Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Thought Work: Thinking, Action, and the Fate of the World

Minnich and Patton gather an eclectic cohort of thought-leaders to reflect on the importance and intricacies of thinking in their respective fields. Philosophically framed and interdisciplinary in approach, this illuminating book is designed to be supremely useful to readers from all backgrounds. Review A new forum for common thinking about thinking. A real masterpiece! For everyone who believes in the value of liberal arts education, this volume ought to become a manual to pore over night and day.--Jerzy Axer, director, Collegium Artes Liberales, University of Warsaw Specialists from a dizzying array of disciplines provocatively engage with Minnich's previous book, The Evil of Banality, and potently heed the call to attend to the practice of thinking across and within all fields.--Brian R. Clack, professor of philosophy & A. Vassiliadis Director of the Humanities Center, University of San Diego This book resolutely confronts the dangers of banality in classrooms, boardrooms, and in public. It provides timely and vital strategies for exposing and resisting seemingly innocuous silence and inaction which allows incipient violence to escalate even to the level of genocide.--Bill Gay, professor emeritus of philosophy, UNC Charlotte If we want to think about thinking in all its richness, unfettered and unbanistered (and we must!), this is an excellent help, with friends of thinking working in a most capacious mode.--Stephen Bloch-Schulman, associate professor and chair of philosophy, Elon University About the Author Elizabeth K. Minnich Distinguished Fellow with the Association of American Colleges & Universities, she is the author of The Evil of Banality: On The Life and Death Importance of Thinking; Transforming Knowledge, 2nd Edition (recipient of the Frederic Ness Award). She has taught and served in the administration at Barnard College/Columbia University, and Sarah Lawrence College. Her visiting Chairs have included the Hartley Burr Alexander Chair in Public Philosophy at Scripps College, the Thomas P. Johnson Visiting Distinguished Professor at Rollins College, and the Whichard Visiting Distinguished Professor in Humanities and Women’s Studies at East Carolina University. During her doctoral studies, she served as Hannah Arendt’s teaching assistant; her dissertation was on John Dewey. Michael Quinn Patton Former President of the American Evaluation Association, and recipient of both the Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Award from the Evaluation Research Society and the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award from the American Evaluation Association. The Society for Applied Sociology honored him with the 2001 Lester F. Ward Award for Outstanding Contributions to Applied Sociology. Author of 8 evaluation books including 4th editions of Utilization-Focused Evaluation (2008) and Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods (2015). He is also author of Creative Evaluation; Practical Evaluation; and Culture and Evaluation (1985).