Just in time to navigate the home stretch of the weirdest election in American history, I’ve just released a new edition of Critical Voter, a how-to guide for using election politics to teach and learn practical critical thinking skills.
Swiping from the Amazon blurb I labored over while the book was being finalized:
Jonathan Haber, author of the best-selling book Critical Thinking from MIT Press, is back with a 2020 Election edition of Critical Voter, a how-to guide for using election politics to learn how to make better decisions and improve your life by mastering practical critical-thinking skills.
The book applies ancient wisdom and modern science to today’s campaign headlines, providing voters information on how to decode what candidates are really trying to convince you to believe, how language is being used to sway your vote one way or another, and how to think clearly before heading to the polls.
Why waste the next election feeling suckered, ignored, or manipulated when you can follow the simple lessons in this how-to book to become a member of the most fearsome of all demographics: the free and truly independent critical thinker!
Critical Voter provides easy-to-follow explanations, illustrated with examples from presidential campaign politics, to show you how to:
- Decode arguments to understand what people (including presidential candidates) are really trying to convince you to believe
- Understand when persuasive language is being used to push you one way or another, as well as how to master the persuaders’ techniques to get people to do what you want
- Identify and overcome biases (especially the ones that are holding you back)
- See past what the media is telling you
- Make the Internet your servant for discovering the truth
From Cicero to Mr. Spock, from Aristotle’s logic to the latest work of cognitive science, Critical Voter applies 2500 years of practical advice to today’s news headlines to help you learn to think clearly, communicate convincingly, and live a more successful and happier life.2020 Edition
2020 Edition
Given that a few things have gone on since the first edition of Critical Voter came out in 2016, the new edition helps you understand key events over the last four years from a critical-thinking perspective.
New material in the 2020 edition includes:
- Forward to the new edition that looks at what’s changed (and what might not have) over the last four years
- New Case Study: Donald Trump – Do the rules of critical thinking no longer apply?
- New Case Study: Arguing COVID and social distancing
- New Case Study: Should audiences be banned from presidential debates?
- New Case Study: Can mathematical fallacies be deadly?
- Plus new examples and information drawn from news since the last election
Critical Voter is available in both print and ebook editions at Amazon.