Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide

Attempts to persuade us - to believe something, to do something, to buy something - are everywhere. What is less clear is how to think critically about such attempts and how to distinguish those that are sound arguments. Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide is a much needed guide to argument analysis and a clear introduction to thinking clearly and rationally for oneself. Accessibly written, this book equips students with the essential skills required to tell a good argument from a bad one.
Key features of the book include:
* clear, jargon-free discussion of key concepts in argumentation
* how to avoid common confusions surrounding words such as 'truth', 'knowledge' and 'opinion'
* how to identify and evaluate the most common types of argument
* how to spot fallacies and tell good reasoning from bad
* chapter summaries, exercises, examples and a glossary.

The second edition has been updated to include topical new examples from politics, sport, medicine and music, as well as new exercises throughout.

Tracy Bowell is lecturer in philosophy at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Gary Kemp is lecturer in philosophy at Glasgow University.