Critical Reasoning

by Cederblom, Jerry; Paulsen, David

• ISBN13: 9780534519407
• ISBN10: 0534519407
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-01
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

Building upon the strengths of prior editions, this text helps students to understand reasoning in the context of real-world experience and examples. Emphasizing clear explanations and the application of techniques, the text provides sufficient basic logic without losing students in theory and a wealth of longer real-life passages such as newspaper editorials and essays.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Deciding What to Believe	1	(18)
Critical Reasoning Versus Passive Reading or Listening	3	(1)
Critical Reasoning Versus Mere Disagreement	3	(1)
The Attitude of the Critical Reasoner	4	(1)
Self-Identity: Two Options	5	(1)
Some Common Misconceptions About Critical Reasoning	6	(1)
Benefits of Critical Reasoning	7	(1)
Taking Notice of Disagreements and Reasoning	8	(1)
The Main Techniques of Critical Reasoning	8	(11)
A Beginning Step: Identifying Main Points and Supporting Points	12	(7)
The Anatomy of Arguments: Identifying Premises and Conclusions	19	(28)
The Key to Identification: Seeing What Is Supported by What	22	(1)
Clues to Identifying Argument Parts: Indicator Words	23	(1)
Marking the Parts of Arguments	24	(4)
Techniques for Marking the Parts of Arguments	25	(3)
What to Do When There Are No Indicator Words: The Principle of Charitable Interpretation	28	(3)
Using the Principle of Charitable Interpretation to Pick Out Premises and Conclusions in Arguments Without Explicit Indicator Words	30	(1)
Patterns of Argument	31	(8)
Using Argument Patterns to Pick Out Premises and Conclusions in Arguments Without Explicit Indicator Words	36	(3)
Identifying Premises and Conclusions in Longer Passages	39	(5)
Reconstructing Explicit Arguments in Longer Passages	41	(3)
Applications to Writing	44	(3)
Making Premises and Conclusions Clear in Your Writing	45	(2)
Understanding Arguments Through Reconstruction	47	(41)
Understanding Arguments by Identifying Implicit Conclusions	48	(2)
Understanding Arguments by Identifying Implicit Premises	50	(2)
Adding Both Conclusion and Premises	52	(1)
Guidelines and Warnings in Adding Implicit Premises and Conclusions	53	(12)
Recognizing Argument Patterns and Adding Implicit Premises, Conclusions, or Both	58	(7)
What's the Point? Understanding Complicated Passages in Context	65	(5)
Simplification and Paraphrasing: Making a First Approximation	68	(2)
Fine Tuning: Paraphrase and the Structure of Arguments	70	(13)
Putting All This into Practice	76	(7)
Using Techniques of Reconstruction in Writing	83	(5)
Moving from Arguments in Standard Form to Prose Passages	86	(2)
Evaluating Arguments: Some Basic Questions	88	(35)
When Does the Conclusion Follow from the Premises?	90	(11)
Showing Invalidity	100	(1)
When Should the Premises Be Accepted as True?	101	(5)
Casting Doubt on Premises	105	(1)
Sample Appraisals: Examples of Techniques of Criticism	106	(5)
Distinguishing the Validity of an Argument (That Is, Whether the Conclusion Follows) from the Truth of Its Premises	110	(1)
Some Special Cases: Arguments That We Should or Should Not Do Something	111	(4)
The Rationale for Using These Critical Techniques	115	(1)
Writing Critical Comments	116	(7)
Criticizing Arguments	119	(4)
When Does the Conclusion Follow? A More Formal Approach to Validity	123	(31)
Formalizing	125	(3)
Statements Containing Logical Connectives: When are They True; When are They False?	128	(6)
Evaluating Statements	133	(1)
Truth Tables As a Test for Validity	134	(7)
Truth Tables	139	(2)
Representing Structures Within Statements: Predicates and Quantifiers	141	(5)
(Optional) A More Formal Way of Representing Statements with Quantifiers	146	(3)
Venn Diagrams	148	(1)
Glimpses Beyond: Natural Deduction	149	(5)
Fallacies: Bad Arguments That Tend to Persuade	154	(37)
Persuasiveness	154	(1)
What Is a Fallacy?	155	(1)
Categorizing the Fallacies According to Their Sources of Persuasiveness	156	(1)
Distraction Fallacies	157	(6)
Identifying Fallacies: False Dilemma, Slippery Slope, Straw Man	160	(3)
Resemblance Fallacies	163	(6)
Review	169	(3)
Identifying Distraction and Resemblance Fallacies	170	(2)
Emotion and Reason in Argument	172	(1)
When Is an Emotional Appeal Illegitimate?	173	(1)
Emotion Fallacies	174	(5)
Identifying Fallacies: Appeal to Force, Appeal to Pity, and Prejudicial Language	178	(1)
Emotion and Resemblance Combined	179	(4)
Review	183	(3)
Note on Terminology	186	(5)
Comprehensive Review of Fallacies	186	(3)
Fallacious or Not?	189	(2)
``That Depends on What You Mean by ...''	191	(37)
Unclear Expressions in the Premises: Looking for Shifts in Meaning	192	(3)
The Possibility of Misleading Definition	195	(1)
Kinds of Unclarity: Vagueness and Ambiguity	196	(3)
Interpreting and Evaluating: A Dialogue Process	199	(4)
Criticizing Arguments That Contain Unclear Words or Expressions	201	(2)
Argument and Definition	203	(2)
Evaluating Definition-like Premises	205	(1)
Conceptual Theories	206	(2)
A Model for Conceptual Theories	208	(2)
Reconstructing Fragmentary Theories	210	(3)
Reconstructing Conceptual Theories	211	(2)
The Criticism of Conceptual Theories	213	(6)
Criticism of Conceptual Theories	217	(2)
Conceptual Clarification and Argument	219	(9)
Reconstructing and Criticizing Conceptual Theories and Arguments Based on Them	221	(7)
Arguments That Are Not Deductive	228	(58)
Two Types of Inductive Arguments	229	(2)
Inductive Versus Deductive Arguments	231	(4)
Generalizations, Descriptions of Particulars, and Inductive Arguments	234	(1)
Criticizing Arguments That Generalize: Sampling Arguments	235	(11)
Criticizing Empirical Generalizations	242	(4)
A Special Case: Causal Generalization	246	(3)
Five Common Criticisms of Causal Reasoning	249	(2)
The Controlled Experiment: Handling the X-Factor	251	(4)
What Happens If Control Is Limited?	255	(10)
The Faulty Move from Correlation to Cause	259	(6)
Arguments with Statistical Premises	265	(5)
Criticizing Arguments with Statistical Premises	269	(1)
Another Special Case: Arguments from Analogy	270	(5)
Criticizing Arguments from Analogy	273	(2)
Convergent Arguments	275	(11)
Reconstructing and Criticizing Convergent Arguments	284	(2)
Explanation and the Criticism of Theories	286	(54)
``That's Just a Theory''	288	(1)
Picking Out Theories	289	(11)
Identifying Theories and Regularities	295	(5)
Criticism of Theories	300	(2)
First-Stage Criticisms---Plausible Alternative; Doubtful Predictions	302	(6)
Applying First-Stage Criticisms to Theories	303	(5)
Second-Stage Criticisms---ad Hoc Defense; Untestability	308	(7)
Applying Second-Stage Criticisms to Theories	310	(5)
Review of Techniques for Criticizing Theories	315	(11)
Criticizing Empirical Theories in Longer Passages	316	(10)
Empirical Theories and Explanation: A More Formal Approach	326	(14)
Putting Explanations Given by Empirical Theories into a ``Standard Form''	332	(8)
Putting It All Together: Six Steps to Understanding and Evaluating Arguments	340	(53)
A Sample Application of the Six-Step Procedure	343	(8)
A Second Sample Application of the Six-Step Procedure	351	(12)
Applying the Six-Step Procedure	358	(5)
Application of the Six-Step Procedure to Passages Containing Theoretical Statements	363	(9)
Criticizing Arguments Based on Theories and Generalizations	365	(7)
Putting Convergent Arguments into the Picture	372	(9)
Criticizing Linked and Convergent Arguments	376	(5)
Application to Writing	381	(12)
Writing a Critical Essay	385	(5)
Putting It Together in the Classroom: ``Fishbowl'' Discussions and Critical Exchanges	390	(3)
Making Reasonable Decisions As an Amateur in a World of Specialists	393	(13)
Leaving It to the Experts	394	(3)
The Dilemma	397	(1)
Two Ways of Not Facing the Dilemma	397	(2)
Coping with the Dilemma	399	(2)
Still a Problem: The Disagreement of Experts	401	(1)
Creating Arguments and Theories and Determining Who the Experts Are	401	(1)
Creating Arguments and Theories and Controlling the Experts	402	(1)
How Does One Create Arguments and Theories?	402	(1)
The Strategy and Its Prospects	403	(1)
The Contemporary Problem of Knowledge	404	(2)
Case Study for Individual Writing Exercise or Group Discussion	405	(1)
Glossary	406	(9)
Answers to Selected Exercises	415	(46)
Index	461