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| Books & More - About Brendan's Books |
If you took a course in philosophy or critical thinking at college or university, you paid an average of $70 for your textbook. I think that's too much, especially for students who have to choose between food and the rent, two or three times a year, like a lot of my students. Yet the cost of these books never goes down, because students are a captive market.
So, I gathered a team of writers, editors, and designers, and together we created our own textbook, so that my students don't have to buy one. And now I've made it available to the whole world, for free.
• Download the PDF for home printing version here.
• VIew an online version on Issuu.com here. This version can be embedded in your social networks, to help spread the word.
And as promised, the book's copyright is set under a Creative Commons open culture license. This means anyone can use it, share it, and do almost anything with it. Systematic critical reason is the open-source OS of the mind; and so it makes sense to me to give this book to the world.
"Clear and Present Thinking" was funded by the more than 700 backers who pleged a little bit of money each through Kickstarter, an online crowd-sourcing fundraising platform. We raised more than $16,000 to pay for the contributors, as well as designers, editors, and publicists. (And I'm still receiving private donations too, via PayPal). An expanded edition is now in the planning stages, and announcements will be made in all the usual places when the time comes. Meanwhile, I am open to suggestions from readers about how the text could be improved, and what could go into the expanded edition.
So far, the text has been used by my own college, as well as by teachers at several Canadian colleges and universities. It was featured on The Chronicle of Higher Education, as well as on CBC Radio Ottawa Morning 6th July, and on CBC Radio Ontario Morning 9th July.
The team and I would like to thank everyone for their generous support for their project, and for helping make knowledge a little bit more free.
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