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| Acknowledgements | |
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| Reasoning and Critical Thinking | |
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| Reasoning | |
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| The Concept of Logical Strength | |
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| Truth, Logical Strength and Soundness | |
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| Critical Thinking Skills | |
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| Critical Thinking and the Science of Logic | |
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| Self-Test No. 1 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Meaning and Definition | |
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| The Complexity of Language | |
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| The Meaning of Language | |
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| The Main Functions of Language | |
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| Self-Test No. 2 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Definition | |
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| The Purposes of Definition | |
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| Methods of Definition | |
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| Assessing Reportive Definitions | |
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| Assessing Stipulative and Essentialist Definitions | |
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| A Warning | |
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| Self-Test No. 3 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Clarifying Meaning | |
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| The Principle of Charity | |
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| Linguistic Ambiguity | |
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| Self-Test No. 4 | |
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| Analytic, Contradictory and Synthetic Statements | |
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| Self-Test No. 5 | |
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| Descriptive and Evaluative Meaning | |
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| Self-Test No. 6 | |
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| Necessary and Sufficient Conditions | |
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| Self-Test No. 7 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Reconstructing Arguments | |
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| Reconstruction | |
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| Missing Premises and Conclusions | |
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| Self-Test No. 8 | |
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| Near Arguments | |
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| Self-Test No. 9 | |
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| The Structure of Arguments | |
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| Self-Test No. 10 | |
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| Another Warning | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Strategies for Assessing Arguments | |
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| The Fallacies Approach | |
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| The Criterial Approach | |
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| Seven Rules for Assessing Arguments | |
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| Assessing Truth Claims | |
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| Theories of Truth | |
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| Types of Truth Claims | |
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| Acceptability | |
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| Self-Test No. 11 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Assessing The Acceptability of Premises | |
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| Some Particular Fallacies | |
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| Self-Test No. 12 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Assessing Relevance | |
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| The Criterion of Relevance | |
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| Recognizing Irrelevant Premises | |
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| Appeals To Authority (I) | |
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| Some Particular Fallacies | |
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| Self-Test No. 13 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Assessing Adequacy | |
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| The Criterion of Adequacy | |
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| Appeals to Authority (2) | |
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| Analogical Reasoning | |
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| Appeals to Ignorance | |
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| The Slippery Slope Fallacy | |
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| Causal Fallacies | |
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| Self-Test No. 14 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Deductive Reasoning | |
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| The Nature of Deductive Reasoning | |
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| Truth-Functional Statements | |
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| Formal Validity and Soundness | |
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| Valid Argument Forms | |
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| Formal Invalidity | |
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| Self-Test No. 15 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Inductive Reasoning | |
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| The Nature of Inductive Reasoning | |
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| Inductive Generalization | |
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| Statistical Syllogism | |
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| Induction By Confirmation | |
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| Self-Test No. 16 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Moral Reasoning | |
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| Moral Judgments and Judgments of Taste | |
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| Moral Justification | |
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| Appeals to Principles of Right and Wrong | |
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| Self-Test No. 17 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Appeals To Consequences | |
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| Self-Test No. 18 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Rational Agreement | |
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| Moral Maturity | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Arguing Back | |
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| Explaining the Weakness | |
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| Counter-examples | |
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| Absurd Examples | |
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| Counter-arguments | |
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| Self-Test No. 19 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Irrational Techniques of Persuasion | |
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| Loaded Terms | |
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| Vague Terms | |
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| Loaded Questions | |
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| False Confidence | |
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| Selectivity | |
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| Misleading Statistics | |
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| Humour | |
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| Red Herring | |
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| Guilt By Association | |
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| Persuasive Redefinition | |
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| Self-Test No. 20 | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Critiquing the Media | |
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| Determining Bias | |
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| Is Objective Reporting Possible? | |
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| How to Assess News Reports | |
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| Another Warning | |
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| Questions for Discussion | |
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| Writing and Assessing Argumentative Essays | |
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| Writing Argumentative Essays: Structure | |
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| Writing Argumentative Essays: Style | |
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| Assessing Argumentative Essays | |
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| Assessing a Sample Argumentative Essay | |
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| Question for Discussion | |
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| Paradoxes and Puzzles | |
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| App. II: Answers to Self-Tests | |
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| Index | |