
Critical Thinking
An Introduction to Analytical Reading and Reasoning
Larry Wright(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 15. March 2001
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-0-19-513033-1 (ISBN)
Description
Extensively classroom-tested, Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Analytical Reading and Reasoning provides a non-technical vocabulary and analytic apparatus that guide students in identifying and articulating the central patterns found in reasoning and in expository writing more generally. Understanding these patterns of reasoning helps students to better analyze, evaluate, and construct arguments and to more easily comprehend the full range of everyday arguments found in ordinary journalism. Critical Thinking distinguishes itself from other texts in the field by emphasizing analytical reading as an essential skill. It also provides detailed coverage of argument analysis, diagnostic arguments, diagnostic patterns, and fallacies. Opening with two chapters on analytical reading that help students recognize what makes reasoning explicitly different from other expository activities, the text then presents an interrogative model of argument to guide them in the analysis and evaluation of reasoning. This model allows a detailed articulation of "inference to the best explanation" and gives students a view of the pervasiveness of this form of reasoning.
The author demonstrates how many common argument types--from correlations to sampling--can be analyzed using this articulated form. He then extends the model to deal with several predictive and normative arguments and to display the value of the fallacy vocabulary. Designed for introductory courses in critical thinking, critical reasoning, informal logic, and inductive reasoning, Critical Thinking features hundreds of exercises throughout and includes worked-out solutions and additional exercises (without solutions) at the end of each chapter. An Instructor's Manual, including solutions to the text's unanswered exercises and featuring other pedagogical aids, is available.
The author demonstrates how many common argument types--from correlations to sampling--can be analyzed using this articulated form. He then extends the model to deal with several predictive and normative arguments and to display the value of the fallacy vocabulary. Designed for introductory courses in critical thinking, critical reasoning, informal logic, and inductive reasoning, Critical Thinking features hundreds of exercises throughout and includes worked-out solutions and additional exercises (without solutions) at the end of each chapter. An Instructor's Manual, including solutions to the text's unanswered exercises and featuring other pedagogical aids, is available.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
24 line illustrations, glossary, index
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 164 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
572 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-513033-1 (9780195130331)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
Part One. PARAPHRASING; 1. THE BARE-BONES PARAPHRASE; The Concept of Paraphrase; Reading and Paraphrase; Technique and Vocabulary; Human Understanding; Subtler Issues; Two Principles of Paraphrasing; Things to Keep in Mind; 2. READING FOR STRUCTURE: DEPENDENCY AND SUBORDINATION; Complexity; Technique and Vocabulary; Useful Patterns; Tricks for Tough Cases; Systematic Features; Trial and Error Exercise; 3. READING FOR REASONING: PARAPHRASING ARGUMENTS; Reading for a Particular Purpose; Reading for Reasoning; A Shortcut: Schematizing Directly from a Passage; Charitable Schematizing; PART TWO. ANALYZING REASONING; 4. ARGUMENT ANALYSIS: ANSWERING QUESTIONS; The Purpose of Analysis; The Fundamental Concepts: Questions and Answers; Refining the Apparatus and Exercising Our Skills; Evaluating Arguments: How Good Are the Reasons?; Interim Summary: What We Have Learned So Far; Dealing With Disagreement; 5. DIAGNOSTIC ARGUMENTS; Diagnostic Questions; Diagnostic Concepts; Diagnostic Articulation; Refinements; Diagnostic Investigation; 6. DIAGNOSTIC PATTERNS; Cause and Correlation; Testimony; Sampling; Counting Cases: Induction by Enumeration; Circumstantial Evidence; 7. FURTHER APPLICATIONS: PREDICTION AND RECOMMENDATION; Prediction; Recommendation; 8. FALLACIES; Fallacies of Construction; Critical Fallacies. APPENDICES. DEDUCTION; Introduction; Semantic Conflict; Semantic Evaluation; Deductive Argments; Structure; Tests and Criteria; Relative Strength.