You've Got To Be Kidding!: How Jokes Can Help You Think

by John Capps, Donald Capps

Overview

You've Got to Be Kidding!: How Jokes Can Help You Think is a thoughtful and accessible analysis of the ways in which jokes illustrate how we think critically, and how the thinking process goes awry in everyday human situations.

• Uses jokes to illustrate the various mistakes or fallacies that are typically identified and discussed in courses on critical reasoning
• Provides an effective way to learn critical thinking skills since jokes often describe real-life situations where it really matters whether a person thinks well or not
• Demonstrates how philosophy is actually very practical and clearly related to real- life human experiences
• Explains how developing good reasoning habits can make a real difference in all aspects of one's life

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781405196659
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	09/15/2009
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Capps is an associate professor of philosophy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Senior Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.  He has written many articles on the history of American philosophy, pragmatism, and science education.

Donald Capps is a professor in psychology of religion at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of more than 20 books, including A Time to Laugh: The Religion of Humor (2005).

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xiii

1 Why Thinking Critically Is Important 1

2 Fallacies of Relevance 13

3 Fallacies of Evidence 45

4 Fallacies of Assumption 80

5 Critical Thinking and Objective Truth 97

References 116

Index 119

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A great book. But what do I know?"
- Socrates

"This book got me out of my cave."
- Plato

"An excellent book! Well, relatively."
- Albert Einstein

"It made me chuckle."
- Mona Lisa