Invitation to Critical Thinking - Softcover

Rudinow, Joel; Barry, Vincent E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0495103713 ISBN 13: 9780495103714

Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing, 2007

Synopsis

INVITATION TO CRITICAL THINKING teaches you how to recognize, analyze, evaluate, and compose arguments that can be used as tools of rational persuasion. Fostering discussions of critical thinking and its application in mass media, effective writing, and problem solving, this book will introduce you to a wide variety of strategies for identifying and analyzing arguments in the world around you. In addition, the robust companion website offers an array of online tools that offer an unprecedented variety of interactive exercises that will not only help you remember important concepts, but apply them as well.

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.

Vincent Barry has been professor of philosophy at Bakersfield College for over thirty years. In addition to authoring PHILOSOPHICAL THINKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING, he is the co-author of three other widely read Wadsworth publications: APPLYING ETHICS, MORAL ISSUES IN BUSINESS and INVITATION TO CRITICAL THINKING. Currently, he lives in Santa Barbara with his wife Jeannine and his young daughter Jen-Li Rose, whom he and his wife adopted in China in 1997.

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: Wadsworth Publishing
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0495103713
• ISBN 13: 9780495103714
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 6
• Number of pages: 400