One of the better reads I had this holiday season is Mindware : Tools for Smart thinking by Richard Nisbett. This book  shows folks how to think and draws from various academic disciplines like Economics, Psychology, Statistics and Philosophy. It is a powerful toolbox for a problem solver and contains the keys to resolving many practical issues. The chapter on dialectic reasoning itself should be worth the book's weight in gold. It summarizes Western Logic into three propositions : 1. Identity : A = A. A is itself and not some other thing. 2. Non-contradiction. A and not A cannot be true at the same time. 3. Excluded middle. A or not-A can be true but not something in-between. Eastern logic is very different : 1. Principle of Change. Reality is a process of change. What is true will shortly be false. 2. Principle of Contradiction. As change is constant. ......