Synopses & Reviews
The concepts for each chapter work together to achieve the goal of aiding readers to develop their evaluation abilities and to consider their beliefs in a mature and intelligent way. Readers will learn to look closely at the kinds of reasons that can be given for beliefs, think hard about how to evaluate reasoning, and develop the skill of effectively presenting that evaluation to others. Throughout the book, there are numerous examples and exercises. Readers' responses to exercises work to strengthen their critical and expository abilities.
Table of Contents
Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Constructing and Analyzing Arguments. 3. Matters of Meaning. 4. Informal Fallacies. 5. Analogy. 6. Understanding and Explanation. 7. Evaluating Explanations. 8. Generalization and Causal Inference. 9. Testing Causal Explanations. 10. Decision Making. Appendix. Index.