{"id":140,"date":"2025-11-14T18:09:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T18:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/criticalthinkingbowker.com\/?page_id=140"},"modified":"2025-12-26T18:39:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T18:39:39","slug":"reviews","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/criticalthinkingbowker.com\/index.php\/reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMatthew H. Bowker\u2019s book on critical thinking is probably the best work written on this deservedly fashionable topic. Unlike so many others, Bowker understands that critical thinking has to have something important to think about. The book\u2019s second part, which covers Plato, Montaigne, Camus, Kafka, and others, illustrates what it means to think critically in a particular intellectual and cultural context. Of special interest is Bowker\u2019s recognition that emotional states matter. Narcissists can\u2019t learn. To learn requires that one first admit one\u2019s ignorance. Authority and the pressures of conformity also impair critical thinking. Not just an introduction to critical thinking, Bowker\u2019s is a tour de force from which the highly educated to the self-educated will benefit.\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\tC. Fred Alford, Professor of Government and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Emeritus, University of Maryland, College Park<\/span><\/cite>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMatthew H. Bowker\u2019s Critical Thinking and the Subject of Inquiry inspires readers, learners, and teachers to engage with the book\u2019s central thesis that a crisis in critical thinking impedes our personal, social, and political development as subjects with agency. Bowker innovatively reformulates the critical thinking process as one where teachers and learners move from a skills-based method toward a facilitative approach that engages the person\u2019s autonomy as a subject, not a passive object, of our surroundings. The goals of the work are further aided by insightful discussions\u2014spanning the periods of ancient Greece to the mid-and-late twentieth century\u2014of a variety thinkers and their problematics, all of whom provide rich cues for becoming better critical thinkers. In Bowker\u2019s work, readers, learners, and teachers are provided with a rich armamentarium for dynamically continuing their engagement with the psychological, political, and epistemological horizons of our world.\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\tJack Fong, Professor of Sociology, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona<\/span><\/cite>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCritical thinking is a nearly ubiquitous term in education, but the best means of understanding and teaching critical thinking are unclear or elusive. Matthew H. Bowker has given us a psychologically grounded, realistic, and ultimately hopeful portrait of critical thinking as a capacity available to anyone who is willing to undertake the challenge of developing it. Bowker\u2019s book is essential reading for students (both young and old), teachers at all levels, and anyone aspiring to find better ways of living within the challenges of our present moment.\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\tDavid W. McIvor, Professor of Political Science, Colorado State University<\/span><\/cite>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Reader’s Endorsements Endorsements What Readers Are Saying Matthew H. Bowker\u2019s book on critical thinking is probably the best work written on this deservedly fashionable topic. Unlike so many others, Bowker understands that critical thinking has to have something important to think about. The book\u2019s second part, which covers Plato, Montaigne, Camus, Kafka, and others, illustrates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-140","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/criticalthinkingbowker.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/criticalthinkingbowker.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/criticalthinkingbowker.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/criticalthinkingbowker.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/criticalthinkingbowker.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/criticalthinkingbowker.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354,"href":"https:\/\/criticalthinkingbowker.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/140\/revisions\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/criticalthinkingbowker.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}