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Thinking Systematics (TSS) is conceived as a “toolkit for the mind” — designed to improve how we think about the world, analyze information and pursue our goals. Smith and Hayslip make a compelling argument that individual thinking and collective decision making are being systematically constrained within limits imposed by outmoded forms of cognition and the determination of privileged elites to perpetuate an unsustainable status quo. The dialectical reasoning advocated in this wide-ranging book aims to overcome those limits and to allow a much more profound understanding of the human condition in the 21st century.
Mainstream problem-solving focuses almost exclusively on scientific/technological fixes on one side and moral/cultural remedies on the other. But to comprehend our world adequately far more serious attention must be given to the specifically social, economic and political arrangements shaping our lives. Once embraced by growing numbers of people, TSS strategies, methods and habits of thought can contribute significantly to a “new common sense” — one adequate to meeting the immense challenges facing humanity in our era.
Murray E.G. Smith (Author)
Murray E.G. Smith is professor emeritus in sociology at Brock University, with interests in social theory, political economy, health and illness, social movements, philosophy and dialectical methodology. His previous books include Twilight Capitalism and Invisible Leviathan.
Tim Hayslip (Author)
Tim Hayslip is a PhD student in sociology at York University. His research focuses on the intersection of the sociology of knowledge and economic sociology, seeking to explain the popularity of the Austrian School of Economics and its remedies for economic malaise: higher interest rates, less market regulation and allowing the bankruptcies of “zombie companies.”
Preface:
Prologue I: On Human Thinking, Society and a Decaying Culture
Prologue II: Alarming Facts about Our Perilous Age
Prologue III: Observations on Human Potential
Introduction
Part I: Thinking Systematics (TSS 1)
Chapter One: The Need in Human Thinking
Chapter Two: Dialectical Reason: A Brief Historical Survey
Chapter Three: TSS and Dialectical Logic
Chapter Four: TSS and the Environmental Crisis – A Case Study
Part II: Taking the Social Seriously (TSS 2)
Chapter Five: From Philosophy to Social Theory
Chapter Six: Faith, Reason and Morality
Chapter Seven: Evald Ilyenkov: Dialectics of the Ideal
Chapter Eight: Dialectical Monism versus Dualism
Part III: Taking Socialism Seriously (TSS 3)
Chapter Nine: Marxist Socialism and TSS Dialectical Materialism
Chapter Ten: Arguments for Socialism
Epilogue: TSS and Human Progress
Appendix: A TSS Seminar