Attempts to persuade us—to believe something, to do something, to buy something—are everywhere. How can we learn to think critically about such attempts and to distinguish those that actually provide us with good reasons for being persuaded? Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide is a much-needed guide to argument analysis and a clear introduction to thinking clearly and rationally for oneself. Through precise and accessible discussion this book equips students with the essential skills required to tell a good argument from a bad one.

Key features of the book are:

• Clear, jargon-free discussion of key concepts in argumentation
  
• How to avoid common confusions surrounding words such as "truth", "knowledge" and "opinion"
  
• How to identify and evaluate the most common types of argument
  
• How to spot fallacies in arguments and tell good reasoning from bad
  
• Topical examples from politics, sport medicine and music; chapter summaries; glossary and exercises throughout

The second edition has been revised and updated throughout with expanded exercises, topical examples and clearer discussions.

Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide is essential reading for anyone, student or professional, at work or in the classroom, seeking to improve their reasoning and arguing skills.

Contents

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Preface to the first edition Preface to the second edition Introduction and preview 1 Why should we become critical thinkers? 2 Logic: deductive validity 3 Logic: inductive force 4 Rhetorical ploys and fallacies 5 The practice of argument-reconstruction 6 Issues in argument assessment 7 Truth, knowledge and belief Glossary Answers and hints to selected exercises Index

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Tags: CriticalThinking, Logic, Rhetoric

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable"

Allan Bloom, "The Closing of the American Mind"

Thomas Craughwell, "Do Blue Bedsheets Bring Babies: The Truth Behind Old Wive's Tales"

Leo A. Groarke & Christopher W. Tindale, "Good Reasoning Matters: A Constructive Approach to Critical Thinking (3rd Edition)"

Paul Johnson, "Intellectuals"

Deborah J. Bennett, "Logic Made Easy"

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, "Truth: A History and a Guide for the Perplexed"