This popular pocket-size guide empowers readers with critical thinking tools based on the groundbreaking work of Richard Paul and Linda Elder. This bestselling volume in the Thinker’s Guide Library provides students, educators, and professionals with an authoritative problem-solving framework essential for every aspect of life.

Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher of the later Renaissance whose writings encompassed the ongoing traditions, intentions, and achievements of his times and transmitted them into early modernity. Taking up the medieval practice of the art of memory and of formal logic, he focused on the creativity of the human mind. Bruno … Continue reading Giordano Bruno →.

In Studies on Early Modern Aristotelianism Paul Richard Blum shows that Aristotle’s thought remained the touchstone of modern philosophy; for it was the philosophy taught at universities. The concept of philosophy at Jesuit schools forms the first part of this book. Their impact on the sciences and mathematics in combination with Renaissance ideas of nature is the topic of the second part. The transformation of Aristotelian metaphysics and theology under the influence of the Renaissance is the third area (...) of this book. Surprising continuity from the late Middle Ages into modernity and the radical difference of subject centered modern philosophy from ‘teachable’ school philosophy are innovative in these studies. (shrink)

I explicate and defend a non-standard theory of persistence, which I calltransdurantism. In short, transdurantism is the view is that objects persist by being temporally extended simples. Transdurantism is sometime misrepresented as a version of endurantism. Other times, transdurantism is misrepresented as a version of perdurantism. But I argue transdurantism must be disambiguated from perdurantism and endurantism—when endurantism, perdurantism, and transdurantism are properly construed, transdurantism stands apart from the other theories of persistence and we can better understand the distinct burdens (...) they each bear. I also argue that the transdurantist is capable of handling several key problems found in the persistence literature at least as well as her rivals, but she does face her own unique challenges. (shrink)

As a supplement to other volumes in the Thinker’s Guide Library, this book provides a framework by which to assess the integration of critical thinking into an educational system The critical thinking competency standards articulated in this guide serve as a resource for teachers, curriculum designers, administrators and accrediting bodies.

This handbook teaches students to read for deep understanding, properly analyze and assess what they read, and reason within the logic of an author. Written by critical thinking authorities Richard Paul and Linda Elder as part pf the Thinker’s Guide Library, this guide includes activities for students to work through in developing close reading skills using the tools of critical thinking.

This volume of the Thinker’s Guide Library offers a framework for ethical reasoning, illuminating powerful, universal tools for thinking through ethical questions. Linda Elder and Richard Paul discuss the main impediments to ethics and present ethical concepts and principles as guides for people of different backgrounds to find common ground.

This volume of the Thinker’s Guide Library applies critical thinking concepts to the unique requirements of engineering. Students and professionals across the field of engineering will find their analytical abilities enhanced by the engaging authoritative framework of inquiry set forth by Richard Paul and Linda Elder.

This volume of the Thinker’s Guide Library introduces readers to powerful methods for questioning that pinpoint underlying beliefs and systems of logic. Richard Paul and Linda Elder show how practical and accessible the Socratic method of inquiry can be and how useful it is when assessing and solving any problem.

This volume of the Thinker’s Guide Library employs critical thinking concepts in the development of productive scientific thought. Readers will learn to reason within the logic of their scientific disciplines and will find their analytical abilities enhanced by the engaging framework of inquiry set forth by Richard Paul and Linda Elder.

Neuzeitliche Philosophie ist "Philosophenphilosophie", das ist die These dieses Buches, denn seit der Renaissance und besonders seit der Wende der Philosophie bei Descartes bezieht die Philosophie ihre Autoritat aus dem Philosophen selbst, der sie vertritt. Das fur das moderne philosophische Argumentieren selbstverstandliche "Selbstdenken" belastet den Philosophen mit Verantwortung fur die Wahrheit, was auch moralische Konsequenzen hat. Das Gegenmodell ist die Schulphilosophie, die parallel dazu eine fortgesetzte Tradition hat, ausgehend von den Lehrbuchern der Philosophie an katholischen (v.a. Jesuiten-) Universitaten bis hin (...) zu den letzten Auslaufern der Neuscholastik. In Fallstudien wird die neuzeitliche Schulphilosophie vorgestellt und ihr Anspruch, Philosophie zu sein, auf den Begriff von Philosophie hin untersucht. Inhalt: Descartes und das scholastische Argumentieren - Scholastik und Humanismus im Bildungsprogramm der Jesuiten - Nikolaus Cusanus - Marsilio Ficino - Giordano Bruno - Studienordnung und Philosophiebegriff: die Ratio studiorum SJ - Der Standardkursus der katholischen Schulphilosophie - Aufklarung und Scholastik - Cusanus und Bruno neuscholastisch gelesen - Philosophenphilosophie und Schulphilosophie. (Franz Steiner 1998). (shrink)

L’élaboration d’une théorie de l’objet sert de guide à la doctrine de la science en général, et à l’élaboration formelle du statut de la métaphysique en particulier. L’étude de Paul Richard Blum porte sur l’objet de la métaphysique selon Bartholomaeus Mastrius : l’auteur y dégage les principales positions de Mastrius, débouchant, à la suite de son modèle scotiste, sur une ontologie formelle totalement détachée de la physique, à la différence de la tradition thomiste.The elaboration of the theory of (...) object directs the theory of science in general, and specifically the formal elaboration of the status of metaphysics. Paul Richard Blum’s study deals with the object of metaphysics according to Bartholomaeus Mastrius : the author outlines Mastrius’ principal positions. His metaphysics leads, according to its Scotistic model, to a purely formal ontology, completely severed from physics, contrasting with the Thomistic tradition. (shrink)

Scientific and political developments of the early twentieth century led Michael Polanyi to study the role of the scientist in research and the interaction between the individual scholar and the surrounding conditions in community and society. In his concept of “personal knowledge” he gave the theory and history of science an anthropological turn. In many instances of the history of sciences, research is driven by a commitment to beliefs and values. Society plays the role of authority and communicative backdrop that (...) presupposes individual liberty. As a system of beliefs science is rooted in community and also in history. However, as soon as fellow humans become the objects of research, their appeal transcends the researcher. Consequently, the history of human endeavor reveals a “firmament” of standards and obligations which represent an ontological reality, for which Polanyi invokes Teilhard de Chardin’s notion of noosphere. (shrink)

This essay-based test assesses the extent to which students have acquired the reading and writing abilities required for skilled analysis and evaluation. Developed by the Foundation for Critical Thinking, the test is designed for secondary and higher education students and fosters close reading and substantive writing abilities.

This volume of the Thinker’s Guide Library uncovers current well-intentioned educational trends that inefficiently fragment energy and resources in our K-12 education systems. Critiquing the basic idea behind each of these fads illuminates their real motivations and provides for holistic use.

This handbook teaches students to read for deep understanding, properly analyze and assess what they read, and reason within the logic of an author. As part of the Thinker’s Guide Library, this guide includes activities for students to work through in developing close reading skills using the tools of critical thinking.

As a companion to How to Read a Paragraph, this volume in the Thinker’s Guide Library helps students develop clear, effective and meaningful written communication skills using critical thinking tools. If you want your students to develop well reasoned papers, and improve their overall reasoning abilities, this guide is a must.

This guide promotes simultaneous teaching of creative and critical thinking and explores them as innately interrelated essential elements of learning. As part of the Thinker’s Guide Library, it is a useful resource for teachers and administrators at every level, especially as they integrate critical and creating thinking into existing curricula.

This volume of the Thinker’s Guide Library presents critical thinking skills essential to mastering any area of study. Students are empowered to take ownership of their thinking and learning by asking questions, challenging assumptions, and drawing upon reliable sources. The guide makes intellectual work more accessible, practical, and engaging.

Designed to help readers learn to seek out and recognize bias in the news; detect ideology, slant, and spin; and recognize propaganda, this volume in the Thinker’s Guide Library empowers readers to weed through overwhelming and often subjective media. It is an ideal supplement for media courses or a companion to daily news reports.

This volume of the Thinker’s Guide Library introduces the concept of fallacies and shows readers how to discern and see through forty-four types. Focusing on how human self-deception, mental trickery, and manipulation lie behind fallacies, this guide builds reasoning skills and promotes fairminded, logical thought, discussions, and debate.

Endurantists have recently faced a mereological puzzle in various forms. Here I argue that, instead of presenting a genuine worry, the puzzle actually reveals a common misunderstanding about the endurantist ontology. Furthermore, through this discussion of the alleged problem and the misunderstanding which motivates it, I reveal metaphysical commitments the endurantist has that may not be widely recognized. For instance, she is committed to interesting and perhaps controversial views about shape and location. I highlight these commitments and what they mean (...) for the endurantist. (shrink)

The famous controversy between Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola is known to regard the proper use of Platonism in humanist and Christian context. With special attention to Pico’s Commentary on a Canzone, the point of disagreement with Ficino, which is not at all obvious, is examined through a close reading. The result is that Pico sees the temptation of a pantheistic and anthropocentric understanding of the relationship between the human realm and God. Whereas Ficino engaged in making pagan (...) philosophy amenable to Christian theology, Pico was concerned with upholding the otherness of the divine. For the humanist agenda, Ficino made plausible that the human world is divinized, while Pico called for the ascent to God. In Pico’s view the Neoplatonists secularized the divine, as was evident in Ficino’s philosophical theology. (shrink)

In popular lay discourse, objections to human biological enhancement technologies are sometimes expressed in terms of the charge that they are unnatural. This paper critiques the literal claim that seems to be presented here, namely that such technologies are in some ordinary sense ’unnatural' and that it follows from this they are immoral. Such a conceptual ’nature argument' is unsound. However, the paper contends that this does not mean that the charge of unnaturalness should be dismissed out of hand. Rather, (...) the charge of unnaturalness made by a non-philosophically trained public can be construed as expressive of a general attitude of conservative concern about enhancement technologies. Viewed in this way, the charge invites philosophers to take seriously the underlying empirical concerns that underpin these widespread lay reactions. (shrink)

Benedictus Pererius as a 16th-century Jesuit integrated Platonic and Neo-Platonic sources in his philosophical and theological works as long as they were compatible with Catholic theology. His commentary on Genesis and his theological disputations on St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans gave occasions to calibrate philosophy against theology. Pererius judges that pagan thinkers may be laudable for acknowledging the existence of God but cautions Christian readers as to the orthodoxy of such findings. Against the Protestant literalist interpretation of the (...) Bible at the expense of philosophical theory of nature Pererius dealt with the questions of immortality and of the pagan notions of divinity and examined the role of philosophical heroes like Socrates and Hermes. Thus he welcomed philosophy as a potential source of religious thinking. (shrink)

I argue that David Lewis’s philosophically dominant conception of time travel cannot straightforwardly handle what we might call cases of relativistic time travel—that is, the sort of time travel which could only plausibly occur in a relativistic setting. I evaluate whether or not the Lewisian account can be successfully adapted such that it would able to analyse potential cases of relativistic time travel satisfactorily while still being employable in the analysis of those cases that make no mention of physics or (...) the structure of spacetime. This is primarily an analytical and explanatory exercise, rather than a polemical one. (shrink)

Giordano Bruno was a philosopher in his own right. However, he was famous through the centuries due to his execution as a heretic. His pronouncements against teachings of the Catholic Church, his defence of the cosmology of Nicholas Copernicus, and his provocative personality, all this made him a paradigmatic figure of modernity. Bruno’s way of philosophizing is not looking for outright solutions but rather for the depth of the problems; he knows his predecessors and their strategies as well as their (...) weaknesses, which he exposes satirically. This introduction helps to identify the original thought of Bruno who proudly said about himself: “Philosophy is my profession!” His major achievements concern the creativity of the human mind studied through the theory of memory, the infinity of the world, and the discovery of atomism for modernity. He never held a permanent office within or without the academic world. Therefore, the way of thinking of this “Knight Errant of Philosophy” will be presented along the stations of his journey through Western Europe. (shrink)

This edition of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s “De ente et uno” (“On being and the one”) offers for the first time a key text for the reformation of metaphysics in Renaissance philosophy in German translation. The Latin text is added. The detailed introduction and careful commentary reveal the guiding points Pico has set with this work.

The history of philosophy has to understand the problems to which past theories are intended as answers, rather than taking the latter as sets of doctrines, which may be correct or mistaken. Examples from the Renaissance are Nicholas of Cusa, Marsilio Ficino, Bernardino Telesio, Girolamo Cardano, and Benedictus Pererius: they show that Renaissance thinkers sought for principles of nature in terms of active powers. Whoever denies the validity of such ideas has the burden of proof that alternative theories solve the (...) same problems. (shrink)

The Renaissance was a period of great intellectual change and innovation as philosophers rediscovered the philosophy of classical antiquity and passed it on to the modern age. Renaissance philosophy is distinct both from the medieval scholasticism, based on revelation and authority, and from philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who transformed it into new philosophical systems. Despite the importance of the Renaissance to the development of philosophy over time, it has remained largely understudied by historians of philosophy and professional (...) philosophers. This anthology aims to correct this by providing scholars and students of philosophy with representative translations of the most important philosophers of the Renaissance. Its purpose is to help readers appreciate philosophy in the Renaissance and its importance in the history of philosophy. The anthology includes translations from philosophers from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, and it ranges from works on moral and political philosophy, to metaphysics, epistemology, and natural philosophy, thereby providing historians and students of philosophy with a sense for the nature, breadth, and complexity of philosophy in the Renaissance. Each translation is accompanied by an introduction by a historian of Renaissance philosophy, as well as select secondary sources, in order to encourage further study. (shrink)

Ever since the publication of the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass in 1845, autobiographical testimonies were a mainstay of the abolition movement in the United States. Being or having been held as slaves and all the attendant injury is the very theme of the documents in question, which are testimonies, rather than theoretical works, because the authors maintained the first-person point of view. Since autoethnography aims at overcoming the preset mentality of the researcher in order to gain insight (...) into what it is like to live in a particular social environment, slave narratives, beyond any abolitionist agenda, may serve as a paradigm for autoethnographic interpretation of historic sources. For an understanding of the authentic perspective of the speakers, external redactions need to be filtered out when reading those documents. On the other hand, certain tropes are worth considering (such as ignorance of the speaker’s date and place of birth or stereotypical names) because these narrative gestures indicate the state of mind of the narrator. I will propose methods for finding interpretive tools to identify the Self and the world of the slave-narrators. Such interpretation relies on the close reading of narratives as I will show by examples. (shrink)

The era of the Baroque witnessed a fierce debate over the interpretation of some experiments about the vacuum. It was riddled with fear of annihilation. My focus will not lie on the development of...