Good Reasoning Matters! A Constructive Approach to Critical Thinking

Offering an innovative approach to critical thinking, Good Reasoning Matters!, Fourth Edition, identifies the essential structure of good arguments in a variety of contexts and also provides guidelines to help students construct their own effective arguments. In addition to examining the most common features of faulty reasoning--slanting, bias, propaganda, vagueness, ambiguity, and a common failure to consider opposing points of view--the book introduces a variety of argument schemes and rhetorical techniques. It also includes an analysis of visual argumentation, which has become a significant aspect of critical thinking in the 21st century.
Significantly revised, the fourth edition is the most theoretically up-to-date text available. It features a wealth of new exercises, updated chapter summaries, new inter-chapter references, new study questions, and updated web links.

Dr. Leo Groarke is the Dean of the Brantford campus of Wilfrid Laurier University. He received his PhD from the University of Western Ontario. His academic interests include ethics, aesthetics, and the history of ideas. His work in all three areas is motivated by an interest in the limits of rationality and science and an emphasis on concrete ethical and aesthetic questions, as opposed to abstract theoretical disputes. Professor Christopher Tindale received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Waterloo. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Windsor, having recently come from Trent University where her was the acting chair of the Department of Philosophy. His primary interests are in argumentation theory, Greek philosophy, and moral issues.