Critical Thinking: Consider the Verdict, CourseSmart eTextbook, 5th Edition

For undergraduate courses in Critical Thinking, Informal Logic, and Critical Writing, as well as introductory or advanced argumentation courses.

Organized around lively and authentic examples drawn from jury trials, contemporary political and social debate, and advertising, this introduction shows students how to detect fallacies and how to examine, and construct cogent arguments. Accessible and reader friendly—yet thorough and rigorous—it shows how to integrate all logic skills into the critical decision-making process.

 1. Introduction.


 2. A Few Important Terms.


 3. What’s the Question?


 4. Relevant and Irrelevant Reasons.


 5. The Burden of Proof.


 6. Analyzing Arguments.


 7. Necessary and Sufficient Conditions.


 8. Symbolic Sentential Logic.


 9. Arguments about Classes.


10. Ad Hominem Arguments.


11. Appeal to Authority.


12. The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth.


13. Strawman, Slippery Slope, Dilemma, and Golden Mean Arguments: Their Use and Abuse.


14. Begging the Question.


15. Arguments by Analogy.


16. Scientific Reasoning.


17. Thinking Critically about Statistics.


Consider Your Verdict.


Key Terms.


Answers to Selected Exercises.


Index.