The Thinking Toolbox: Thirty-Five Lessons That Will Build Your Reasoning Skills, by Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn, illustrated by Richard LaPierre, ISBN 0974531510, 234 pp. Christian Logic, 2005.
Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn are brothers who live in Indiana (more about them at www.christianlogic.com) and The Thinking Toolbox is a follow-up to their first book, The Fallacy Detective. These books are primarily intended for use as homeschooling textbooks, and the Bluedorns’ interest in this area stems largely from their education at home growing up.
In an interview, Nathaniel gets at the intention behind the book: to make logic accessible and enjoyable for students. “Logic books are notorious for being very difficult, very austere,” he says. Instead, logic should be “a very enjoyable thing that everybody can do.” Hans affirms that the first step is to get kids to “think at all, and then the next step is to get them to think correctly.”
The book is a course of 35 lessons, with illustrations, applications, and exercises forming distinct little units. Colorful illustrations abound in the book, courtesy of Richard LaPierre. The book starts with the most basic building blocks of critical thinking, inculcating rules like “Just because somebody tells you something, that doesn’t mean it is true,” and moving on to examine things like the different kinds of discourse, and recognizing the difference between facts, opinions, and inferences.
The writing is easy and entertaining, placing the reader in imaginative and interesting situations to illustrate the relevant principle. This fits well with the intended audience, as the book is written for ages 13 and up, although it may not be too difficult for worthy children of a somewhat more tender age. Of course, this clear and simple style can at times be a drawback for a more mature audience, as the repetition and exercises can sometimes be pedestrian. But again, this is an artifact of the intended audience rather than a shortcoming of the book itself.
Various exercises will keep the attention of the child and get them to use the various tools they learn about in the book. There are a number of fictional mysteries thrown in, with relevant (and sometimes irrelevant) clues given to tease the imagination. Not all of the problems are fictitious, however, as fans of Westerns will be pleased to know that the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral appears in the book as an informative exercise in historical investigation.
A key part of the book is its identification of the purpose and role of logic in life. For example, Lesson 3 gives some guidelines for knowing “When it is Dumb to Argue.” In this way, some rhetorical concerns, such as audience, types and appropriateness of conversation, are woven into the book.
One criticism of the book, however, is that it does not delineate clearly or explicitly enough the role of logic in relation to Christian apologetics. This comes up especially in Lessons 6-8, in which beliefs are challenged and the book leads the reader through ways to examine, articulate, understand, and defend a particular belief.
Article comments
1 - Warren
Excellent review of this book -- I'm 80% through my own copy, and have had similar reactions.
The strength of the book, I think, is that while it's geared toward a Christian audience, the principles in it are useful to anyone who wants to be a more critical thinker.