Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills

By: Steven Novella, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Steven Novella

Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

No skill is more important in today's world than being able to think about, understand, and act on information in an effective and responsible way. What's more, at no point in human history have we had access to so much information, with such relative ease, as we do in the 21st century. But because misinformation out there has increased as well, critical thinking is more important than ever.

These 24 rewarding lectures equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life. By immersing yourself in the science of cognitive biases and critical thinking, and by learning how to think about thinking (a practice known as metacognition), you'll gain concrete lessons for doing so more critically, more intelligently, and more successfully.

The key to successful critical thinking lies in understanding the neuroscience behind how our thinking works - and goes wrong; avoiding common pitfalls and errors in thinking, such as logical fallacies and biases; and knowing how to distinguish good science from pseudoscience. Professor Novella tackles these issues and more, exploring how the (often unfamiliar) ways in which our brains are hardwired can distract and prevent us from getting to the truth of a particular matter.

Along the way, he provides you with a critical toolbox that you can use to better assess the quality of information. Even though the world is becoming more and more saturated information, you can take the initiative and become better prepared to make sense of it all with this intriguing course.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2012 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2012 The Great Courses

AWESOME!

Would you listen to Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills again? Why?

yes, in fact i want to listen to it with a paper and pen. i want to write down all those important words and remember them.

Any additional comments?

i have 4-5 books for the great course, this is the BEST ONE YET

grate!

this corse helped me understand and enjoy the prosses of critical thinking. It's things like this that make learning new things enjoyable.

Great book

Question everything don't ever be satisfied with your answer try to prove everything wrong that's what this book is about and it's what everybody should know

Everyone should listen to this course!

I wish this had been a required course when I was in college. Learning how to think is so important.

listened to twice. enjoyed both times.

A great introduction to critical thinking. Take a few notes and put it into practice.

Mind opener

Great representation of the critical thinking process made with real examples and stories to understand.
though it has a scientific spirit which some might find dry, the narrator made it very easy to grasp and reflect on. thank you for this wonderful learning opportunity!

Critical thinking by what is not critical thinking

this book does not teach critical thinking by the ability in itself, but by what it is not.

it includes many ways of reasoning, data collection, analysis and interpretations.

and it also gives a lot of good and practical examples that gives a better learning.

also, the classes are very well organized so that the regular 30 minutes is a good continuous time to be separated. it is even possible to do other activities together with the listening without losing much.

I recommend

Required listening for every human

Phenomenal. As a physical therapy student I consider critical thinking an essential skillset to navigate the waters of misinformation that exist in my profession and this book has systematically shown me how to do that.

Fascinating

I loved the use of real world examples to illustrate critical thinking concepts. I was fascinated by Steve Novellas thinking around conspiracy theories for instance. Great audiobook. I'll likely give it another listen in the months ahead.

awesome

Great organization and delivery. very informative even if you're already familiar with the subject initially.