174 

Research and the Internet 176 

Practice Exercises 178 

Sample Responses 179 

CHAPTER 10 

Are There Rival Causes? 181 

When to Look for Rival Causes 182 

The Pervasiveness of Rival Causes 183 

Detecting Rival Causes 185 

The Cause or a Cause 185 

Multiple Perspectives as a Guide to Rival 

Causes 187 

Rival Causes for Differences Between Groups 188 

Confusing Causation with Association 190 

Confusing “After This” with “Because of This” 192 

Explaining Individual Events or Acts 193 

Evaluating Rival Causes 194 

Rival Causes and Your Own Communication 195 

Exploring Potential Causes 196 

Practice Exercises 197 

Sample Responses 199 

CHAPTER 11 Are the Statistics Deceptive? 201 

Unknowable and Biased Statistics 203 

Confusing Averages 204 

Concluding One Thing, Proving Another 207 

Deceiving by Omitting Information 208 

Using Statistics in Your Writing 210 

Practice Exercises 211 

Sample Responses 212 

CHAPTER 12 

What Significant Information Is Omitted? 

215 

The Benefits of Detecting Omitted Information 216 

The Certainty of Incomplete Reasoning 217 

Questions That Identify Omitted Information 219 

But We Need to Know the Numbers 220 

The Importance of the Negative View 223 

Omitted Information That Remains Missing 225 

Using This Critical Question 225 

Practice Exercises 225 

Sample Responses 227 

CHAPTER 13 

What Reasonable Conclusions Are 

Possible? 229 

Dichotomous Thinking: Impediment to Considering 

Multiple Conclusions 230 

Two Sides or Many? 232 

Productivity of If-Clauses 233 

The Liberating Effect of Recognizing Alternative 

Conclusions 234 

Summary 235 

Practice Exercises 236 

Sample Responses 237 

Final Word 238 

Index 240