Best Books to Improve Logical Thinking, Reasoning & Problem-Solving

17. Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto

The "Pyramid Principle" was invented by Barbara Minto in 1973. It introduces an effective method to clearly present ideas. 

The Pyramid Principle helps people organize and express their thoughts in written form. It can be applied to the process of identifying and analyzing problems. 

From a macro perspective, the Pyramid Principle can guide the entire process of writing, thinking, and analyzing problems.

18. Simple Logic

"Simple Logic" is, of course, an entry-level book just by looking at the title. This book tells readers a profound logic in a language that is close to life, easy to understand, and interesting. Although it is not a formal textbook, it is a good practical guide.

The first half of the book focuses on some concepts, basic principles, and the language of logic, while the second half focuses on non-logical thinking, such as the roots of non-logical thinking and the main forms of non-logical thinking. Each section is relatively independent, and you can choose the part you need to read when you read it.

19. Out of Control and Loving It by Lisa Bevere

In the Internet age, where truth and lies are intertwined, knowledge and ideas are confused, and emotional venting obscures factual analysis, how can we avoid losing control of our cognition of the truth?

The book "Out of Control and Loving It" gives us some perspectives to think about. Especially as an advertiser, how do we deal with the massive amount of information? How do we view each crisis public relations event? I believe this book can give us some help.

20. Psychology: A Framework for Everyday Thinking by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn

"Lose 20 pounds in a month without dieting or exercising."

"You can teach a 3-month-old baby to talk, a surprising study finds."

"Studies show that our products can improve your self-esteem by 50%."

Do you believe the above statements? Are the things that seem to be taken for granted in life necessarily correct and scientific? Are your eyes often blinded by the illusions in life?

Starting from the psychology of daily life, "Psychology Changes Thinking" proposes six key principles of scientific thinking throughout the book. 

For many psychological phenomena and viewpoints, "Clarifying the Facts" presents interesting and surprising facts, and "Identifying Illusions" proposes false, unfounded, but generally accepted viewpoints. 

Analyzing fallacies, drawing scientific conclusions, and proposing highly operational methods help readers establish scientific thinking that can separate the true from the false and apply it to all aspects of daily life.

21. Misunderstanding the Internet by James Curran, Natalie Fenton

The growth of the Internet has been spectacular. Today, there are 2 billion Internet users worldwide, about 30% of the world's population. 

This is undoubtedly a new phenomenon with great significance for the economic, political, and social life of contemporary countries. 

A large number of popular and academic works on the Internet have advocated that its potential will be fundamentally re-understood, especially in the mid-1990s when many commentators were in awe of the Internet. 

Although the awe and wonder may have passed, the technocentrism behind it - the belief that technology determines outcomes - lingers, and with it comes a misunderstanding of the Internet - a failure to understand it in a socio-economic and political context.

This book briefly discusses the impact of the Internet on society from the perspectives of history, sociology, politics, and economics. 

The book is divided into three parts: the first part talks about the history of the Internet and gives an overview of its social status; the second part focuses on the regulation of the Internet and the Internet economy; the third part examines its political and cultural impact.

22. Right and Wrong Thinking and Their Results by Alan Martin  Crane

This book explores how to think actively and positively; why people have wrong thinking patterns, such as the influence of the subconscious mind; proposes three levels of positive thinking training, namely how to think, how to stop thinking about a specific event, and how to replace the original thought with another thought; and gives several ways to change thinking habits, such as trying to find kindness, looking for the root of the problem from the easy level and the subjective level, etc.

23. Big History: Between Nothing and Everything by David Christian

"Big History: Between Nothingness and Everything" talks about the history of the universe over 13 billion years, and the focus is, of course, the history of life evolution on Earth over billions of years. The focus of the focus is naturally the history of human civilization.

The reason why I recommend this book is because of its interdisciplinary nature. It spans multiple disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, biology, geography, history, sociology, economics, anthropology, etc. It is very comprehensive and can help people establish a systematic and complete worldview.

Bill Gates also donated a large sum of money to this big history education project and established free online open courses. Everyone can take courses on the website www.bighistoryproject.com, and the learning experience is very good.

24. Worldviews: An Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science by Richard DeWitt

"World View" is an introductory textbook on the history and philosophy of science. I like to call this book a love triangle between history, science, and philosophy.

It tells us about the transformation of the human worldview from Aristotle's teleology to Newton's mechanism and finally discusses the new changes brought to the mechanistic worldview by relativity, quantum mechanics, and evolution.

After reading this book, you will not worship science like a fanatical believer but will be a calm thinker who accurately understands the important position of science in our worldview.

25. How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker

"Mind Detective" author Steven Pinker is not only a first-class psychologist and linguist in the ivory tower but also a public intellectual outside the ivory tower. 

Each of his works is worth recommending, and the one I chose here is a book about the working mechanism of the human mind.

To be honest, this book is so thick that I wanted to use an introductory psychology textbook instead. But the narrative and commentary style of this book and the interestingness between the lines made me reluctant to give it up.

After reading this book, you can more or less understand how the mind works. What is amazing is that it is this kind of mind that allows Pinker to write such excellent works, and it is this kind of mind that allows you to understand his works.

26. The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills

The Sociological Imagination. Friends in the sociology community all know how good this book is. It is not an introduction to sociological thought or sociological methods, but rather a merciless rant and heartfelt advocacy by the author, Mills.

In Mills's own words, sociological imagination can help us better understand history, the times, the macro-society, the micro-individual daily experiences, our own inner state, and public issues that deserve everyone's concern.

With sociological imagination, you can reflect on the rules of the social game and even change them instead of being played by them unconsciously. So, sociological imagination is something you deserve.

27. The Economic Way of Thinking by Paul Heyne

"Economic Way of Thinking". Friends in the economics education field all know how good this book is. It is a very good general economics textbook. If you only plan to read one economics book in your life, this is the right choice.

However, once you understand this book, you will probably be attracted by the economic way of thinking and will want to read more economic articles and books. In fact, economics is a popular subject today. I don’t need to emphasize that everyone wants to know some common sense about economics.

But I still want to recommend this book because the common sense of economics you see from other places may be garbage ideas disguised as economics, while this book is a systematic university textbook, from which you can gain a complete knowledge system rather than fragmentary knowledge.

28. Metaphors We Live By - by George Lakoff, Mark Johnson

"Metaphors We Live By". I originally wanted to choose a textbook on cognitive linguistics, but then I thought about it and changed to the original work by Lakoff and Johnson.

To put it simply, this book can make you understand how much influence "metaphor" has on our thinking and how easy it is to underestimate or even ignore this influence.

Some scholars estimate that at least 70% of the language used in daily communication contains metaphors. A metaphor is a systematic analogy between two conceptual domains and is the thinking framework in which we live.

When we ignore the existence of the stage background, we will be trapped by unreliable, subtle metaphors and fall into hidden thinking traps, unable to extricate ourselves.

All we can do is replace worse metaphors with better ones. But how can we do that if we don’t understand metaphors? So, this book is worth reading carefully and reflecting on.

29. Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking by Daniel C. Dennett

"Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking", literally translated as "Intuition pumps and other thinking tools". The author, Daniel Dennett, is the contemporary philosopher who has had the greatest influence on me. 

Dennett himself said that when you mix the knowledge of Quine and Ryle and cognitive science together, you get his ideas.

This book can be regarded as a series of his thoughts. The process of reading this book can be compared to the process of downloading and installing the thoughts of philosophers such as Dennett, Quine, Ryle, and many scientists into your mind.

It is hard not to admire Dennett's knowledge, both in breadth and depth. Even if his conclusions are not in line with your intuition, he can still convince you with his powerful logical analysis and narrative skills.

30. The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy by Robert C. Solomon, Kathleen M. Higgins

This concise introduction to philosophy is easy to understand and popular without losing professional standards. It is very suitable for non-philosophy readers. It is not a boring philosophical narrative history, nor is it a simple philosophical argument. 

Instead, it explains the philosophical issues through many vivid examples. As the issues gradually unfold, it intersperses the content of the history of philosophy, step by step, and leads readers into the palace of philosophy little by little, allowing them to enjoy the fun of thinking. 

Among the many introductory books on philosophy, if you can only choose one, Solomon's book should be your first choice.