Critical Thinking: Formal and Informal Reasoning

Edition: 7

Copyright: 2018

Pages: 368

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Ebook

$98.40

ISBN 9781524976422

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A Critical Thinking Workbook: Formal and Informal Reasoning communicates the necessity of organized and structured thinking and writing in students’ lives. 

A Critical Thinking Workbook grabs the student’s attention early in the text by assuming his/her informal familiarity with the structure of ordinary language and uses it to expose the logical skeleton lying underneath the camouflaging layers of writing style and rhetorical flourish. The student is then introduced to the semantic method of truth tables and the synaptic method of natural proof theory as distinct methods of proving deductive validity. Finally, students are introduced to natural language fallacies and inductive logic.

A Critical Thinking Workbook:

  • is written in a friendly and encouraging style. 
  • introduces the reader into the world of propositional logic, argument presentation, truth tables, natural proof theory, natural language fallacies, and inductive logic. 

 

Acknowledgments

Chapter One: Logos and Critical Thinking
 1-1 Thinking Critically
 1-2 What is Critical Thinking?
 1-3 Why Critical Thinking Needs to be Studied
 1-4 Benefits and Dangers of Critical Thinking
 1-5 Arguments and Natural Language
 1-6 The Building Blocks of Arguments: Words, Sentences, and Propositions
 1-7 Definitions

Chapter Two: Propositional Logic
 2-1 Distinguishing Between Kinds of Propositions
 2-2 Conjunctions
 2-3 Disjunctions
 2-4 Making Negation
 2-5 Careful Punctuation
 2-6 Conditionals
 2-7 Bi-conditionals

Chapter Three: Argument Reconstruction and Analysis
3-1 Identifying Premises and Conclusions
3-2 Reconstructing Arguments
3-3 Arrow Diagrams
3-4 Missing Premises

Chapter Four: Inductive Arguments
4-1 Induction and Deduction
4-2 Enumerative Induction
4-3 Polls
4-4 Analogies
4-5 Causal Arguments

Chapter Five: Deductive Arguments
5-1 Validity and Invalidity, Soundness and Unsoundness
5-2 Some Valid Argument Forms: Modus Ponens, Modus Tollens, Hypothetical Syllogism, and Disjunctive Syllogism
5-3 Some Invalid Argument Forms: Affirming the Consequent, Denying the Antecedent, and Affirming The Disjunct
5-4 Proving Invalidity Through Counter-Example
5-5 Natural Language Argument Analysis and Disagreement

Chapter Six: Natural Language Fallacies
6-1 Fallacies of Natural Language
6-2 Fallacies of Relevance
6-3 Fallacies of Structure

Chapter Seven: Categorical Propositions
7-1 Standard Form Categorical Propositions
7-2 Translating Sentences into Standard and Categorical Form
7-3 The Square of Opposition
7-4 Immediate Inference
7-5 Distribution

Chapter Eight: Categorical Syllogisms
8-1 Major, Minor, and Middle Terms
8-2 Syllogistic Moods and Figures
8-3 The Venn Diagram Method
8-4 Diagraming Categorical Syllogisms
8-5 The Rules of Syllogistic Validity
8-6 Enthymemes

Chapter Nine: Truth Tables for Propositions, Consistency, and Equivalency
9-1 Truth Tables for the Logical Connectives
9-2 A Note on Parentheses and Truth Tables for Complex Propositions
9-3 Consistency
9-4 Equivalence
9-5 Some Useful Equivalencies

Chapter Ten: Truth Table Analysis of Argument Validity and Invalidity
10-1 Truth Table Test for Truth-Functional Validity
10-2 Modus Ponens, Modus Tollens, and Hypothetical Syllogisms
10-3 Disjunctive Syllogismss
10-4 Some Tricks of the Trade

Chapter Eleven: Natural Deduction, the Rules of Inference, and the Rules of Replacement
11-1 The Rules of Inference
11-2 Natural Deduction in Action
11-3 The Rules of Replacement
11-4 The Rules of Replacement Identified
11-5 The Rules of Replacement in Action

Appendix A
The Rules of Inference

Appendix B
The Rules of Replacement

GLOSSARY

INDEX

Robert Rex Welshon
Patrick Yarnell
Lorraine Marie Arangno

A Critical Thinking Workbook: Formal and Informal Reasoning communicates the necessity of organized and structured thinking and writing in students’ lives. 

A Critical Thinking Workbook grabs the student’s attention early in the text by assuming his/her informal familiarity with the structure of ordinary language and uses it to expose the logical skeleton lying underneath the camouflaging layers of writing style and rhetorical flourish. The student is then introduced to the semantic method of truth tables and the synaptic method of natural proof theory as distinct methods of proving deductive validity. Finally, students are introduced to natural language fallacies and inductive logic.

A Critical Thinking Workbook:

  • is written in a friendly and encouraging style. 
  • introduces the reader into the world of propositional logic, argument presentation, truth tables, natural proof theory, natural language fallacies, and inductive logic. 

 

Acknowledgments

Chapter One: Logos and Critical Thinking
 1-1 Thinking Critically
 1-2 What is Critical Thinking?
 1-3 Why Critical Thinking Needs to be Studied
 1-4 Benefits and Dangers of Critical Thinking
 1-5 Arguments and Natural Language
 1-6 The Building Blocks of Arguments: Words, Sentences, and Propositions
 1-7 Definitions

Chapter Two: Propositional Logic
 2-1 Distinguishing Between Kinds of Propositions
 2-2 Conjunctions
 2-3 Disjunctions
 2-4 Making Negation
 2-5 Careful Punctuation
 2-6 Conditionals
 2-7 Bi-conditionals

Chapter Three: Argument Reconstruction and Analysis
3-1 Identifying Premises and Conclusions
3-2 Reconstructing Arguments
3-3 Arrow Diagrams
3-4 Missing Premises

Chapter Four: Inductive Arguments
4-1 Induction and Deduction
4-2 Enumerative Induction
4-3 Polls
4-4 Analogies
4-5 Causal Arguments

Chapter Five: Deductive Arguments
5-1 Validity and Invalidity, Soundness and Unsoundness
5-2 Some Valid Argument Forms: Modus Ponens, Modus Tollens, Hypothetical Syllogism, and Disjunctive Syllogism
5-3 Some Invalid Argument Forms: Affirming the Consequent, Denying the Antecedent, and Affirming The Disjunct
5-4 Proving Invalidity Through Counter-Example
5-5 Natural Language Argument Analysis and Disagreement

Chapter Six: Natural Language Fallacies
6-1 Fallacies of Natural Language
6-2 Fallacies of Relevance
6-3 Fallacies of Structure

Chapter Seven: Categorical Propositions
7-1 Standard Form Categorical Propositions
7-2 Translating Sentences into Standard and Categorical Form
7-3 The Square of Opposition
7-4 Immediate Inference
7-5 Distribution

Chapter Eight: Categorical Syllogisms
8-1 Major, Minor, and Middle Terms
8-2 Syllogistic Moods and Figures
8-3 The Venn Diagram Method
8-4 Diagraming Categorical Syllogisms
8-5 The Rules of Syllogistic Validity
8-6 Enthymemes

Chapter Nine: Truth Tables for Propositions, Consistency, and Equivalency
9-1 Truth Tables for the Logical Connectives
9-2 A Note on Parentheses and Truth Tables for Complex Propositions
9-3 Consistency
9-4 Equivalence
9-5 Some Useful Equivalencies

Chapter Ten: Truth Table Analysis of Argument Validity and Invalidity
10-1 Truth Table Test for Truth-Functional Validity
10-2 Modus Ponens, Modus Tollens, and Hypothetical Syllogisms
10-3 Disjunctive Syllogismss
10-4 Some Tricks of the Trade

Chapter Eleven: Natural Deduction, the Rules of Inference, and the Rules of Replacement
11-1 The Rules of Inference
11-2 Natural Deduction in Action
11-3 The Rules of Replacement
11-4 The Rules of Replacement Identified
11-5 The Rules of Replacement in Action

Appendix A
The Rules of Inference

Appendix B
The Rules of Replacement

GLOSSARY

INDEX

Robert Rex Welshon
Patrick Yarnell
Lorraine Marie Arangno