The Power of Critical Thinking

Auteur
Lewis Vaughn is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including Bioethics, Fifth Edition (2022), The Power of Critical Thinking, Seventh Edition, (2021), Philosophy Here and Now, fourth Edition (2021), and Living Philosophy, third Edition (2020), all published by Oxford University Press. He also publishes Doing Ethics, Fifth Edition (2018) with W.W. Norton.

Texte du rabat

The Power of Critical Thinking explores the essentials of critical reasoning, argumentation, logic, and argumentative essay writing while also incorporating important topics that most other texts leave out, such as "inference to the best explanation," scientific reasoning, evidence and authority, visual reasoning, and obstacles to critical thinking.

Résumé
The Power of Critical Thinking: Effective Reasoning About Ordinary and Extraordinary Claims is the #1 selling critical thinking textbook, primarily intended for the Critical Thinking, informal logic, Critical Thought and Reasoning courses. These courses, and where this book is successful, is taught out of the Philosophy department- not to be confused with the student success oriented Critical Thinking course. It explores the essentials of critical reasoning, argumentation, logic, and argumentative essay writing while also incorporating important topics that most other texts leave out, such as "inference to the best explanation," scientific reasoning, evidence and authority, visual reasoning, and obstacles to critical thinking. The book is praised for Vaughn's clear, concise, and lively writing, its real-world applications, and its focus on teaching students how to write critically and effectively-covered in Appendix B (Essays for Evaluation) and Appendix E (Critical Thinking and Writing). People also appreciate that the book is more economically priced than most competing texts. The text integrates many pedagogical features, including hundreds of diverse exercises, examples, and illustrations; text boxes that apply critical thinking to student experience; step-by-step guidelines for evaluating claims, arguments, and explanations; a glossary of important terms; and many reminders, summaries, and review notes.

Contenu

• PREFACE?

• ??Part One?BASICS

• 1 The Power of Critical Thinking?

• WHY IT MATTERS?

• HOW IT WORKS?

• Claims and Reasons?

• Reasons and Arguments?

• Arguments in the Rough?

• KEY WORDS?

• SUMMARY?

• EXERCISES?

• FIELD PROBLEMS?

• SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ?

• WRITING ASSIGNMENTS?

• 2 Obstacles to Critical Thinking?

• ALL HAIL THE SELF?

• ALL HAIL MY GROUP?

• THE TOUGHEST MENTAL OBSTACLES?

• Denying Contrary Evidence?

• Looking for Confirming Evidence?

• Motivated Reasoning?

• Preferring Available Evidence?

• YOUR BRAIN ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

• Mere Exposure Effect?

• Illusion-of-Truth Effect?

• False Consensus Effect?

• The Dunning-Kruger Effect?

• PHILOSOPHICAL OBSTACLES?

• Subjective Relativism?

• Social Relativism?

• Skepticism?

• KEY WORDS?

• SUMMARY?

• EXERCISES?

• FIELD PROBLEMS?

• SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ?

• INTEGRATIVE EXERCISES?

• WRITING ASSIGNMENTS?

• 3 Making Sense of Arguments?

• ARGUMENT BASICS?

• EXERCISE?

• JUDGING ARGUMENTS?

• EXERCISES?

• FINDING MISSING PARTS?

• EXERCISE?

• ARGUMENT PATTERNS?

• EXERCISES?

• DIAGRAMMING ARGUMENTS?

• EXERCISES?

• ASSESSING LONG ARGUMENTS

• EXERCISES?

• KEY WORDS?

• SUMMARY?

• FIELD PROBLEMS?

• SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ?

• INTEGRATIVE EXERCISES?

• WRITING ASSIGNMENTS?

• ??Part Two?REASONS

• 4 Reasons for Belief and Doubt?

• WHEN CLAIMS CONFLICT?

• EXPERTS AND NONEXPERTS?

• PERSONAL EXPERIENCE?

• Impairment?

• Expectation?

• Innumeracy and Probability?

• KEY WORDS?

• SUMMARY?

• EXERCISES?

• FIELD PROBLEMS?

• SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ?

• INTEGRATIVE EXERCISES?

• WRITING ASSIGNMENTS?

• 5 Media Manipulation: Fake News, Bias, and Advertising?

• FAKE NEWS?

• Telling Fake from Real?

• MEDIA BIAS?

• Objectivity and Bias?

• Opinion, Analysis, Advocacy?

• Liberal and Conservative Bias?

• ADVERTISING?

• How Advertising Works?

• Internet Advertising?

• Political Advertising?

• KEY WORDS?

• SUMMARY?

• EXERCISES?

• FIELD PROBLEM?

• SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ?

• INTEGRATIVE EXERCISES?

• WRITING ASSIGNMENTS?

• 6 Fallacies and Persuaders?

• FALLACIES: IRRELEVANT PREMISES?

• Genetic Fallacy?

• Composition?

• Division?

• Appeal to the Person?

• Equivocation?

• Appeal to Popularity?

• Appeal to Tradition?

• Appeal to Ignorance?

• Appeal to Emotion?

• Red Herring?

• Straw Man?

• Two Wrongs Make a Right?

• FALLACIES: UNACCEPTABLE PREMISES?

• Begging the Question?

• False Dilemma?

• Decision-Point Fallacy?

• Slippery Slope?

• Hasty Generalization?

• Faulty Analogy?

• PERSUADERS: RHETORICAL MOVES?

• Innuendo?

• Euphemisms and Dysphemisms?

• Stereotyping?

• Ridicule?

• Rhetorical Definitions?

• KEY WORDS?

• SUMMARY?

• EXERCISES?

• FIELD PROBLEMS?

• SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ?

• INTEGRATIVE EXERCISES?

• WRITING ASSIGNMENTS?

• ??Part Three?ARGUMENTS

• 7 Deductive Reasoning: Propositional Logic?

• CONNECTIVES AND TRUTH VALUES?

• Conjunction?

• Disjunction?

• Negation?

• Conditional?

• EXERCISES?

• CHECKING FOR VALIDITY?

• Simple Arguments?

• Tricky Arguments?

• Streamlined Evaluation?

• EXERCISES?

• PROOF OF VALIDITY?

• Rules of Inference?

• Rules of Replacement?

• EXERCISES?

• KEY WORDS?

• SUMMARY?

• FIELD PROBLEMS?

• SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ?

• INTEGRATIVE EXERCISES?

• WRITING ASSIGNMENTS?

• 8 Deductive Reasoning: Categorical Logic?

• STATEMENTS AND CLASSES?

• EXERCISES?

• TRANSLATIONS AND STANDARD FORM?

• Terms?

• Quantifiers?

• EXERCISES?

• DIAGRAMMING CATEGORICAL STATEMENTS?

• EXERCISES?

• SIZING UP CATEGORICAL SYLLOGISMS?

• EXERCISES?

• THE SQUARE OF OPPOSITION?

• CATEGORICAL EQUIVALENCE?

• EXERCISES?

• KEY WORDS?

• SUMMARY?

• FIELD PROBLEMS?

• SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ?

• INTEGRATIVE EXERCISES?

• WRITING ASSIGNMENTS?

• 9 Inductive Reasoning?

• ENUMERATIVE INDUCTION?

• Sample Size?

• Representativeness?

• Opinion Polls?

• EXERCISES?

• ANALOGICAL INDUCTION?

• Relevant Similarities?

• Relevant Dissimilarities?

• The Number of Instances Compared?

• Diversity among Cases?

• EXERCISES?

• CAUSAL ARGUMENTS?

• Testing for Causes?

• Causal Confusions?

• Necessary and Sufficient Conditions?

• EXERCISES?

• KEY WORDS?

• SUMMARY?

• FIELD PROBLEMS?

• SELF-ASSESSMENT QUIZ?

• INTEGRATIVE EXERCISES?

• WRITING ASSIGNMENTS?

• ??Part Four?EXPLANATIONS

• 10 Inference to the Best Explanation?

• EXPLANATIONS AND INFERENCE?

• EXERCISES?

• THEORIES AND CONSISTENCY?

• THEORIES AND CRITERIA?

• Testability?

• Fruitfulness?

• Scope?

• Simplicity?

• Conservatism?

• EXERCISES?

• TELLING GOOD THEORIES FROM BAD?

• A…