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Power of Critical Thinking Effective Reasoning about Ordinary and Extraordinary Claims

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ISBN-10: 0195320417

ISBN-13: 9780195320411

Edition: 2nd 2008 (Revised)

Authors: Lewis Vaughn

List price: $79.95
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Enhanced by many innovative exercises, examples, and pedagogical features, The Power of Critical Thinking: Effective Reasoning About Ordinary and Extraordinary Claims, Second Edition, explores the essentials of critical reasoning, argumentation, logic, and argumentative essay writing while also incorporating material on important topics that most other texts leave out. Author Lewis Vaughn offers comprehensive treatments of core topics, including an introduction to claims and arguments, discussions of propositional and categorical logic, and full coverage of the basics of inductive reasoning. Building on this solid foundation, he also delves into areas neglected by other texts, adding…    
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Book details

List price: $79.95
Edition: 2nd
Copyright year: 2008
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 1/22/2007
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 580
Size: 9.88" wide x 7.91" long x 0.79" tall
Weight: 2.134
Language: English

Lewis Vaughn is an independent scholar and freelance writer living in Amherst, New York. He is the author of several leading textbooks, including Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues.

Each chapter includes a Summary, Exercises, Field Problem(s), Self-Assessment Quiz, and Writing Assignments
Preface
Basics
The Power of Critical Thinking
Why It Matters
How It Works
Claims and Reasons
Reasons and Arguments
Arguments in the Rough
Critical Thinking and Writing: Module 1
The "Environment" of Critical Thinking
Perils of a Haunted Mind
The Almighty Self
The Power of the Group
Perils of a Haunted Worldview
Subjective Relativism
Social Relativism
Skepticism
Critical Thinking and Writing: Module 2
Making Sense of Arguments
Argument Basics
Judging Arguments
Finding Missing Parts
Argument Patterns
Diagramming Arguments
Assessing Long Arguments
Critical Thinking and Writing: Module 3
Reasons
Reasons for Belief and Doubt
When Claims Conflict
Experts and Evidence
Personal Experience
Impairment
Expectation
Innumeracy
Fooling Ourselves
Resisting Contrary Evidence
Looking for Confirming Evidence
Preferring Available Evidence
Claims in the News
Inside the News
Sorting Out the News
Critical Thinking and Writing: Module 4
Faulty Reasoning
Irrelevant Premises
Genetic Fallacy
Composition
Division
Appeal to the Person
Equivocation
Appeal to Popularity
Appeal to Tradition
Appeal to Ignorance
Appeal to Emotion
Red Herring
Straw Man
Unacceptable Premises
Begging the Question
False Dilemma
Slippery Slope
Hasty Generalization
Faulty Analogy
Arguments
Deductive Reasoning: Propositional Logic
Connectives and Truth Values
Conjunction
Disjunction
Negation
Conditional
Checking for Validity
Simple Arguments
Tricky Arguments
Streamlined Evaluation
Deductive Reasoning: Categorical Logic
Statements and Classes
Translations and Standard Form
Terms
Quantifiers
Diagramming Categorical Statements
Sizing Up Categorical Syllogisms
Inductive Reasoning
Enumerative Induction
Sample Size
Representativeness
Opinion Polls
Analogical Induction
Causal Arguments
Testing for Causes
Causal Confusions
Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
Explanations
Inference to the Best Explanation
Explanations and Inference
Theories and Consistency
Theories and Criteria
Testability
Fruitfulness
Scope
Simplicity
Conservatism
Telling Good Theories from Bad
A Doomed Flight
An Amazing Cure
Judging Scientific Theories
Science and Not Science
The Scientific Method
Testing Scientific Theories
Judging Scientific Theories
Copernicus Versus Ptolemy
Evolution Versus Creationism
Science and Weird Theories
Making Weird Mistakes
Leaping to the Weirdest Theory
Mixing What Seems with What Is
Misunderstanding the Possibilities
Judging Weird Theories
Crop Circles