Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking, Term Paper Example

Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking Book Review

This is a book review of the book “Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking” which is authored by D Q. McInerny and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks in 2005 in New York. The book has 160 pages and a new hardcover book costs $14.88 to $12.95 from different sellers. The book is easily accessible in most of the major book sellers such as Amazon.

Biographical information of the author

Professor McInerney at the moment is the vice president of development and research also is the chair professor of educational psychology, he is also the co-director in assessment research centre. McInerney has also held many other position in different others universities and other learning faculties in recent years, he was associate dean and research professor at the national institute of education in Nanyang Technology University in Singapore, he also served as vice dean at the centre of research in pedagogy and practice (research and methodology) these are just few of the accomplishment of the professor in the university level (LibraryThing, 2009).

He is a registered psychologist and also an associate in the Hong Kong psychology society and renowned member of the Australian and American psychological association. The professor is also a registered teacher and has been teaching logic to college students at Notre Dame for decades and other seminaries of the same calibers.

He is a recipient of two honorary Ph.D.’s and resides mostly in Lincoln, Nebraska, he has authored over 200 published articles in refereed international journals, conferences and books. He is entitled to two renowned international research series; international self research advances (Vols 1-3) and socio-cultural influences on motivation and learning research (Vols 1-9). From all this merit ha has received numerous grant in research; seven research grant by the Australian research council, two research grant by Hong Kong University grant committee, ha was awarded senior researcher award by University of Western Sydney and was crown the first professor at the same university to receive a personal chair. The review is on one of his major work of psychology which offers an indispensable guide to using logic for our own advantages and how to use it in arguments in everyday life.

Background of the book

The background of this book was mostly entrusted to the youth who at school would not be taught logic and because most of the parent fail to surpass this to their children, and this is life and logic is not something that one goes in the market and buys, but for one to have reasonable judgment on matters and equally evaluate argument in sensible manner that would not result to physical confrontation so as to set a point or make one. There are five aims of being logical in life and this forms the background and aim of this book;

• The book helps the readers to learn the concept of logic and gives them idea of how to fuse it in the mind and learn how to enact on them.
• Secondly this literature helps the pursuant to become a practitioner using fundamental aspect of a logical person.
• Thirdly the pursuant is able to apply the logical concept of the material the book administers and be able to put an argumentative case in their logical lives.
• Fourth the reader get the concept of acceptance of the truth and this they eliminate the basic concept that people harbor of having difficulty to come in term with the reality and embrace it.
• Fifth and lastly the book helps the reader to have the real meaning of logic and abhors from fallacy of logics which is very misleading and brings about shame and humiliation to the person if their reasoning is based on own fallacy about certain things.

The author basically had the above in mind as he was doing research for this book and because his teaching career has exposed him to all kind of characters and from his reasoning as a teacher he must have gathered from this personal experience the nature and urgency of one to address this issue of logic sense, this is aimed at adding learning value to the student and also interest of education by helping the pursuant of this material to advance in his logical thinking in all aspect of life not only education but also in matters outside the classroom.

Summary of main point in this book

The author in this book has summarized the book and partitioned it in four pillars of understanding logic, he truly emphasizes on this four points to clearly show the reader the fundamental aspect of the importance of logical thinking in life and in education sphere in reasoning and in calculation.

To this he has derived the name logical truth which he clearly state should be induced in statements, this four pillars are here by called principles by which one must abide by in reasoning, McInerney in the book calls this four principles the first principles, he astoundingly points out since this cannot be proven they are self evident. They serve the basis of all sound reasoning and are basically considered true to the oblivious. These four principles are;

The principle of identity- to this the author advocate that the world cannot exist as one homogenous mass but through existence of things individually separate from each other.

The principles of the excluded middle- because in life there is no middle state and it’s only between being or nonbeing, to this McInerney says there is more to a person than just meet the eye. This he clearly cancel the idea of becoming the absolute sense, one achieves due to the diligence of the will to achieve a goal or reach an objective relatively not absolutely (Derek, 2007). The profound truth around this is change is not change until it is change, to this the author also relate to Yoda saying there is no try, do or not do. All in the entire principle the author is only trying to state that in life there no excuses but only the truth.

The principle of sufficient reason-this a master piece in logics as it most world renowned ideology and has many names to its true self and meanings; Karma, the sowing and reaping law, law of positive attraction among many more, McInerney states that existence of actually physical being in the universe has true and logical explanation for the existence and nothing in the physical universe has or is the cause of its own self is explained otherwise then the logical meaning is absurd.

Principles of contradiction-the logical explanation in this argumentative principles it’s relies that something cannot be and be at the same time and same way. McInerney sates that one cannot own a dog and at the same moment not own a dog in arguments this kind of contradictions is basically useful in differentiating bias from genuine. He affirms that the word contradiction originates from the two Latin words; contra denoting against and dicere denoting to speak, to this his thesis is that a contradictory statement in its own merit speak against its words, this is enforced when the statement says something which does not match up the objective facts.

Review of main topic of the book

The book basically helps the reader understand the logical truth which leads to proper thinking, this enhance the readers logical knowledge and critically evaluating the general errors that many of us make while making common decisions and while put on argumentative statements, the logical thinking will help one from barbaric confrontation to address their issues or physical confrontation for the issues to be aired out.

The author clearly states how that being logical presupposes to our having a sensitivity of language and its ability of effective use this he critically states that language and logic are inseparable. He then advances and show the reader the usefulness of effective communication stating that this mode of transition is two ways traffic, both of the principles involved should oblige and comply with the logical view of each other in respect of the truth in the fact of the matter (McInerny, 2008). The author the gives a comprehensive anatomy of the pitfalls and rules of effective communication, the readers in this parts gain knowledgeable etiquettes of effective communication ideologies and learn how to develop a character of logical person. The main concept for this teaching is to help the reader to basically understand that truth is discerned by logic. From this logical truth is born and the author, and the reader is taken on a journey of mind nourishment cuisine with logical statement which stand out with truth. In this the author states; “statement are considered true if what they stand for reflects to what is the case…this is what is called logical truth and can be expounded as matters correspondence between objective facts and the content of a statement”

Conclusion

This book is one of a master piece of the work of D Q. McInerny; the reader enjoys the book so much because the concept of this book evolves our everyday doings and is very much attached to our lives in all aspect. The concept of this book is essential mostly to student pursuant and those that generally need motivation in school matters and in personal development level, this is enabled as the book covers this entire angle in an element based on logical thinking and effective communication. This book has clearly demonstrated that logic is the basic primary intelligence, and is here regarded as a mental skill which can be developed or grown. In school one is taught to be logical but they is no further expounding on the matters of logical thinking as the book clearly elaborates.

References

Derek, (2007). Book Review: Being Logical by D. Q. McInerny. Retrieved on February 24, 2010 from http://fromthestudy.com/2007/05/08/book-review-being-logical-by-dq-mcinereny/

LibraryThing, (2009). D.Q. Mcinerny. Retrieved on February 24, 2010 from http://www.librarything.com/author/mcinernydq

McInerny, D. (2005). Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks

McInerny, D. (2008). Being Logical. Retrieved on February 24, 2010 from http://www.thinkarchimedes.com/book-reviews/being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny-is-one-of-the-top-10-most-important-books-that-any-student-in-high-school-should-read-period-a-book-review/