The Art of Straight Thinking
This book undertakes a big, important job and does it well. The author aims to help students break through the mass of prejudiced feelings and notions which beset good thinking. He proposes to make it possible for them to arrive at conclusions rationally, instead of emotionally. He goes about the business both negatively and positively, considering not only the causes, but also the cures of prejudice. The examples of unwarranted bias make an extraordinarily rich collection. The matter is not left there, however, for ways and means of arriving at more valid results are described. The study includes chapters dealing with the essentials of syllogistic, experimental, and statistical logic, as well as freer methods of thinking, such as analogy and circumstantial evidence. In each case the reader will find the treatment suggestive and its illustrations telling. Throughout the discussion one is aware of the author's strong conviction which, in the words he quotes from Bertrand Russell, is that "the hopes of the world must rest on the habit of forming opinions on evidence rather than on passions." In a longer review than here permitted, one would feel called upon to demur here and there. Personally, I should feel compelled to approach the problem of "straight thinking" in a more hesitant frame of mind than the author does. It would also seem to me desirable to encourage in college students the feeling that no one is more prone to go wrong in his thinking than the man who has too much confidence in his ability to go right. But I suppose that the office of coach calls for faith, not doubt. Nevertheless it must be confessed, I believe, that clever and able and documented as the treatment is, it does not deal adequately with basic principles. It might have been better if subjects which the author had to read up on-those dealing with logic in the stricter sense-had been omitted, and the rest more fundamentally done. Unless the student is led to appreciate underlying principles, he is in effect encouraged to substitute one set of snap judgments for those he is taught to put aside. M. C. OTTO University of Wisconsin