Invitation to Critical Thinking

ISBN 10: 0155003747 ISBN 13: 9780155003743

Publisher: Harcourt School, 1994

Synopsis

As a primary text for critical thinking and practical reasoning courses, Rudinow and Barry's Third Edition offers practical coverage appropriate for the single semester course. Comprehensive discussions include new material on the topics of mass media and deductive validity, as well as argument forms, Venn diagrams, truth tables, inductive reasoning, informal fallacies, and problem solving.

About this title

About the Author:

Joel Rudinow received his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of California at Santa Barbara and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of British Columbia. He has held faculty appointments at the University of Western Ontario, Dartmouth College, and Sonoma State University. He is currently Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Santa Rosa Junior College and co-author of ETHICS AND VALUES IN THE INFORMATION AGE.

Review:

Unit I: THE BASICS. 1. Critical Thinking. The Importance of Critical Thinking. What Is Critical Thinking? Obstacles to Critical Thinking. Looking Ahead: Issues and Disputes. Glossary. Additional Exercises. 2. Language. What Is Language? Functions of Language. Meaning in Language. Definitions. Glossary. Additional Exercises. Unit II: ARGUMENT. 3. Argument. Argument Identification. Argument Analysis. Glossary. Additional Exercises. 4. Argument Analysis I: Representing Argument Structure. The Goal of Argument Analysis. Elementary Procedures. Intermediate Challenges. Glossary. Additional Exercises. 5. Argument Analysis Ii: Paraphrasing Arguments. Paraphrasing. Advanced Applications. Additional Exercises. Unit III: DEDUCTIVE REASONING. 6. Evaluating Deductive Arguments I: Categorical Logic. Deductive and Inductive Reasoning. Argument Form. Categorical Logic. Glossary. Additional Exercises. 7. Evaluating Deductive Arguments Ii: Truth Functional Logic. Truth Functional Analysis of Logical Operators. Argument Forms. Testing for Validity with Truth Tables. Glossary. Additional Exercises. Unit IV: INDUCTIVE REASONING. 8. Evaluating Inductive Arguments I: Generalization and Analogy. Assessing Inductive Strength. Reasoning by Analogy. Glossary. Exercises. 9. Evaluating Inductive Arguments Ii: Hypothetical Reasoning and Burden of Proof. Presumption and the "Burden of Proof". Reasoning Hypothetically. Causal Reasoning. Glossary. Additional Exercises. Unit V: EVALUATING WHOLE ARGUMENTS. 10. Evaluating Premises: Self-Evidence, Consistency, Indirect Proof. Necessary Truths. Contingent Claims. Beyond "Self-Evidence". Glossary. Additional Exercises. 11. Informal Fallacies I: Assumptions, Language, Relevance, Authority. Fallacious Assumptions. Fallacies of Language. Fallacies of Relevance. Fallacious Appeals to Authority. Glossary. Additional Exercises. 12. Informal Fallacies Ii: Inductive Reasoning. Polling, Probability and Statistics. Analogy and Burden of Proof. Causality. A Final Word of Caution. Glossary. Additional Exercises. 13. Making Your Case: Argumentative Composition. The Issue Statement. Research and the Media. The Thesis Statement. Argument Design. The Presentation. Glossary. Additional Exercises.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harcourt School
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0155003747
• ISBN 13: 9780155003743
• Binding: Misc. Supplies
• Edition number: 3