Synopses & Reviews
This text is a concise and lucid introduction to the basic elements of argumentative prose and the conceptual tools necessary to understand, analyze, criticize, and construct arguments. The book serves not only as a text for college courses in argument analysis, but as a useful handbook of reasoning in much the same way that Strunk and White's ELEMENTS OF STYLE provides a handbook for writers. While the book covers the standard formal tools of introductory logic, its emphasis is on practical applications to the kinds of arguments students most often encounter.
About the Author
Ronald Munson is Professor of the Philosophy of Science and Medicine at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Biology at Harvard University. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of California, San Diego, and the Harvard Medical School. His books include REASONING IN MEDICINE (with Daniel Albert and Michael Resnik), THE WAY OF WORDS, and THE ELEMENTS OF REASONING (with David Conway). He is the author of FAN MAIL and NIGHT VISION.David A. Conway received his Ph.D. at Princeton University and has written in the areas of social philosophy and philosophy of religion. Currently he is Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.Andrew Black has been teaching in the Philosophy Department since fall 1999. Before coming to UMSL, he taught for eight years at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and for one year at Dartmouth College. He holds the Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dr. Black specializes in the history of philosophy, particularly the philosophy of the seventeenth century. He has published articles on Descartes, Malebranche, and Leibniz. Other areas of Dr. Black's expertise include analytic philosophy, logic, and the philosophy of science.
Table of Contents
Preface. Orientation. 1. Recognizing Arguments. 2. Analyzing Arguments. 3. Evaluating Arguments. 4. Some Valid Argument Forms. 5. More Valid Argument Forms: Categorical Reasoning and Venn Diagrams. 6. Causal Analysis. 7. Argument by Analogy and Models. 8. Errors in Reasoning: Fallacies. 9. Definition. 10. Vagueness and Ambiguity. 11. Reasonable Beliefs. 12. Rules for Writing. Exercises: Some Answers, Hints, and Comments. Index.