LibGuides: Hostos Reads!: How to Think (2018-19)

How to Think

"Thinking is hard, really hard, and there are a thousand forces at work preventing us from doing it. But we can all think better. And if we learn to think together, then maybe we can learn to live together too."

Key themes:

the dangers of thinking against others
the need to find the best people to think with
the error of believing that we can think for ourselves
how thinking can be in conflict with belonging
the dangers of words that do our thinking for us

--from http://howtothinkbook.com/

Spring 2019 events

Spring 2019 Schedule:

Discussion groups (3:30-4:30 in room B413):

Monday, February 11

Wednesday, March 13

Thursday, May 2

Have ideas for Hostos Reads? Contact us!

Hostos Reads! co-facilitators

Silvia Reyes, Director, Title V

Lisa Tappeiner, Librarian

Learn more

Reviews and discussions of the book

It's not just politics: We need to change the way we think and talk about the arts, too
The Washington Post discusses how How to Think also relates to how we think about art
The Art of Thinking Well
New York Times columnist David Brooks discusses the book.
Reclaim Your Brain -- Wall Street Journal Review
Students, staff and faculty can sign up for full access to the WSJ with their Hostos email!
How Not to Think
Mathew Walther in The Week (January 2018) is not impressed, claiming "How to Think reads like nothing so much as a commonplace book of jottings from airport nonfiction, heavyweight Atlantic cover stories, tweets, and a typical high-school freshman English syllabus."
Habits of Mind
Review in the National Review (December 2017)

More writings and ideas by Alan Jacobs

How American Politics Became so Exhausting
Interview with Alan Jacobs in the Atlantic (October 2017)
Snakes and Ladders
Alan Jacobs' blog
To survive our high-speed society, cultivate 'temporal bandwidth'
Alan Jacobs discusses social media (The Guardian, June 2018). "Our era of relentless social media and soundbites has caused us to lose sight of the past, and future"
The Watchmen What became of the Christian intellectuals?
Alan Jacobs in Harper's Magazine (September 2016)

Teaching and Learning

20 Quotes About Thinking From “How To Think” by Alan Jacobs
"In How to Think, Alan Jacobs promises that those of us who are willing can receive help to diagnose the forces that prevent genuine thinking and learn how to improve in this life-giving skill."
We need a survival guide for thinking because we're bad at it
CBC radio distills Jacobs' message on thinking in the age of social media into five key steps.
Learning the Art of Thinking
A discussion of the book from an educator's point of view.
Your bias is
A list of common types of bias by the School of Thought.org
Your Logical Fallacy is
List of common logical fallacies from School of Thought.

Media

Jacobs speaks at the American Enterprise Institute (October 2017)
Panel of thinkers discussing the book (1 hour 17 mins.) Jacobs talks about the book in the first 11 mins and then panel discusses.
"How To Think" by Alan Jacobs | Book Thoughts | Episode 2
A trainer reviews the book from a fitness point of view -- pulling out quotes and responding to them (video)

Sources referenced in the book

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Call Number: BF441 .K238 2013
ISBN: 9780374275631
Publication Date: 2011-10-25
The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt
Call Number: Request this book from another CUNY college.
ISBN: 9780465028023
Publication Date: 2006-12-26

Intro: Give it five minutes by Jason Fried
Intro: Puritans and Prigs by Marilynne Robinson
Examines "our collective eagerness to disparage without knowledge or information about the thing disparaged, when the reward is the pleasure of sharing an attitude one knows is socially approved."
Intro: The Perfect Critic by T.S. Eliot
Concludes "when we do not know or do not know enough, we tend to substitute thoughts with emotions."
Intro: Representing Fundamentalism : The Problem of the Repulsive Cultural Other by Susan Harding (1991)
Chapter 1: Unfollow: How a prized daughter of the Westboro Baptist Church came to question its beliefs
An article by Adrian Chen published in the New Yorker in 2015 on the transformation of Megan Phelps-Roper.
Chapter 1: Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking by Patrick Deneen
When we say critical thinking, do we really mean thinking more like us?
Chapter 2: The Inner Ring - C.S. Lewis
People fear being outside of the Inner Circle.
Chapter 2: The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehesi Coates (2014)
Jacobs questions if the means (reparations) will bring about the goal of greater justice and equality.
Chapter 3: I can tolerate anything except the outgroup by Scott Alexander
Chapter 3: Meet the woman who can’t feel fear by Rachel Feltman
Chapter 3: Overcoming Bias Blog by Robin Hansen
Chapter 4: Terministic Screens -- Kenneth Burke
Chapter 4: Politics of the English Language -- Orwell
Keywords have the tendency to become parasitic: they enter the mind and displace thought.
Chapter 4: Deconstructing the Science Wars -- Stephen J. Gould
realists vs. relativists
Chapter 4: The steel man of #GamerGate by Robin Sloan
Chapter 7: Harper's version of Authority and the English language by David Foster Wallace

Hostos Reads!: How to Think (2018-19)

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