"This short, accessible volume unlocks the dynamics of human reason, helping readers to think well and to use reason confidently to solve problems"--

• Introduction: Empowering Minds 1 (6)
• 1 Knowledge Is the Basis of Good Reasoning 7 (6)
• Knowledge Is Conversational
• How to Train Your Will, or When It Is
• Better to Shut Up
• 2 Have Realistic Goals and Humility 13 (10)
• Knowing Always Desires Truth
• Knowledge and Incompetence
• Knowledge Is Not Piecemeal but Holistic
• 3 The Power of Reason and Eternity 23 (4)
• Where Do We Find Laws?
• Laws Are Ghosts from Another World
• 4 Knowing Yourself Is the Key to Logical 27 (8)
• Thinking
• The Principle of Identity
• Becoming Mindful of Your Surroundings
• Objects Teach Us about Reality
• Finding Relationships between Objects
• Nothingness Is Your Invention
• 5 Good Thinking Is Always Focused 35 (18)
• My Thinking Is Not Identical with Brain
• Events
• Thinking Is Not Feeling
• Thinking Abstract Things
• Order for Our Thinking: Genus and Species
• Our Mind Is Not Inventing "Justice"
• The Tools of Thinking Are Analysis and
• Synthesis
• Beware of Bad Comparisons and Analogies
• 6 Critical Thinking 53 (12)
• Be Active and Not Passive
• Cutting through Nonsense
• You Know What Is Good Evidence
• Trust Is Not Uncritical
• Distrust and Illiteracy Are the Problems!
• Overcoming Confirmation Bias
• 7 Without Order There Is No Good Reasoning 65 (6)
• A Grid Brings Order
• Thinking Coherently Takes Effort
• 8 Ignorance Is Not Bliss 71 (6)
• Ignorance as a Moral Weakness
• Better Thinking Can Save Our Failing
• Society
• Overcoming Ignorance Drives Innovation
• 9 Real Thinking Sets You Free 77 (12)
• Freedom and Reason Need Each Other
• Is My Experience of Freedom Reliable?
• Save Your Freedom by Thinking
• Freedom Is More Than Choice
• The Pinnacle of Freedom Is Forgiveness
• 10 Thinking Happens in a Soul, Not a 89 (14)
• Computer
• Don't Get Robbed of Your First-Person
• Experience
• Your Brain Is Not a Computer
• Immaterial Matter and the Soul
• Can Matter Produce Mind?
• Personal Identity and Soul
• 11 Majority Rules Don't "Make" Truth 103(6)
• The Principle of Noncontradiction
• Can I Be a Skeptic?
• How Many Does It Take?
• 12 Real Thinking Discovers Causes 109(12)
• The Classic Four Causes
• Do Things Just Pop into Existence?
• Coming into Existence Needs a Cause
• Do Things Pop out of Existence?
• Potency and Change
• 13 Thinking about Goods, Values, and 121(8)
• Morality
• Emotions Are Not about Truth
• The Rational Foundation of Morality
• 14 Thinking Saves Lives 129(6)
• Intentional Perception
• Disputing Irrational Beliefs
• 15 Empathy Is Achieved by Hard Thinking 135(8)
• Walking in Somebody Flse's Shoes
• Self-Awareness Is Needed for Empathy
• Thinking about Emotions
• 16 Leadership, Values, and Your Thoughts 143(6)
• Characteristics of Leadership
• Ubuntu as a Key to Moral Leadership
• Recognizing and Hearing the Other
• 17 Creative Thinking Is Not a Mystery 149(8)
• Divergence, Convergence, and Lateral
• Thinking
• Overcoming Mental Blocks
• How to Become Creative
• 18 Reasoning Helps Us Find Unity in a 157(8)
• Divided World
• Connectedness and Personhood
• Giving All a "Home"
• Unity in Diversity
• Notes 165(14)
• Index 179