Critical Thinking An Introduction to Analytical Reading and Reasoning

by Wright, Larry

• ISBN13: 9780195130331
• ISBN10: 0195130332
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Extensively classroom-tested, Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Analytical Reading and Reasoning provides a non-technical vocabulary and analytic apparatus that guide students in identifying and articulating the central patterns found in reasoning and in expository writing more generally.Understanding these patterns of reasoning helps students to better analyze, evaluate, and construct arguments and to more easily comprehend the full range of everyday arguments found in ordinary journalism. Critical Thinking distinguishes itself from other texts in the field by emphasizinganalytical reading as an essential skill. It also provides detailed coverage of argument analysis, diagnostic arguments, diagnostic patterns, and fallacies. Opening with two chapters on analytical reading that help students recognize what makes reasoning explicitly different from other expository activities, the text then presents an interrogative model of argument to guide them in the analysis and evaluation of reasoning. This model allows adetailed articulation of "inference to the best explanation" and gives students a view of the pervasiveness of this form of reasoning. The author demonstrates how many common argument types--from correlations to sampling--can be analyzed using this articulated form. He then extends the model to dealwith several predictive and normative arguments and to display the value of the fallacy vocabulary. Designed for introductory courses in critical thinking, critical reasoning, informal logic, and inductive reasoning, Critical Thinking features hundreds of exercises throughout and includes worked-outsolutions and additional exercises (without solutions) at the end of each chapter. An Instructor's Manual, including solutions to the text's unanswered exercises and featuring other pedagogical aids, is available.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Part One. PARAPHRASING
The Bare-Bones Paraphrase	3	(30)
Introduction	3	(1)
The Concept of Paraphrase	4	(2)
Reading and Paraphrase	6	(3)
Technique and Vocabulary	9	(7)
Human Understanding	16	(3)
Subtler Issues	19	(4)
Two Principles of Paraphrasing	23	(5)
Things to Keep in Mind	28	(5)
Supplemental Exercises	30	(1)
Answers	31	(2)
Reading for Structure: Dependency and Subordination	33	(61)
Complexity	33	(8)
Technique and Vocabulary	41	(11)
Useful Patterns	52	(7)
Tricks for Tough Cases	59	(10)
Systematic Features	69	(13)
Trial and Error Exercise	82	(12)
Supplemental Exercises	84	(3)
Answers	87	(7)
Reading for Reasoning: Paraphrasing Arguments	94	(45)
Reading for a Particular Purpose	94	(1)
Reading for Reasoning	95	(13)
A Shortcut: Schematizing Directly from a Passage	108	(17)
Charitable Schematizing	125	(14)
Supplemental Exercises	128	(2)
Answers	130	(9)
Part Two. ANALYZING REASONING
Argument Analysis: Answering Questions	139	(59)
Introduction	139	(1)
The Purpose of Analysis	140	(1)
The Fundamental Concepts: Questions and Answers	141	(13)
Refining the Apparatus and Exercising Our Skills	154	(11)
Evaluating Arguments: How Good Are the Reasons?	165	(9)
Interim Summary: What We Have Learned So Far	174	(11)
Dealing with Disagreement	185	(13)
Supplemental Exercises	191	(1)
Answers	192	(6)
Diagnostic Arguments	198	(44)
Introduction	198	(1)
Diagnostic Questions	199	(1)
Diagnostic Concepts	200	(6)
Diagnostic Articulation	206	(10)
Refinements	216	(6)
Diagnostic Investigation	222	(20)
Supplemental Exercises	234	(4)
Answers	238	(4)
Diagnostic Patterns	242	(70)
Introduction	242	(1)
Cause and Correlation	242	(25)
Testimony	267	(18)
Sampling	285	(13)
Counting Cases: Induction by Enumeration	298	(2)
Circumstantial Evidence	300	(12)
Supplemental Exercises	302	(4)
Answers	306	(6)
Further Applications: Prediction and Recommendation	312	(42)
Introduction	312	(1)
Prediction	313	(17)
Recommendation	330	(24)
Supplemental Exercises	345	(3)
Answers	348	(6)
Fallacies	354	(16)
Introduction	354	(1)
Fallacies of Construction	355	(6)
Critical Fallacies	361	(9)
Supplemental Exercises	368	(1)
Answers	369	(1)
Appendix. DEDUCTION	370	(13)
Introduction	370	(1)
Semantic Conflict	371	(3)
Semantic Evaluation	374	(1)
Deductive Arguments	374	(2)
Structure	376	(2)
Tests and Criteria	378	(2)
Relative Strength	380	(2)
Summary	382	(1)
Glossary of Important Terms	383	(6)
Index	389