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Running Head: A SUMMARY OF THE BOOK ‘BEYOND FEELINGS’

A Summary of The book ‘beyond feelings’
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A SUMMARY OF THE BOOK ‘BEYOND FEELINGS’

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A Summary of The book ‘beyond feelings’
Introduction
The book is designed with the intention of introducing learners to critical thinking. The
subject had been largely ignored in many schools until a study was conducted focusing on
American schools. This made various stakeholders in the education industry to encourage the
formulation of new curriculums and the development of various teaching materials. These will
facilitate the teaching of critical thinking in schools. Various facets of an individual’s life are
dependent on their ability to come up with solutions to challenges and to make the appropriate
decisions.
The book contains three major sections. The first section is designed to enable the reader
to grasp various concepts that relate to evidence, individuality, knowledge, critical thinking,
opinion, truth, and argument. It also enables the reader to overcome attitudes or ideas that hinder
critical thinking. The second part of the book is designed to enable readers to identify and escape
common errors that relate to thinking. The final section is intended to facilitate skill acquisition
necessary for dealing with various challenges and issues.
The readers can also expect to exercise theirs by application after reading the chapters
provided in the book. Students are encouraged to look up the sections that will have some
relevance to the situations that are going to be prevalent at a specific time. This can be done
without necessarily reading the entire book. The process will come in handy especially when
performing application exercises. Depending on the various challenges a learner is facing,
application to real life can easily be looked up in the book.
Chapter One, Who Are You? 4
To answer the question, the student would be required to give a description of their
physical attributes. The person would be expected to provide details about their preferences and
even sentiments. Moreover, behavioral characteristics, as well as emotional capacities and
intellectual capabilities of an individual, should be examined. Time and even place will affect
various aspects that relate to a given individual’s life. These two factors are representative of the
context of a person’s life and can limit a person's experiences. In addition to this, they exert a

A SUMMARY OF THE BOOK ‘BEYOND FEELINGS’

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great amount of influence on the individual’s patterns of thought. Differences in personalities are
brought about by the place as well as the time that the person is subjected to. All the ideas that an
individual comes across will have a resounding or a small impact on the beliefs and even
behaviors of the person. This particularly happens when new ideas have not been consciously
embraced. Mass culture has brought about a scenario whereby most people have not been able to
develop maturity in their attention span because of extensive programming. This had watered
down the content provided in books and magazines by publishers and has opened avenues for
manipulation by politicians. Manipulation is a practice bend in influencing other people's
thinking processes as well as actions. In most cases, manipulation techniques are aimed at the
people's emotions. Other campaigns are being advanced to change the outlook of people towards
certain virtues and vices. All these end up affecting a person’s individuality.
Chapter two, What Is Critical Thinking? 16
Critical thinking refers to the conscious process used by people to test any claims or
arguments that may be forwarded and determine which are based on merit or not. It involves
searching for answers and making use of questions in order to get a thorough analysis of various
issues. Sound decisions are the focal point of critical thinking. Among the characteristics that
critical thinkers should possess, would be the ability to make inquiries using the right questions
and have immense control over their mental activities. They can have other desirable traits that
can set them apart from uncritical thinkers. In other cases, intuition might be used which does not
require critical thinking. However, intuition can easily be proven wrong. Furthermore assessing
the quality of intuitions might be quite difficult. The fundamental activities involved in critical
thinking include investigation, interpretation as well as judgment. In some cases, writing might
stimulate ideas that come about as a result of critical thinking. Furthermore, discussions can
further the process of critical thinking resulting in a better understanding of the problem at hand.
In addition to this, decision-making processes and the formulation of solutions to challenges
becomes possible. In other cases, critical thinking in discussion groups can reap undesirable
results such as enmity. Group discussion participants have to listen actively and avoid speech
mannerisms that could distract other group members. Every individual should then critically
judge all the ideas presented to draw conclusions. Any ideas written down by people after
utilizing the processes of critical thinking should not be plagiarized.

A SUMMARY OF THE BOOK ‘BEYOND FEELIN...