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Critical Thinking A Concise Guide

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ISBN-10: 0415471834

ISBN-13: 9780415471831

Edition: 3rd 2010 (Revised)

Authors: Tracy Bowell, Gary Kemp

List price: $43.95
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Book details

List price: $43.95
Edition: 3rd
Copyright year: 2010
Publisher: Routledge
Publication date: 8/11/2009
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 294
Size: 7.00" wide x 9.75" long x 0.75" tall
Weight: 1.232
Language: English

Christopher Belshaw is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Staff Tutor with the Open University. He works mainly at the theoretical end of applied ethics. He is the author of Ideas (Open University 1998), Environmental Philosophy (Acumen, 2001) and 10 Good Questions About Life and Death (Blackwell, 2005). Another book, Annihilation: The Sense and Significance of Death, is forthcoming.Gary Kemp is Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at the University of Glasgow. He works in the philosophy of logic and language, on Frege, Russell, Quine and Davidson, and on aesthetics and philosophical themes in literature. He is the author of Quine: A Guide for the Perplexed (2005) and, with Tracy…    

Introducing arguments
Beginning to think critically
Aspects of meaning
Definitions
Necessary and sufficient conditions
Primary and secondary connotation
Generalisations
Quantifiers
Standard form
Identifying premises and conclusions
Extraneous material
Arguments and explanations
Extended arguments
Linguistic Phenomena, Rhetoric
Ambiguity
Vagueness
Irony
Metaphor
Rhetorical questions
Rhetorical ploys spin
Logic: Validity
The Principle of Charity
Truth
Deductive Validity
Argument Trees
Conditional Propositions
Deductive Soundness
The connection to formal logic
Logic: Inductive Force
Inductive force 'all', 'most' and 'some'
Soft generalisations
Inductive Soundess
Probability in the premises
Arguments with multiple probabilistic premises
Inductive force in extended arguments
Conditional Probability in the conclusion
Evidence
Inductive inferences
A programme for assessment
Argument Reconstruction
Extraneous material
Defusing the rhetoric
Logical streamlining
Implicit and explicit
Connecting premises
Covering generalisations
Relevance; Ambiguity and Vagueness
More on generalisations
Practical reasoning Balancing costs, benefits, and probabilities
Explanations as conclusions
Causal generalisations
A shortcut
Argument Assessment
Rational persuasiveness
Some strategies for logical assessment
Refutation by Counterexample
Avoiding the 'who is to say' criticism
Don't merely label the position
Argument commentary
A complete example
Commentary on the commentary
Pseudo Reasoning
Fallacies
Faulty argument techniques
Arguing from analogy
Arguments from authority
Truth, Knowledge and Belief
Truth and relativity
True for me, true for you
Theories
Truth, value and morality
Belief, justification and truth
Justification without arguments
Knowledge
Justification failure
Knowledge and rational persuasiveness
Philosophical directions