Maureen Linker 2014

Intellectual Empathy

Critical Thinking for Social Justice

Maureen Linker

https://umdearborn.edu/users/mlinker

A guide for facilitating discussions about socially divisive issues for students, educators, business managers, and community leaders

Description

Intellectual Empathy provides a step-by-step method for facilitating discussions of socially divisive issues. Maureen Linker, a philosophy professor at the University of Michigan–Dearborn, developed Intellectual Empathy after more than a decade of teaching critical thinking in metropolitan Detroit, one of the most racially and economically divided urban areas, at the crossroads of one of the Midwest’s largest Muslim communities. The skills acquired through Intellectual Empathy have proven to be significant for students who pursue careers in education, social work, law, business, and medicine.

Contents

• Acknowledgments ix

• Preface xiii

• Introduction: Putting Up Walls

1. The Web of Belief 23

2. The Usual Suspects: Keeping People Engaged 50

3. Arguments and the Adversary Method 80

4. Cognitive Biases 106

5. Logical Fallacies 125

6. Finding Common Ground through Intellectual Empathy 153

7. Taking Intellectual Empathy Out into the World 172

• Conclusion: From Conversations o Coalitions 189