Description: PART I. CRITICAL THINKING 1. Introduction to Critical Thinking What Does Critical Thinking Involve? / Argument / Fallacies / Why Study Fallacies? / The Mass Media / Adopting a Critical Point of View / 2. Claims Claim Making / Descriptive and Value-Laden Claims / Clarity / Impediments to Clarity / Clearing Things Up: Definition / Media Watch: The Language of Advertising / 3. Assessing Arguments When Is an Argument Acceptable? / Assessing Premises / Assessing Inferential Strength: The Main Method / Assessing Inferential Strength: An Alternative Method / Deduction and Induction / Strong and Weak Refutation / 4. Welcome to the Real World: Arguments in Context Recognizing Arguments: Telltale Signs / Paraphrasing Arguments / Complicating Factors / PART II. FALLACIES / 5. Relevance A Note of Caution / Classifying Fallacies / Types of Relevance / A Test for Relevance / Fallacies of Relevance / 6. Distortion Distortions of Fact / Distortions of the Views of Others / Media Watch: Distortion in the Coverage of the News / 7. Ambiguity and Redundancy Equivocation / Collective and Distributive Properties / Division / Composition / Hypostatization / Circular Reasoning / Begging the Question / 8. Analogy Arguments by Analogy / Analogical Refutations / Assessing Arguments by Analogy / The Uses of Analogy / Working Through Arguments by Analogy / 9. Generalizations and Causes Generalizations / Fallacies Involving Generalizations / Reasoning About Causes / Testing for Causal Links / Causal Fallacies / Media Watch: Science in the News Media / 10. Reason, Rhetoric, and Emotion: The Fine Art of Manipulation Reason and Emotion / Emotional Manipulation / Reason and Rhetoric / Rhetorical Manipulation / Logical Self-Defense / Media Watch: Advertising / In each chapter: Summary Exercises Solutions to Exercises

Please Wait