Critical Thinking: A Shepherd's Guide to Tending Sheep portrays people as sheep.  Not a wholly original idea.  As anthropomorphic as it may be, human beings tend to follow various shepherds, and they tend to do so in herds.  The irony, however, is that most Americans consider themselves individuals, non-conformists, and self-reliant.  Hence, the difficulty in teaching Americans how to think critically is found in actually convincing them that they are not individuals until they master critical thinking. Critical Thinking: A Shepherd's Guide to Tending Sheep introduces students to the art of critical thinking using age-old philosophies and real-world applications.  The author has revived the art of critical thinking and presents if here in a cogent, succinct, pragmatic manner.  It will help turn your student sheep back into student people.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments To Instructors CHAPTER 1: What Is Critical Thinking?    Writing a Constitution  More than Religion by Emi Fujii  Angst by Joey Gu  A Purpose for Everything by Shane Johnson  Writing a World View  Disease by Sean Stokes  Too Much Money by Michael Juhn  The Global Toilet by Joey Gu  The Speech the Graduates Didn't Hear by Jacob Neusner  The Damned Human Race by Mark Twain  The Uncritical American; or, Nobody's from Missouri Any More by Wayne C. Booth  Lessons in Critical Thinking: or, an Argument Is Only Pointless if We Have the Experience But Miss the Meaning  CHAPTER 2: Methodologies for Critical Thinkers  Activities of Thinking  Component Parts  Your Reality or Mine?  The Toulmin Model vs. Aristotle's Deductive Syllogism  CHAPTER 3: Identifying Claims  Claims of Value  Burn, Baby, Burn! by Jay Rubin  Claims of Fact  The Mistake of the Millennium by Paul O'Brien  Claims of Policy  We Make Money by Making You Feel Ugly by Estelle Hartson  Controlling an Argument  Controlling a Written Argument  CHAPTER 4: Issue/Problem Papers  Format for I/P Papers  How to Refute the Opposition  Booth Gets Graded by Susan Harwood  Grade-Two Thinking by Joey Gu  Reasons to War by Amalia Galvez  Savages? by Emi Fujii  I/P Paper Topics  CHAPTER 5: Writing Argument Papers  How to Write an Argument Paper  Outline for Position and Proposal Papers  Class, Not Race by Michael Juhn  Affirmative Action? No! by Dirk Ellington  Who Should Survive? by Susan Harwood  Critical Whistleblowers by Thuy Nguyen  Defining Violence by David Lemus  It's Not Just The Television by Susan Harwood  CHAPTER 6: Whistle Blowers  Scenarios for Whistle Blowers  The Allegory of the Cave by Plato  CHAPTER 7: Common Fallacies  False Analogy  Ad Hominem  Hasty Generalization  Faulty Use of Authority  Post Hoc or Doubtful Cause  Dicto Simpliciter  False Dilemma (Either-or Arguments)  Two Wrongs Make a Right  Ad Ignorantiam (Appeal to Ignorance)  Slippery Slope  Love Is a Fallacy by Max Shulman  CHAPTER 8: The Satire  A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift  Dating Your Mom by Ian Frazier  Why Doesn't GM Sell Crack? by Michael Moore  How to Raise a Pimp by Darryl L. Fortson, M.D.  Yo! Like What's Wrong Wif Ma Rap? by Gail Rankin  Praising the SAT by Kriselle Gan  CHAPTER 9: The Debate  The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus  Gatecrashers by Michael Kinsley  We Should Always Lift Our Lamp to the World by Susan Roosevelt Weld and              William F. Weld  Immigration Straight-Talk by William Raspberry  Unchecked Immigration by Peter Brimelow  Geniuses from Abroad by George Gilder  How about Home-Grown Geniuses? by Mark Krikorian  Get Out of Dodge! by Wanda Coleman  Additional Readings  Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson  Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau  The Witch by Shirley Jackson  Should Princes Tell the Truth? by Niccolo Machiavelli  The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson  Incivility in the Classroom Breeds "Education Lite" by Paul A.