A Short Course in Intellectual Self-Defense
Find Your Inner Chomsky
Published on 4. May 2010
272 pages
978-1-60980-004-8 (ISBN)
Description
What is the relationship between democracy and critical thinking? What must a citizen in a democracy know to make the word democracy meaningful? In A Short Course in Intellectual Self-Defense, historian and educator Normand Baillargeon provides readers with the tools to see through the spin and jargon of everyday politics and news reporting in order to decide for themselves what is at stake and how to ask the necessary questions to protect themselves from the manipulations of the government and the media. Whether the issue be the call to what we're told will be a bloodless war, the "debate" around Intelligent Design, or the meaning of a military expenditure, Baillargeon teaches readers to evaluate information and sort fact from official and media spin.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Reflowable
File size
1,22 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-60980-004-8 (9781609800048)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
02/2008
Seven Stories Press,U.S.
€39.83
Article in reprint
Person
NORMAND BAILLARGEON is Professor of Education Fundamentals at the University of Québec in Montreal, where he teaches on the history of pedagogy and the philosophy of education.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Introduction
- Part One - SOME INDISPENSABLE TOOLS FOR CRITICAL THINKING
- CHAPTER 1 - LANGUAGE
- Introduction
- 1.1 Treacherous Words
- 1.2 The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation: Some Everyday Fallacies
- CHAPTER 2 - MATHEMATICS: THOSE WHO REFUSE TO BE CONNED, COUNT!
- Introduction
- 2.1 Treating Common Forms of Innumeracy
- 2.2 Probability and Statistics
- Part Two - ON THE JUSTIFICATION OF BELIEF
- CHAPTER 3 - PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
- Introduction
- 3.1 Perceiving
- 3.2 Remembering
- 3.3 Judging
- CHAPTER 4 - EMPIRICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
- Introduction
- 4.1 Science and Experimentation
- 4.2 Science and Epistemology
- 4.3 A Few Questions for the Critical Reading of Research Results
- 4.4 The SEARCH Model
- CHAPTER 5 - THE MEDIA
- Introduction
- 5.1 Another Kind of Democracy
- 5.2 The Propaganda Model of Media
- 5.3 Thirty-one Strategies for Fostering a Critical Approach to the Media
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX - INDEPENDENT MEDIA GUIDE
- SUGGESTED READINGS
- NOTES
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- ABOUT SEVEN STORIES PRESS
- Copyright Page
