Today I received a copy of Thinking Straight (1st ed.) by Monroe
Beardsley. I already had on the shelf a 2nd
edition copy all marked up that I had used in undergraduate school. It’s kind of spooky to see comments made in a
book when I was not yet 20 (in the early 1960's). Therefore, I
thought it best to start over with a fresh copy.
As indicated the newly printed copy I received today from Amazon is an
earlier edition than the one I used in college.
It’s a delight in this first edition to see Beardsley identify one reason
for thinking straight—for weeding out numerous fallacies—as the pressing need to counter the vast volume of mass media; this when he wrote included
newspapers, magazines, and radio—before TV and the Internet. In any case, I look forward to a good read
and hopefully find insights to share on this blog in the days ahead. He writes that the main theme of the book is
to help ascertain “whether the reason
[given] is such that we ought to be convinced.” One interesting side note—my undergraduate
book cost $3.50. The book that I
received today cost $41.95.
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