Comments

1.        “This is a terrific text: witty, engagingly written, with strong focus on inquiry and reaching reasoned judgments on complex issues. Emphasizes the dialectical dimension of CT, the importance of context, and the spirit of inquiry. Focuses on realistic examples of actual inquiry on questions that matter (e.g., is it OK to eat meat?; pit bull legislation; capital punishment) and that are complex and detailed but fast-moving and very well presented. Emphasizes comparative evaluation of arguments to conflicting conclusions and tight interconnection of critical and creative thinking. Offers a neat way of assigning strength/weakness measures to arguments. All in all an innovative and effective text.  Highly recommended!” (Harvey Siegel, University of Miami)

2.        “I'm just finishing a course (1st yr of the Arts and Sciences Prog) in which I used your book RiB, with a group of 30. I really liked it. The students -- in groups of three -- did their own inquiries (on child labour laws, GMFs, euthanasia, energy drinks, etc.) following the model you lay out in RiB, and it resulted in great work. I am very pleased. I will use the book again for the same course next time. 

Congratulations on a fine teaching book.” (Hans Hansen, Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric at the U of Windsor)

3.        “It is a difficult task to find a textbook for undergraduate students that can both engage them as well as teach them the rigorous analyses that are inherent in the processes of critical thinking. As I write this, I am finishing teaching three critical thinking classes where I used RITB, and I think it succeeds.” (Linda Carozza, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University)

From AILACT-D@YORKU.CA

4.        “I also recommend a look at Mark Battersby and Sharon Bailin's Reason in the Balance.  I've recently written a review of it that will (hopefully) appear soon. Though "spoilers" are of course frowned-upon, I think I can get away with saying that it's a wonderful book with what (to my eyes anyway) seems a novel and worthwhile approach to the subject.” (Steven Patterson, AILACT-D post, Jan. 12, 2012)

5.        “I’m using Sharon and Mark’s book with a class of about 260 students. So far it is working extremely well.” (David Hitchcock, AILACT-D post, Jan. 12, 2012)

6.        “There are many general-purpose critical thinking textbooks on the market. One of the more recent additions that I like is Sharon Bailin and Mark Battersby's Reason in the Balance: An Inquiry Approach to Critical Thinking. The text is distinctive in the emphasis it places not only on tools of critical inquiry (principles of logic and argumentation, etc.) but also the values and mindset that are required for the proper exercise of these tools, values like open-mindedness and fair-mindedness and critical scrutiny of assumptions. My own view is that critical thinking involves the simultaneous application of a number of different cognitive skills and attitudes in the service of improving the quality of our beliefs and judgments, and this text shares this multidimensional view of the components of critical thinking. This text understands that logic and argumentation are very different things, and the result is a more nuanced discussion of the relationships between logic, argumentation and critical inquiry than one normally sees in a critical thinking text.”   Kevin deLaplante. Critical Thinker Academy.  Iowa State University in the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies.

7.        "Your critical thinking textbook Reason in the Balance is a well-regarded departure from the run-of-the-mill textbooks in the field, and it obviously is the fruit of extensive reflection on how to conceive of critical thinking and how to teach.”   Frank Fair, editor, INQUIRY: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, Department of Psychology and Philosophy, Sam Houston State University