Critical Thinking

Description

This fifth edition of Critical Thinking by the noted logician Richard L. Epstein is practical, engaging, and easy to teach. Students enjoy and understand it because it is clear and has hundreds of examples using a cast of characters who reason as we do every day. More than 1,000 exercises lead students to be able to reason well in their courses and their lives. Essay writing lessons and visual writing lessons, using the cast of characters, teach students that first comes clear thinking and then comes clear writing. A complete and comprehensive Instructor's Manual makes the text easy to teach and grade. New to this edition: chapters on explanations and reasoning in the sciences. • Over 1,000 examples and exercises from daily life. • A dozen original writing lessons fully integrated with the text. • Unique cartoon writing lessons help students apply critical thinking to non-verbal situations. Table of Contents To the Student To the Instructor The Fundamentals 1 Critical Thinking Writing Lesson 1 2 What Are We Arguing About? Writing Lesson 2 3 What Is a Good Argument? Writing Lesson 3 Cartoon Writing Lesson A 4 Is That True? Writing Lesson 4 5 Repairing Arguments Writing Lesson 5 Cartoon Writing Lesson B 6 Counterarguments Writing Lesson 6 Review Chapters 1–6 The Structure of Arguments 7 Compound Claims Writing Lesson 7 Cartoon Writing Lesson C 8 General Claims Writing Lesson 8 Review Chapters 7 and 8 Avoiding Bad Arguments 9 Concealed Claims 10 Too Much Emotion 11 Fallacies Writing Lesson 9 Cartoon Writing Lesson D Short Arguments for Analysis Analyzing Complex Arguments Reasoning from Experience 12 Reasoning by Analogy Writing Lesson 10 13 Numbers? 14 Generalizing 15 Cause and Effect Cartoon Writing Lesson E Review Chapters 12–15 16 Explanations Making Decisions 17 Risk 18 Making Decisions Composing Good Arguments Writing Lesson 11 Your Cartoon Writing Lesson More Cartoon Writing Lessons Reasoning in the Sciences A Science Journal Article 1S Getting Started in Science 2S Definitions in Science 3S Experiments 4S What Can Go Wrong with Experiments? Science Arguments for Analysis 5S Models and Theories 6S Explanations in Science 7S Ways of Knowing Evaluating Reasoning Glossary Answers to Selected Exercises Index