"The Thinking Game" is designed for self instruction or course use at the beginning of undergraduate training or at the end of secondary school. It is especially useful for mid-career students new to an academic environment. The material is organized into 24 basic units plus additional units - one showing how to create a check list which can be used in intellectual criticism, one dealing with writing and reading and one showing how to present a written or oral critique of an author's work. The overall purpose of "The Thinking Game" is to improve the student's capacity to deal systematically and effectively with argument and criticism relating to policy making, whether individual or collective; that purpose tends to determine the most effective way to use the text. In practical terms, the student should, by the end of the course, be capable of producing a competent criticism of articles or editorials from the quality press and be capable of judging whether the criticism is competent.
The human situation and human purposes - the three prime purposes, limits and possibilities, exercises; the theory of knowledge I - organizing and generalizing experience, exercises; the theory of knowledge II - notation, generating expectations/predicting, controlling events, choices, exercises; description, introductory - description, exercises; description, concepts and indicators - an illustration of conceptual development, exercises; description, conceptual frameworks - conceptual frameworks, exercises; description, definitions and measurements - definitions, measurements, exercises; generating expectations I - generating justified expectations, predicting with classifications, uses and limitations, exercises; generating expectations II - predicting with forecasts or theories, exercises; controlling events I - causality, preventing/producing change, structures and process, imperfections of fit and the fudge factor, exercises; controlling events II - a theory of roasting, lessons and implications, exercises; finding causes - Mill's methods - how to locate causes, the five methods, exercises; criticizing theories I - is the purpose valid?, the diagnosis problem, a second example, improving diagnosis, exercises; criticizing theories II - the internal structure of theories, the fit to established knowledge and history, experimentation, exercises; choice, introductory - choice and action, the critical focus, comparison as the basis for preference, exercises; choice - instruments and processes - determining the options, the normative variables, assigning priorities, applying priorities - policies, exercises; choice, what are the options? - projecting the options, chain reactions, the normative variables, the decision matrix, exercises; the normative variables - the structure of the normative variables, some applications, exercises; priorities I - meaning, developing priorities, exercises; priorities II - justifying preferences, exercises; policies I - policy - meaning and function, corollaries and implications, exercises; policies II - policy making, exercises; propositions and arguments - propositions and arguments, the constituent elements of an argument, an extended example, exercises; creating a checklist - a generalized checklist, summary checklist; writing and reading - writing, organization, some dos and don'ts, parting advice; critiques - an illustration - X on values and social inquiry.
