Everyday Philosophy: Practical Critical Thinking for Your Day-to-Day Life

By James Sirois

Philosophy is a strange beast. To many, it can seem difficult to wrap your head around, and to others, it can seem like a pointless discipline. But at a time when critical thinking and reading between the lines are growing more important than ever, ancient ideas like Stoicism are becoming increasingly popular, and self-education and lifelong learning are turning into a new norm, maybe you’re starting to wonder what it’s all about — and if it actually can improve your everyday life.

Philosophy tutor and writer James Sirois certainly thinks it can. In Everyday Philosophy: Practical Critical Thinking for Your Day-to-Day Life, an audio course from Scribd Coach, he aims to demonstrate the practical power of philosophical thinking in your own life and help readers unlock the potential of critical thinking. In this course designed for fans of personal growth and general nonfiction, Sirois offers a broad overview of the history of philosophy, shares philosophical techniques that everyone can benefit from (not just the professors), discusses how the different branches of philosophy impact our lives, and explores how you can grow your skills as a critical thinker. He also provides exercises for listeners along the way so they can begin applying what they’ve learned right away.

If you’re looking to spark your curiosity, develop a better understanding of the problems of our times, or just get better at thinking, you’re in the right place. Let’s get philosophical.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scribd Coach
• Release date: Sep 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094432717

James Sirois

James Sirois is a philosophy tutor and freelance writer for philosophy magazines and blogs. His work has appeared in Philosophy Now and Law Politics Trade. He also operates the website learnthoughts.com, where he writes about philosophy instruction, and philosopherstudio.wordpress.com, his tutorial blog.

Book preview

Everyday Philosophy

Everyday Philosophy

Practical Critical Thinking for Your Day-to-Day Life

James Sirois

SCRIBD COACH

Copyright © 2021 by James Sirois

All rights reserved

ISBN: 9781094432717

First e-book edition: September 2021

Scribd, Inc.

San Francisco, California

Scribd.com

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About Scribd Coach

This ebook is brought to you by Scribd Coach, a new imprint from Scribd dedicated to short-form, inclusive, and insightful personal and professional growth courses written by recognized experts.

Each Scribd Coach course is available in audiobook format or as an ebook transcribed from the audio course — like the book you’re about to read. If you’re interested in the audio edition of this course, or if you’d like to read more personal growth content from Scribd Coach, check out the Scribd Coach imprint page. 

You can share your thoughts on this title by rating and leaving a review on the book page. Thanks for reading — enjoy!

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to this course from Scribd Coach called, Everyday Philosophy: Practical Critical Thinking for Your Day-to-Day Life. My name is James Sirois, and I’ll be your teacher for this exploration of how philosophy can make your everyday life better.

Have you ever wanted to improve your critical thinking skills? If you’re listening to this audiobook now, chances are that you at least have a passing interest in philosophy and how it can be helpful for your own life. While philosophy can be applied in many areas of life, enhanced critical thinking skills are one of the practical results of studying philosophy.

We need critical thinking skills to function well in our lives. These are skills that help us to think outside of the box and understand ourselves and others more deeply. Philosophy gives us the keys to understand the why behind the how, so we can master how and when to use critical thinking skills.

Acquiring knowledge and good judgement is literally in the roots of the word philosophy. The word translates to the love of wisdom. Its origins are Greek, where philo means love or friend, and sophia means wisdom.

In this course, we are going to use the love of wisdom to grasp how critical thinking works. Our objective is for you to be inspired into developing your critical thinking skills on your own. This will make you a more creative and engaged thinker. Understanding your own behaviors and motives and that of others can ultimately benefit your personal and workplace relationships.

We’ll go over various philosophy tools that you can use in your pursuit of more refined critical thinking skills. We’ll start our exploration with the history of the study of philosophy. This is an ancient practice that can be traced back more than 2,500 years ago. Tracing its purpose throughout history will help us to understand it more fully.

Once we have a clear idea of how philosophy was used historically, we can move into practical applications. We’ll cover the different techniques of philosophy and