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

highly recommend

I thought these set of lectures was really interesting and well laid out. I highly recommend.

A fan of critical thinking and a humble world view

The course is beneficial to anyone with an imperfect human brain (all of us). I have enjoyed Steven Novella's input on the Skeptics Guide To The Universe podcast for years, and he has done a great job here in clarifying and organizing many of the ideas from the critical thinking community.

I feel it is also important to point out that a person of religion would enjoy this as well and gain helpful insight into the minds of their skeptic friends and family.

Think about what you Think

Very interesting lectures, they give me the necessary information to understand the Critical Thinking Skill and how to use it, without doubt is one of the most important skills nowadays.

Well worth it.

Listen to the whole thing without getting offended and you'll learn tons. The first lecture is polemic and it sounds like he intends to attack beliefs he dislikes but that isn't the point, so just get past it and you'll get a lot out of it. Would like to put him and Rupert Sheldrake in a room together.

Everyone needs this

It is shameful how most of the population lives. Most of what they know is only environmental, some schooling and TV. Not even a clue as to even question. Sadly who ever takes intetest in this books is not the audience in most need of its information.

Great introduction to critical thinking skills

If you want to get a decent understanding of critical thinking skills and the concepts associated with them, this is a great audiobook for doing so in a relaxed way.

Makes You Think

Useful tools and procedures for thinking. I loved how I was able to see how my way of coming to conclusions in the past were flawed and am looking forward to trying a new approach.

Outstanding

I would strongly recommend everyone to listen to this book. The author highlights how you can think differently

Outstanding

Great lecture series. One of the best Should be required listening for all college HS students.

Amazing never heard that mind can be deceptive.

loved it , Everyone should understand their own decision making process and feel the difference.