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| Introduction to Critical Thinking What is Critical Thinking? | |
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| Critical Thinking Standards | |
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| The Benefits of Critical Thinking Barriers to Critical Thinking | |
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| Characteristics of a Critical Thinker | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Recognizing Arguments What Is an Argument? | |
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| Identifying Premises and Conclusions | |
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| What Is Not an Argument? | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Basic Logical Concepts Deduction and Induction | |
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| How Can We Tell Whether an Argument is Deductive or Inductive? | |
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| Common Patterns of Deductive Reasoning | |
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| Common Patterns of Inductive Reasoning | |
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| Deductive Validity | |
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| Inductive Strength | |
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| Testing for Validity | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Language The Role of Language in the Assessment of Arguments | |
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| Deciding Whether a Premise is True or False | |
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| Precision and Personal Viewpoint in Our Own Arguments | |
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| Finding the Right Words: The Need for Precision | |
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| The Importance of Precise Definitions | |
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| Emotive Language: Slanting the Truth | |
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| Euphemism and Political Correctness | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Logical Fallacies 1-The Concept of Relevance | |
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| Fallacies of Relevance | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Logical Fallacies 2-Fallacies of Insufficient Evidence | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Analyzing Arguments Diagramming Short Arguments | |
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| Summarizing Longer Arguments | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Evaluating Arguments When Is an Argument a Good One? | |
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| When Is It Reasonable to Accept a Premise? | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Appendix: Sample Critical Essay | |
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| Getting Deeper into Logic: Categorical Reasoning Categorical Statements | |
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| Translating into Standard Categorical Form | |
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| Categorical Syllogisms | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Getting Deeper into Logic: Propositional Logic Conjunction | |
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| Conjunction and Validity | |
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| Negation | |
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| Deeper Analysis of Negation and Conjunction | |
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| Disjunction | |
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| Conditional Statements | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Inductive Reasoning Introduction to Induction | |
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| Inductive Generalizations | |
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| Statistical Arguments | |
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| Induction and Analogy | |
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| Induction and Causal Arguments | |
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| A Few Words about Probability | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Finding, Evaluating and Using Sources Finding Sources | |
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| Refining Your Search | |
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| Directional Information | |
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| Informational Sources | |
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| Evaluating Sources | |
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| The Audience | |
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| Taking Notes | |
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| Using Sources | |
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| Acknowledging Sources | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Writing Argumentative Essays Writing a Successful Argument | |
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| Before you Write | |
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| Writing the First Draft | |
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| After the First Draft | |
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| Sample Argumentative Essay | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Thinking Critically About the Media The Mass Media | |
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| The News Media: Message vs. Meaning, Information vs. Knowledge | |
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| Getting us to Pay Attention: What Really Drives the Media | |
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| Keeping Our Interest: The News as Entertainment | |
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| Media Literacy | |
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| Advertisements and the Media | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Science and Pseudoscience The Basic Pattern of Scientific Reasoning | |
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| The Limitations of Science | |
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| How to Distinguish Science from Pseudoscience | |
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| Two Case Studies in Pseudoscience and the Paranormal | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Answers to Selected Exercises | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Index | |