The Uses and Abuses of Argument: Critical Thinking and Fallacious Reasoning
Published on 16. August 1999
Book
Paperback/Softback
292 pages
978-0-7674-0517-1 (ISBN)
Description
Lively and jargon-free, this example-driven critical thinking text pays particular attention to fallacious reasoning as well as to the kinds of valid arguments that correspond to nearly every fallacy. The text provides detailed discussions of the types of correct argument and inference corresponding to each fallacy and offers a "Media Watch" section in each chapter.
Lively and jargon-free, this example-driven critical thinking text pays particular attention to fallacious reasoning as well as to the kinds of valid arguments that correspond to nearly every fallacy. The text provides detailed discussions of the types of correct argument and inference corresponding to each fallacy and offers a "Media Watch" section in each chapter.
Lively and jargon-free, this example-driven critical thinking text pays particular attention to fallacious reasoning as well as to the kinds of valid arguments that correspond to nearly every fallacy. The text provides detailed discussions of the types of correct argument and inference corresponding to each fallacy and offers a "Media Watch" section in each chapter.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
McGraw-Hill Education - Europe
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
363 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7674-0517-1 (9780767405171)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
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