Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide

by Bowell; Tracy

• ISBN13: 9780415471831
• ISBN10: 0415471834
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2009-08-11
• Publisher: Routledge
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

Critical Thinking: A Concise Guideis a much-needed guide to argument analysis and a clear introduction to thinking clearly and rationally for oneself. Through precise and accessible discussion this book equips students with the essential skills required to tell a good argument from a bad one. Key features of the book are: Clear, jargon-free discussion of key concepts in argumentation How to avoid common confusions surrounding words such as '¬Ütruth'¬", '¬Üknowledge'¬" and '¬Üopinion'¬" How to identify and evaluate the most common types of argument How to spot fallacies in arguments and tell good reasoning from bad Chapter summaries, glossaries and useful exercises This third edition has been revised and updated throughout, with new exercises, and up-to-date topical examples, including: '¬Üreal-world'¬" arguments; practical reasoning; understanding quantitative data, statistics, and the rhetoric used about them; scientific reasoning; and expanded discussion of conditionals, ambiguity, vagueness, slippery slope arguments, and arguments by analogy. The Routledge Critical Thinkingcompanion website, features a wealth of further resources, including examples and case studies, sample questions, practice questions and answers, and student activities. Critical Thinking: A Concise Guideis essential reading for anyone, student or professional, at work or in the classroom, seeking to improve their reasoning and arguing skills.

Table of Contents

Introducing arguments

Beginning to think critically

Aspects of meaning

Definitions

Necessary and sufficient conditions

Primary and secondary connotation

Generalisations

Quantifiers

Standard form

Identifying premises and conclusions

Extraneous material

Arguments and explanations

Extended arguments

Linguistic Phenomena, Rhetoric

Ambiguity

Vagueness

Irony

Metaphor

Rhetorical questions

Rhetorical ploys spin

Logic: Validity

The Principle of Charity

Truth

Deductive Validity

Argument Trees

Conditional Propositions

Deductive Soundness

The connection to formal logic

Logic: Inductive Force

Inductive force 'all', 'most' and 'some'

Soft generalisations

Inductive Soundess

Probability in the premises

Arguments with multiple probabilistic premises

Inductive force in extended arguments

Conditional Probability in the conclusion

Evidence

Inductive inferences

A programme for assessment

Argument Reconstruction

Extraneous material

Defusing the rhetoric

Logical streamlining

Implicit and explicit

Connecting premises

Covering generalisations

Relevance; Ambiguity and Vagueness

More on generalisations

Practical reasoning Balancing costs, benefits, and probabilities

Explanations as conclusions

Causal generalisations

A shortcut

Argument Assessment

Rational persuasiveness

Some strategies for logical assessment

Refutation by Counterexample

Avoiding the 'who is to say' criticism

Don't merely label the position

Argument commentary

A complete example

Commentary on the commentary

Pseudo Reasoning

Fallacies

Faulty argument techniques

Arguing from analogy

Arguments from authority

Truth, Knowledge and Belief

Truth and relativity

True for me, true for you

Theories

Truth, value and morality

Belief, justification and truth

Justification without arguments

Knowledge

Justification failure

Knowledge and rational persuasiveness

Philosophical directions

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