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Critical Thinking
AlterLinks Topic Index

  1. Adventures in Marxism
    Resource Type: Book
    Published: 1999
    Marshall Berman explores and rejoices in the emancipatory potential of Marxism.
  2. Alternative Media
    Introduction to the November 27, 2016 issue of Other Voices

    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2016
    It's no wonder that the mainstream media are widely distrusted, and even held in contempt, by many people. They are seen, rightly, as part of the neoliberal system people are increasingly rejecting. On the other hand, the Internet has made it possible to launch a vast number of alternative media projects.
  3. Anti-Science: Left and Right Together?
    A Systematic Attack on Rationality

    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2012
    The suggestion that left and right thinking may be converging on matters scientific will, no doubt, be offensive to some on the left. After all, the right chooses myth over evolution, and oil profits over climate science.
  4. Bad Marxism
    Capitalism and Cultural Studies

    Resource Type: Book
    Published: 2004
    Cultural Studies commonly claims to be a radical discipline. This book thinks that's a bad assessment. After an introduction critiquing the so-called 'Marxism' of the academy, Hutnyk provides detailed critical analyses of the approaches and theorists of cultural studies.
  5. Bangladesh and the shrinking space for free thinkers: 'Don't call me Muslim, I am an atheist'
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2015
    Writer Taslima Nasreen fled Bangladesh in 1994 when extremists threatened to kill her for criticizing Islam, and has been living in exile since. Her country has, in recent times, seen many intellectuals expelled or killed. In this interview, she speaks about the shrinking space for free thinkers in Bangladesh and says that Islam cannot be exempt from the critical scrutiny that other religions undergo.
  6. Breaking the Spell of Stupid Opinions
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2006
    When someone is outside the hold of a stupid opinion, its inanity is so apparent that one wonders how it could ever be held by anyone. But when people are caught believing something that isn't reality-based, most believe it far more rigidly than they believe facts.
  7. Connexions Annual Resource and Reading List
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 1994
    A short and selective list of resources on issues addressed in the Connexions Annual, such as environment, education, peace, interntional development, women's issues, urban issues, housing, human rights, civil liberties, social change.
  8. Critical Theory
    Resource Type: Book
    Published: 1972
    Essays by the founder of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt.
  9. Critical thinking
    Connexipedia Article

    Resource Type: Article
    The purposeful and reflective judgement about what to believe or what to do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguments.
  10. Depression and Joy
    Introduction to the November 7, 2016 issue of Other Voices

    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2016
    It's a difficult thing to measure, but there are strong reasons for believing that the number of people struggling with depression has increased significantly in recent decades. Despite the evidence that this is a social problem, and not merely an individual misfortune, the solutions and escapes on offer are almost all individual: pharmaceuticals and therapy, on the one hand; self-medication with alcohol, streets drugs, television, etc., on the other.
  11. Diemer, Ulli
    Connexipedia Article

    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2010
    Canadian socialist publisher, writer, and archivist.
  12. The Enlightenment
    Connexipedia Article

    Resource Type: Article
    A term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century.
  13. Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science
    Resource Type: Book
    Published: 1998
    The authors criticize postmodernism in academia for its misuses of scientific and mathematical concepts in postmodern writing. Fashionable Nonsense examines two related topics: (1) The incompetent and pretentious usage of scientific concepts by a small group of influential philosophers and intellectuals; (2) the problems of cognitive relativism, the idea that "modern science is nothing more than a 'myth', a 'narration' or a 'social construction' among many others". The stated goal of the book is not to attack "philosophy, the humanities or the social sciences in general...[but] to warn those who work in them (especially students) against some manifest cases of charlatanism," and in particular to "deconstruct" the notion that some books and writers are difficult because they deal with profound and difficult ideas. "If the texts seem incomprehensible, it is for the excellent reason that they mean precisely nothing." The book includes long extracts from the works of Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Paul Virilio, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Luce Irigaray, Bruno Latour, and Jean Baudrillard who are considered by some to be leading academics of Continental philosophy, critical theory, psychoanalysis or social sciences. Sokal and Bricmont set out to show how those intellectuals have used concepts from the physical sciences and mathematics incorrectly. The extracts are intentionally rather long to avoid accusations of taking sentences out of context.
    Published in French as Impostures Intellectuelles and in the United Kingdom as Intellectual Impostures.
  14. A field guide to critical thinking
    Resource Type: Article
  15. 'Free speech' - as long as it doesn't offend anyone
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2009
    On the issue of free speech most of the right and much of the left are in agreement, and so too are many liberals, activists, and human rights apparatchiks. They hold essentially the same position on freedom of expression - they are for it -in principle-, but only so long as it isn't used to express views that they find unacceptable or offensive. What they disagree about is merely who gets to decide what ideas are unacceptable, i.e., who gets to censor who.
  16. The Habits of Highly Cynical People
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2016
    A look at the consequences and dangers of 'naive cynicism', where complex issues are oversimplified and the future and past is flattened out, reducing motivations to engage in intelligent dialogue, and to participate and act.
  17. The Holy Family or Critique of Critical Criticism
    Resource Type: Book
    Published: 1845
  18. How 2 Take an Exam... & Remake the World
    Resource Type: Book
    Published: 2001
  19. How to Use Critical Thinking to Spot False Climate Claims
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2018
    This article outlines ways to address common climate-contrarian arguments, all of which contain errors in reasoning that are independent of the science itself.
  20. I was a psychic for the FBI
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 1979
    Para-review investigates parapathology
  21. Interview with Ulli Diemer
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 1990
    Jeff Orchard interviews Ulli Diemer about socialism, capitalism, life, and social change.
  22. Judging Authority
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2004
    We are often required to accept the word of another person, but how can we best judge whether or not that person is a legitimate authority?
  23. Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution
    Volume I: State and Bureaucracy

    Resource Type: Book
    Published: 1977
    A wide-ranging and thorough exposition of Marx's views on democracy.
  24. Kumon Math & Reading Centres
    Media Profile in Sources

    Resource Type: Organization
  25. A Marxist History of the World part 45: The Enlightenment
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2011
    What gave the Enlightenment its subversive, politically corrosive character was its critique of institutions and practices which appeared comparatively irrational in the light of modern thinking, argues Neil Faulkner.
  26. Marxists Internet Archive
    Resource Type: Website
    Large archive of the writings of Marx and Engels and of others in the Marxist tradition. Searchable.
  27. News and Letters
    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    Articles from a Marxist-Humanist perspective.
  28. 911Myths
    Resource Type: Website
    Skeptical analysis of conspiracy theories about September 11, 2001.
  29. On Rumours
    How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done

    Resource Type: Book
    Published: 2009
    Describes the social and pyschological forces that make the spread of misinformation inevitable. Its argument runs like this: whether or not we choose to believe something, and whether we feel inclined to pass it on, depends largely on what we already believe.
  30. Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - January 30, 2016
    Conflict of interest

    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    Published: 2016
    This issue of Other Voices shines a light on the murky world of conflict of interest, the hidden reality that often underlies appearances of neutrality, objectivity, and due process. Conflicts of interest are inherent in capitalism, a system founded on the premise that the state and society should be subordinated to economic self-interest and the accumulation of private wealth. Scientists who are supposed to be studying the effects of GMOs are funded by agribusiness corporations. Doctors who receive money from pharmaceutical companies write articles promoting the drugs produced by those companies. Decisions about pipelines are made by regulators who have spent years working in the oil industry, and who will be heading back to jobs in the industry after their stint 'regulating' it. Politicians receive campaign funds from corporate lobbyists.
  31. Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - November 7, 2016
    Depression and Joy

    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    Published: 2016
    It's a difficult thing to measure, but there are strong reasons for believing that the number of people struggling with depression has increased significantly in recent decades. Despite the evidence that this is a social problem, and not merely an individual misfortune, the solutions and escapes on offer are almost all individual: pharmaceuticals and therapy, on the one hand; self-medication with alcohol, streets drugs, television, etc., on the other. Certainly there are individual circumstances and individual causes, but when millions of people are experiencing the same thing, we need to be looking not only at the individual, but also at the society.
  32. Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - April 1, 2017
    April 1 issue

    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    Published: 2017
    Other Voices always strives to present you with alternative views on important topics. This issue offers some really alternative perspectives and even some "alternative facts." As always, read critically - and enjoy.
  33. Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - February 17, 2018
    Hearts and Minds: How do People Change?

    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    Published: 2018
    How can we reach the millions we need to reach and engage if fundamental change is to happen? How can we accomplish the essential task of persuading a majority of the population that a fundamental social and economic transformation is necessary? Even more importantly, what will it take for people to come together and act collectively to bring about that transformation? What can we do to help make this happen?
  34. Randy Park, Author and Speaker -- "Thinking for Results"
    Media Profile in Sources

    Resource Type: Organization
  35. Post 9/11 Conspiracism
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2006
    The tendency to explain all major world events as primarily the product of a secret conspiracy is called conspiracism. The antidote to conspiracism is Power Structure Research.
  36. Postmodern Disrobed
    Review of Intellectual Impostures

    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 1998
    An admirable job of exposing the daffy absurdity of postmodernism intellectuals.
  37. The Power of Critical Thinking
    Effective Reasoning about Ordinary and Extraordinary Claims

    Resource Type: Book
    Published: 2005
    Discusses cognitive research on critical thinking and teaching strategies as well as excercises. Diagramming, verbal reasoning, and drawing are employed in the practice of critical thinking.
  38. Quotes about Critical Thinking
    Resource Type: Unclassified
  39. Radical Digressions
    Resource Type: Website
    Published: 2017
    Ulli Diemer's website/blog featuring comment from a radical left-libertarian Marxist perspective.
  40. The Rain On Our Parade
    A Letter To My Dismal Allies

    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2012
    O rancid sector of the far left, please stop your grousing! Compared to you, Eeyore sounds like a Teletubby. If I gave you a pony, you would not only be furious that not everyone has a pony, but you would pick on the pony for not being radical enough until it wept big, sad, hot pony tears. Because what we're talking about here is not an analysis, a strategy, or a cosmology, but an attitude, and one that is poisoning us. Not just me, but you, us, and our possibilities.
  41. Rationality/Science
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 1995
    Chomsky writes: "It strikes me as remarkable that the left today should seek to deprive oppressed people not only of the joys of understanding and insight, but also of tools of emancipation, informing us that the "project of the Enlightenment" is dead, that we must abandon the "illusions" of science and rationality--a message that will gladden the hearts of the powerful, delighted to monopolize these instruments for their own use."
  42. The Red Menace
    A libertarian socialist newsletter

    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    Published: 1980
    Articles on topics such as socialism, Marxism, anarchism, work, popular education, organizing, wages for housework, Leninism, bureaucracy, hierarchy, jargon, prostitution, obscenity, science fiction, and terrorism.
  43. Rethinking the challenge of anti-Muslim bigotry
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2017
    In 1997 the British anti-racist organisation the Runnymede Trust published its highly influential report Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All. Twenty years on, the Runnymede Trust has brought out a follow-up report Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us All, which is a stock-take on current views, and facts, about the issue.
  44. Screw Loose Change Video
    Resource Type: Website
    This is a counter-video of the famous "Loose Change 2nd Edition". Using their own video and words, "Screw Loose Change" debunks the theories and statements made in Loose Change 2nd Edition.
  45. The September 11 X-Files
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2002
    One problem with conspiracy theorizing is that it can distract from the true and (sometimes mundane) misdeeds and mistakes of government.
  46. The Skeptic's Dictionary
    Resource Type: Website
    A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions.
  47. Studies in Socialist Pedagogy
    Resource Type: Book
    Published: 1978
  48. Stupid Opinion #1: All Opinions are Equal
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2006
    People say, "Don't be judgmental" - as if we shouldn't evaluate behaviour, from amazingly loving to atrocious. Many intone, "No one has the right to judge opinions" - as if racist opinions, say, had the same validity as anti-racist opinions.
  49. The Truth About the "9/11 Truth Movement"
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2006
    A rebuttal of some of the claims made by 9/11 conspiracy theorists.
  50. The Unknown Dimension
    European Marxism Since Lenin

    Resource Type: Book
    Published: 1972
    The radical intellectual tradition of European post-Leninist Marxism, so different from the dogma of the orthodox leftist parties, is an unknowwn dimension. This anthology sets out to recover this Marxist tradition and to restore the centrality of Marxist revolutionary thought and practice.
  51. When 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Go Bad
    Resource Type: Article
    Published: 2002
    Aren't these conspiracy theories too silly to address? That should be the case. But, sadly, they do attract people.

Experts on Critical Thinking in the Sources Directory

  1. Connexions
  2. Ulli Diemer
  3. Marxists Internet Archive

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