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Thinker's Guide to the Human Mind: Thinking, Feeling, Wanting, and the Problem of Irrationality

Fourth Edition


Linda Elder and Richard Paul


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Since all human thoughts are controlled by the mind, understanding our thoughts is essential to personal and societal advancement. The Thinker’s Guide to the Human Mind delves into the core functions of the human mind to allow readers to take charge of their intellect and emotions more effectively. 

Richard Paul and Linda Elder explore the basic impulses that influence our thoughts and can distract us from logical or ethical action. Exploring the dangers of egocentric and sociocentric thinking, this guide presents strategies for strengthening emotional intelligence and developing critical thinking virtues. 

As part of the Thinker’s Guide Library, this book advances the mission of the Foundation for Critical Thinking to promote fairminded critical societies through cultivating essential intellectual abilities and virtues across every field of study across world.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / The Foundation for Critical Thinking
Pages: 42 • Trim: 5 1/2 x 8
978-0-944583-58-6 • Paperback • January 2015
978-1-5381-3388-0 • eBook • June 2019
Series: Thinker's Guide Library

$28.00



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Thinker's Guide to the Human Mind: Thinking, Feeling, Wanting, and the Problem of Irrationality

Additional Information About:
Thinker's Guide to the Human Mind: Thinking, Feeling, Wanting, and the Problem of Irrationality


Why a Mini- Guide on The Human Mind? 

To live as a reasonable and ethical person is to live well. Yet humans are not by nature rational or ethical. Humans are predisposed to operate in the world in narrow terms of how it can serve them. Their brains are directly wired into their own pleasure and pain, not that of others. They do not inherently consider the rights and needs of others.

Humans have the raw capacity to become reasonable and ethical persons, to develop as fair-minded skilled thinkers. But to do so requires:
1. Understanding how the mind works.
2. Using this understanding to develop skills and insights.

This guide addresses the first of these requirements. It lays the conceptual foundations necessary for understanding the mind, its functions, its natural propensity toward irrationality, and its capacity for rationality.

It is designed for those interested in developing their potential to be fair-minded reasonable persons, concerned with how their behavior affects the lives of others, concerned to develop their full humanity, concerned with making the world a more civilized and just place. It is designed for those willing to transform their thinking to improve their decisions, the quality of their lives, the quality of their interpersonal relationships, and their vision of the world. It is intended to provide an initial map to help interested persons begin the process of freeing themselves from the traps their minds have constructed.


Contents include: 

  • Understanding the Human Mind: The Big Picture
  • The Dynamic Relationship Between Thinking, Feeling, Wanting
  • Behavior: A Product of the Mind’s Functions
  • Thinking as the Key to Feelings and Desires
  • Rational Capacities or Egocentric Tendencies Control the Mind
  • The Problem of Egocentric Thinking
  • Distinguish Egocentric from Rational Motives
  • Feelings that Accompany Egocentrism
  • The Logic of Egocentrism
  • The Logic of Rationality
  • Pathological Dispositions of the Human Mind
  • Defense Mechanisms of the Mind
  • Popular Misunderstandings of the Mind
  • Emotional Intelligence and Critical Thinking 




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  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

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