Critical Thinking

'You shouldn't drink too much. The Earth is round. Milk is good for your bones.' Are any of these claims true? How can you tell? Can you ever be certain you are right? For anyone tackling philosophical logic and critical thinking for the first time, Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Reasoning Well provides a practical guide to the skills required to think critically. From the basics of good reasoning to the difference between claims, evidence and arguments, Robert Arp and Jamie Carlin Watson cover the topics found in an introductory course.Now revised and fully updated, this Second Edition features a glossary, chapter summaries, more student-friendly exercises, study questions, diagrams, and suggestions for further reading. Topics include: the structure, formation, analysis and recognition of arguments deductive validity and soundness inductive strength and cogencyinference to the best explanation truth tables tools for argument assessmentinformal and formal fallacies With real life examples, advice on graduate school entrance exams and an expanded companion website packed with additional exercises, an answer key and help with real life examples, this easy-to-follow introduction is a complete beginner's tool set to good reasoning, analyzing and arguing. Ideal for students in basic reasoning courses and students preparing for graduate school.

Preface to the Second Edition Part I: The Basics of Good Reasoning1. The Basic Tools of Reasoning2. Evaluating ArgumentsPart II: Deductive Reasoning3. Thinking and Reasoning with Categories4. Basic Propositional Logic5. Truth Tables6. Rules of InferencePart III: Inductive Reasoning 7. Probability and Induction8. Inductive Arguments9. Experiment and Inference to the Best Explanation10. Informal Fallacies11. Putting it All Together12. Reasoning on Graduate Entrance ExamsGlossaryIndex