简介
《超越感觉》旨在引导您进入批判性思考的世界。这个主题对你来说可能是全新的，因为大多数中小学都没有特别强调这一主题。事实上，直到最近，大多数大学对该主题仍然关注不多。近四十年来，主要的关注点一直是主观性而非客观性，是感觉而非思考。
然而，在过去的几十年里，许多针对美国学校的研究都对学校忽视批判性思考教育提出了批评，越来越多的教育工作者、工商业领袖及专业人士，都竭力呼吁开发新的课程和教材，以弥补这一不足。
毫不夸张地说，无论你是什么专业，批判性思考都是你在大学里要学习的最重要的课程之一。你学业的质量、职场的成就、对社区的贡献，以及处理个人事务的方式，所有这些都取决于你解决问题和作出决策的能力。
本书分为三大部分。第一部分是“背景”，将帮助你理解个体、批判性思考、真理、知识、观点、证据和论证等重要概念，并克服那些妨碍批判性思考的态度和观念。第二部分是“误区”，将帮助你识别并避免最常见的认知偏差。第三部分是“策略”，将帮助你掌握解决问题的各种技能，包括：识别和克服个人的认知缺陷，提高观察力、澄清问题、开展调查、评估证据、分析他人观点，并做出合理的判断。
在每一章的末尾，你都会看到许多应用练习，用以激发你的批判性思考，并帮助你锻炼自己批判性思考的能力。这些练习涉及一些当下的问题，也涉及一些永恒的议题。在前十三章的每章结尾，都邀请你探讨一个特别重要的问题。在这些问题上，专家意见也存在分歧。
学生有时会认为，教科书必须一页一页地读，跳读违反了某些不成文的规定。这种想法是错误的。学生的知识背景千差万别；某个学生非常熟悉的知识，在另一个学生看来可能只是模糊地了解，而第三个学生可能完全不了解。任何时候，如果你需要或想看后续章节的内容，都是可以的。假设你说了句话，朋友说：“这不折不扣是相对主义”。如果你不确定她的准确意思，那就去索引中查找“相对主义”，翻到对应的那页，你就知道了。
对于与章末应用练习相关的概念和方法，提前了解尤为重要。其中一个概念就是抄袭（plagiarism）。如果你还不完全清楚什么是抄袭，为什么抄袭是不可接受的，以及如何避免抄袭，那么现在就花几分钟时间来学习一下。请查找第2章末尾的“避免抄袭”部分。同样，如果你在图书馆或互联网上做研究的技巧不够娴熟，最好现在就阅读第17章。这样你完成课后作业就可以节省大量时间和精力。
原文：
Introduction
Beyond Feelings is designed to introduce you to the subject of critical thinking. The subject may be new to you because it has not been emphasized in most elementary and secondary schools. In fact, until fairly recently, most colleges gave it little attention. For the past four decades, the dominant emphasis has been on subjectivity rather than objectivity, on feeling rather than on thought.
Over the past several decades, however, a number of studies of America’s schools have criticized the neglect of critical thinking, and a growing number of educators and leaders in business, industry, and the professions have urged the development of new courses and teaching materials to overcome that neglect.
It is no exaggeration to say that critical thinking is one of the most important subjects you will study in college regardless of your academic major. The quality of your schoolwork, your efforts in your career, your contributions to community life, your conduct of personal affairs—all will depend on your ability to solve problems and make decisions.
The book has three main sections. The first, “The Context,” will help you understand such important concepts as individuality, critical thinking, truth, knowledge, opinion, evidence, and argument and overcome attitudes and ideas that obstruct critical thinking. The second section, “The Pitfalls,” will teach you to recognize and avoid the most common errors in thinking. The third section, “A Strategy,” will help you acquire the various skills used in addressing problems and issues. This section includes tips on identifying and overcoming your personal intellectual weaknesses as well as techniques for becoming more observant, clarifying issues, conducting inquiries, evaluating evidence, analyzing other people’s views, and making sound judgments.
At the end of each chapter, you will find a number of applications to challenge your critical thinking and help you exercise your skills. These applications cover problems and issues both timely and timeless. The final application in each of the first thirteen chapters invites you to examine an especially important issue about which informed opinion is divided.
Students sometimes get the idea that a textbook must be read page by page and that reading ahead violates some unwritten rule. This notion is mistaken. Students’ background knowledge varies widely; what one student knows very well, another knows only vaguely and a third is totally unfamiliar with. Any time you need or want to look ahead to an explanation in a later chapter, by all means do so. Let’s say you make a statement and a friend says, “That’s relativism, pure and simple.” If you aren’t sure exactly what she means, go to the index, look up “relativism,” proceed to the appropriate page, and find out.
Looking ahead is especially prudent in the case of concepts and procedures relevant to the end-of-chapter applications. One such concept is plagiarism. If you are not completely clear on what constitutes plagiarism, why it is unacceptable, and how to avoid it, take a few minutes right now to learn. Look for the section “Avoiding Plagiarism” toward the end of the Chapter 2. Similarly, if you are not as skilled as you would like to be doing library or Internet research, it would be a good idea to read Chapter 17 now. Doing so could save you a great deal of time and effort completing homework assignments.
