NCW Libraries

An exploration of human reasoning reveals how to recognize and avoid simple errors in our day-to-day thinking in order to transform the decision-making process.

"In a world where fake news stories change election outcomes, has rationality become futile? In The Art of Logic in an Illogical World, Eugenia Cheng throws a lifeline to readers drowning in the illogic of contemporary life. Cheng is a mathematician, so she knows how to make an airtight argument. But even for her, logic sometimes falls prey to emotion, which is why she still fears flying and eats more cookies than she should. If a mathematician can't...

"Have you read (or stumbled into) one too many irrational online debates? Ali Almossawi certainly had, so he wrote an An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments! This handy guide is here to bring the internet age a much needed does of old-school logic."--Back cover.

It's becoming harder to separate the wheat from the digital chaff. How do we distinguish misinformation, pseudo-facts, distortions, and outright lies from reliable information? Levitin groups his field guide into two categories -- statistical information and faulty arguments -- ultimately showing how science is the bedrock of critical thinking. Infoliteracy means understanding that there are hierarchies of source quality and bias that variously distort...

"The most influential thinker, in my life, has been the psychologist Richard Nisbett. He basically gave me my view of the world." -Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times Book Review Scientific and philosophical concepts can change the way we solve problems by helping us to think more effectively about our behavior and our world. Surprisingly, despite their utility, many of these tools remain unknown to most of us. In Mindware, the world-renowned psychologist...

"MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan isn't one to avoid arguments. He relishes them, as the lifeblood of democracy and the only surefire way to establish the truth. Arguments help us solve problems, uncover new ideas we might not have considered, and nudge our disagreements toward mutual understanding. A good argument, made in good faith, has intrinsic value-and can also simply be fun. Arguments are everywhere-and especially given the fierce debates we're all embroiled...

We live in a time when public discourse is more skewed than ever by the propaganda that big money can buy, with trust in the leadership of elected officials at an all-time low. It's also a time of anxiety, as we're faced with economic and ecological crises on a global scale, with stakes that seem higher than ever before. In times like these, it's essential that we be able to think and communicate clearly. Arguing for Our Lives is an accessible and...

"For every kid who's tired of eating vegetables and going to bed on time, here's a book that helps them figure out how to get their own way. Examining both sides of five issues with big kid appeal (eating vegetables, bedtimes, screentime, homework, and doing chores), award-winning author Tanya Lloyd Kyi walks readers through the basics of debate skills, critical thinking and media literacy. How to pick a side, do your research, construct your argument,...

"In How to Talk to a Science Denier, Lee McIntyre tells the story of his own adventures in talking face to face with science deniers and their victims--including a Flat Earth convention in Denver, coal miners in rural Pennsylvania, and fishermen in the Maldives--and what he learned from the experience"--

Join in the excitement as unlikely competitors Max Hare and Toby Tortoise challenge each other to a foot race. Max is confident he will win, so he takes time out to flirt with some cute bunnies, he shows off his skills in other sports and takes a break for a nap. But when he hears the crowd roar for Toby, who has slowly and steadily kept to the course, Max must make a last-minute dash for victory.