《超越感觉》的目的是给你介绍批判性思维的课题，这个课题对你来说可能是全新的，因为在大多数小学和中学中都没有人强调过它。事实上，直到最近，大部分大学才有些关注。在过去的40年，更多强调的是主观性，而不是客观性，是感觉而不是思考。
几十年过去，一些美国学校的研究开始对批判性思维的忽视进行批评，越来越多的教育者，商业和工业的领袖，业界人士正在督促新课程和教学材料的发展，避免疏忽。
不管你大学的专业是什么，毫不夸张地说，批判性思维是你在大学里学习的最重要的课程之一。你学校功课的质量，你职业生涯的成果，你对社区生活的贡献，你个人事物的管理-它们全部都要依靠你做决策和解决问题的能力。
这本书有三个主要部分。第一个是"背景"，它将帮助你理解以下重要概念，比如个人，批判性思维，真相，知识，意见，证据，还有争论，同时克服阻碍批判性思维的态度和观念。第二部分是"陷阱"，将教会你识别并避免在思考中常见的错误。第三部分是"策略"，帮助你获得处理问题和麻烦的不同技巧。这部分包括识别并克服你智力弱点的小窍门，还有些技巧可以让你观察力更敏锐，清晰地分析问题，开展调查，评估证据，分析他人的观点，做出合理的判断。
在每一章的最后，你会找到一些测试，用于挑战你的批判性思维，帮助你练习你的技能。这些测试的问题和麻烦有些有时间限制，有些没有时间限制。在开始的13章里，每一章最后的测试邀请你审查一个格外重要的议题，这个议题给出的意见是有歧义的。
学生们有时有这样的观念，必须一页一页的读书，不按次序读书违反了不成文的规定。这个观念是错误的。学生的背景知识差别非常大；某个学生非常明白的，对于另一个来说仅仅是模糊不清，还有三分之一完全不熟悉。任何时候你想或者要向前翻看后面的章节，这么做就好了。
涉及到章节末尾测试相关的步骤和概念时，提前阅读是非常明智的。其中一个概念是剽窃。如果你不是完全清楚到底什么构成剽窃，为什么它是不可接受的，以及如何避免它，那就花一些时间了解。在第二章的后面找到“避免剽窃”的部分。同样的，如果你不是和你上图书馆或者在网络上搜索一样熟练，现在阅读第17章会是个好主意。这样做，可以节省你大量的时间和精力完成家庭作业。
原文：
Introduction
Beyond Feelings is designed to introduce you to the subject of critical thinking. The subject may be new to you because it has not been emphasized in most elementary and secondary schools. In fact, until fairly recently, most colleges gave it little attention. For the past four decades, the dominant emphasis has been on subjectivity rather than objectivity, on feeling rather than on thought.
Over the past several decades, however, a number of studies of America’s schools have criticized the neglect of critical thinking, and a growing number of educators and leaders in business, industry, and the professions have urged the development of new courses and teaching materials to overcome that neglect.
It is no exaggeration to say that critical thinking is one of the most important subjects you will study in college regardless of your academic major. The quality of your schoolwork, your efforts in your career, your contributions to community life, your conduct of personal affairs—all will depend on your ability to solve problems and make decisions.
The book has three main sections. The first, “The Context,” will help you understand such important concepts as individuality, critical thinking, truth, knowledge, opinion, evidence, and argument and overcome attitudes and ideas that obstruct critical thinking. The second section, “The Pitfalls,” will teach you to recognize and avoid the most common errors in thinking. The third section, “A Strategy,” will help you acquire the various skills used in addressing problems and issues. This section includes tips on identifying and overcoming your personal intellectual weaknesses as well as techniques for becoming more observant, clarifying issues, conducting inquiries, evaluating evidence, analyzing other people’s views, and making sound judgments.
At the end of each chapter, you will find a number of applications to challenge your critical thinking and help you exercise your skills. These applications cover problems and issues both timely and timeless. The final application in each of the first thirteen chapters invites you to examine an especially important issue about which informed opinion is divided.
Students sometimes get the idea that a textbook must be read page by page and that reading ahead violates some unwritten rule. This notion is mistaken. Students’ background knowledge varies widely; what one student knows very well, another knows only vaguely and a third is totally unfamiliar with. Any time you need or want to look ahead to an explanation in a later chapter, by all means do so. Let’s say you make a statement and a friend says, “That’s relativism, pure and simple.” If you aren’t sure exactly what she means, go to the index, look up “relativism,” proceed to the appropriate page, and find out.
Looking ahead is especially prudent in the case of concepts and procedures relevant to the end-of-chapter applications. One such concept is plagiarism. If you are not completely clear on what constitutes plagiarism, why it is unacceptable, and how to avoid it, take a few minutes right now to learn. Look for the section “Avoiding Plagiarism” toward the end of the Chapter 2. Similarly, if you are not as skilled as you would like to be doing library or Internet research, it would be a good idea to read Chapter 17 now. Doing so could save you a great deal of time and effort completing homework assignments.
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