Offering an innovative approach to critical thinking, Good Reasoning Matters! identifies the essential structure of good arguments in a variety of contexts and also provides guidelines to help students construct their own effective arguments. In addition to examining the most common features of faulty reasoning—slanting, bias, propaganda, vagueness, ambiguity, and a common failure to consider opposing points of view—the book introduces a variety of argument schemes and rhetorical techniques. This edition adds material on visual arguments and more exercises.

From the Back Cover
New technology has revolutionized the way most of us receive and process information. We are inundated with messages conveyed by everything from radio, television, and the Internet to billboards and bumper stickers. Designed to develop the skills students need to respond effectively to those messages—verbal and non-verbal alike—Good Reasoning Matters! offers a unique approach to critical thinking that emphasizes not just how to evaluate arguments but how to construct them.

In addition to examining the most common features of faulty reasoning, Good Reasoning Matters! introduces students to a variety of argument schemes and rhetorical techniques that will help them craft arguments for any audience, specific or universal'. Exercises and examples from a variety of sources encourage students to consider views and perspectives they might not otherwise be exposed to.

With abundant new material supplementing the most popular features of earlier editions, Good Reasoning Matters! is an essential text for courses in critical reasoning.

This third edition of Good Reasoning Matters! offers:

• a clear, cumulative introduction to the principles of good reasoning;
  
• a wide variety of arguments drawn from both classical and contemporary sources;
  
• significant new discussion of non-verbal—especially visual—arguments;
  
• a practical, applied focus with more exercises in every chapter;
  
• more answers to in-text exercises; and
  
• a companion website (www.oup.com/ca/he/companion/groarketindale) with additional resources for both instructors and students.

Contents

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Introduction Acknowledgements 1 Getting Started: Looking for an Argument 2 Argument Diagrams: Pointing the Way 3 Implicit Argument Components: Filling in the Blanks 4 Definitions: Saying What You Mean 5 Bias: Reading Between the Lines 6 Strong And Weak Arguments: Preparing for Evaluations 7 Syllogisms I: Classifying Arguments 8 Syllogisms II: Testing Classes 9 Propositional Logic I: Some Ifs, Ands, and Buts 10 Propositional Logic II: Conditionals, Dilemmas, and Reductios 11 Ordinary Reasoning: Assessing the Basics 12 Empirical Schemes Of Argument: Nothing but the Facts 13 Moral And Political Reasoning: Schemes of Value 14 Ethotic Schemes: Judging Character 15 Argumentative Writing: Essaying an Argument Selected Answers Index

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Tags: CriticalThinking, Logic, Rhetoric

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