"The Power of Critical Thinking" presents specific methods to help you quickly acquire the core critical thinking skills of "rational thinking" and "the ability to doubt and reflect" and effectively utilize them in your daily life.
Following a step-by-step roadmap that trains critical thinking, it provides a variety of examples and practice problems, allowing readers to solve them themselves and test their understanding.
It explains how to understand arguments, analyze texts, and write effectively.
Furthermore, through critical reflection, it helps you apply critical thinking to your daily life, and trains your thinking muscles to prepare for employment, develop your career, and improve your job skills, helping you make better decisions and choices in all aspects of life, and live a more proactive life.
First published in 2005 and now in its fourth revision, this book has sold hundreds of thousands of copies over the past two decades and is still used as a critical thinking textbook in leading universities around the world.

Critical thinking can be said to be the culmination of a high-level thinking skill that is created by synthesizing various thinking skills.
Critical thinking is the skill of focusing closely, analyzing, dissecting, and evaluating, selecting and judging, and synthesizing these to arrive at a valid conclusion.
Of course, these thinking skills are not easy to build.
Only those who possess fundamental qualities such as curiosity, an open mind, systematic thinking, perseverance, and a fair, flexible, and honest attitude can embark on the path to acquiring these higher-level thinking skills.

--- p.8

Critical thinking is a very important competitive edge not only in college but also in the workplace you will pursue after graduation.
Without strong critical thinking skills, you won't be able to perform well academically or succeed in the professional world.
Furthermore, critical thinking plays a key role in creating a healthy civil society.

--- p.11

When giving a critical evaluation of someone's work, you must always maintain a constructive attitude and know how to add a bit of wit and humor.
The ability to convey a difficult message in a way that makes it easily receptive is a valuable skill and talent that cannot be ignored, as it is essential for maintaining sound critical thinking.

--- p.44

Even if I consistently win arguments, it doesn't prove that my arguments are right or that I have superior reasoning skills.
The other person may not have noticed the flaw in your argument, or for some personal reason--- p. for example, they may not want to fight or are too lazy to argue--- p. they may just ignore it and give in.
Inaccurate, imprecise, and illogical thinking can hinder the development of the mental abilities required for higher level studies and work.

--- p.53

Critical thinking can feel difficult and tedious.
Of course it is.
The same goes for professors.
But if it were something anyone could easily do, what value would it have? Developing critical thinking is like training the "muscles of thought."
If you want to live a long and healthy life, you have to constantly practice.

--- p.56

To determine whether the countless new stories that are pouring out are true or false, we must be able to ask critical questions.
Even if a story seems plausible, you must be able to verify whether it is true and understand the intention of the person telling the story.
Of course, even if there is absolutely no malicious intent to deceive or mislead, fake news is still fake news.
The ultimate goal of fake news is to paralyze the truth by confusing the real with the fake, making it impossible to distinguish between credible and unreliable interpretations.

--- p.298

As you work, you may encounter situations where it is difficult to follow procedures precisely or unexpected exceptional circumstances may arise.
Moreover, when such an emergency situation arises, the on-site staff must immediately and proactively make decisions.
However, if you work without properly understanding the relationship between theory and practice, you may make wrong decisions or fatal mistakes.

--- p.470

Employers all over the world want to hire talented college graduates.
This is because the core of university education is training ‘critical thinking skills.’
Critical thinking requires an open mind, the ability to reflect on oneself, to fairly evaluate problems from various perspectives, and to question existing approaches to business.

--- p.503