Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction

1. Introduction to Critical Thinking What is Critical Thinking? / Critical Thinking Standards / The Benefits of Critical Thinking / Barriers to Critical Thinking / Characteristics of a Critical Thinker / Chapter Summary 2. Recognizing Arguments What Is an Argument? / Identifying Premises and Conclusions / What Is Not an Argument? / Chapter Summary 3. Basic Logical Concepts Deduction and Induction / How Can We Tell Whether an Argument is Deductive or Inductive? / Common Patterns of Deductive Reasoning / Common Patterns of Inductive Reasoning / Deductive Validity / Inductive Strength / Testing for Validity / Chapter Summary 4. Language The Role of Language in the Assessment of Arguments / Deciding Whether a Premise is True or False / Precision and Personal Viewpoint in Our Own Arguments / Finding the Right Words: The Need for Precision / The Importance of Precise Definitions / Emotive Language: Slanting the Truth / Euphemism and Political Correctness / Chapter Summary 5. Logical Fallacies 1-The Concept of Relevance / Fallacies of Relevance / Chapter Summary 6 Logical Fallacies 2-Fallacies of Insufficient Evidence / Chapter Summary 7. Analyzing Arguments Diagramming Short Arguments / Summarizing Longer Arguments / Chapter Summary 8. Evaluating Arguments When Is an Argument a Good One? / When Is It Reasonable to Accept a Premise? / Chapter Summary Appendix: Sample Critical Essay 9. Getting Deeper into Logic: Categorical Reasoning Categorical Statements / Translating into Standard Categorical Form / Categorical Syllogisms / Chapter Summary 10. Getting Deeper into Logic: Propositional Logic Conjunction / Conjunction and Validity / Negation / Deeper Analysis of Negation and Conjunction / Disjunction / Conditional Statements / Chapter Summary 11. Inductive Reasoning Introduction to Induction / Inductive Generalizations / Statistical Arguments / Induction and Analogy / Induction and Causal Arguments / A Few Words about Probability / Chapter Summary 12. Finding, Evaluating and Using Sources Finding Sources / Refining Your Search / Directional Information / Informational Sources / Evaluating Sources / The Audience / Taking Notes / Using Sources / Acknowledging Sources / Chapter Summary 13. Writing Argumentative Essays Writing a Successful Argument / Before you Write / Writing the First Draft / After the First Draft / Sample Argumentative Essay / Chapter Summary 14. Thinking Critically About the Media The Mass Media / The News Media: Message vs. Meaning, Information vs. / Knowledge / Getting us to Pay Attention: What Really Drives the Media / Keeping Our Interest: The News as Entertainment / Media Literacy / Advertisements and the Media / Chapter Summary 15. Science and Pseudoscience The Basic Pattern of Scientific Reasoning / The Limitations of Science / How to Distinguish Science from Pseudoscience / Two Case Studies in Pseudoscience and the Paranormal / Chapter Summary Answers to Selected Exercises Glossary / IndexWilliam Irwin is the author of 'Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction' with ISBN 9780767417396 and ISBN 0767417399.