REVIEWS

摘要

This is a most revolutionary book, and I would love to teach a course using it! There is much interest in what is variously termed quantitative literacy (QL), quantitative reasoning (QR), and critical thinking (CT). This book is the first in a series of Texts for Quantitative Critical Thinking, whose topics have “high sophistication, low prerequisite” and are about “thinking, not computation and procedure.” The chapters are about measurement, flows, networks, change, risk, and decision-making, with eight case studies, each denominated as analysis (is recycling worth it?) or advocacy (nuclear power?). QL/QR/CT has little to do with college-level mathematics, so appropriately the “mathematics” in this book is mainly the arithmetic of converting units and plugging values into algebraic and logarithmic expressions. For example, exponential growth is covered in terms of power functions, with no mention of the exponential function. Exercises include computational problems, but the main emphasis is on student writing in response to questions such as “What do you think that means? Do you agree? What do you think?”. In that respect, the book brings home to students the issues of sustainability, conveys numerous insights about environmental issues, and may convince them that quantitative considerations are important in considering them. The mathematical prerequisite for the book is only high school algebra, so that the book might seem appropriate for high school. But learning from this book would require more maturity, both conceptual and experiential, and involve more subtlety, than many seniors in high school yet possess; also, teaching a course from this book would require more familiarity with natural and social science than many teaching assistants are confident about. The book's philosophy is encapsulated in “your first loyalty should be to the truth” (p. 411, bolded there). That is a highly laudable ideal, particularly important in an era of denial of “incon