Concise Guide to Critical Thinking

Lewis Vaughn's Concise Guide to Critical Thinking, third Edition, offers a clear and compact introduction to critical thinking and argumentative writing. Based on his best-selling text, The Power of Critical Thinking, this affordable volume strikes a unique balance for instructors. While it is more succinct than the leading comprehensive texts, it covers more key content, and does so more effectively, than any of the briefer critical thinking handbooks.

List of contents

• Preface


• CHAPTER 1 Critical Thinking, Facts, and Feelings


• WHY IT MATTERS


• Critical Thinking Skills Test


• CLAIMS AND REASONS


• REASONS AND ARGUMENTS


• ARGUMENTS IN THE ROUGH


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 2 Obstacles to Critical Thinking


• PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSTACLES


• Is It Wrong to Believe without Good Reasons?


• Self-Centered Thinking


• Group-Centered Thinking


• Implicit Bias


• Resisting Contrary Evidence


• Left-Wing Right-Wing Bias


• Looking for Confirming Evidence


• Preferring Available Evidence


• Motivated Reasoning


• Homophily


• Mere Exposure Effect


• Illusion-of-Truth Effect


• False Consensus Effect


• THE DUNNING-KRUGER EFFECT


• The Internet versus Critical Thinking


• PHILOSOPHICAL OBSTACLES


• Subjective Relativism


• Social Relativism


• Skepticism


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 3 Identifying and Evaluating Arguments


• ARGUMENT BASICS


• No Arguments, Just Fluff


• JUDGING ARGUMENTS


• UNCOVERING IMPLIED PREMISES


• The Smart Way to Argue Online


• ASSESSING LONG ARGUMENTS


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 4 Deductive Argument Patterns


• COMMON FORMS


• Modus Ponens


• Modus Tollens


• Hypothetical Syllogism


• Disjunctive Syllogism


• Invalid Argument Forms


• Valid and Invalid Argument Forms


• REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 5 Inductive Arguments and Statistics


• ENUMERATIVE INDUCTION


• Sample Size


• Representativeness


• Mean, Median, and Mode


• OPINION POLLS


• How Survey Questions Go Wrong


• ANALOGICAL INDUCTION


• Relevant Similarities


• Relevant Dissimilarities


• The Number of Instances Compared


• Diversity Among Cases


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 6 Evidence and Experts


• EXPERTS AND NONEXPERTS


• Fact and Opinion


• JUDGING EXPERTS


• Hierarchy of Reliability


• EXPERTS AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE


• I Just Know!


• Impairment


• Expectation


• Eyewitness Testimony and Wrongful Convictions


• INNUMERACY AND PROBABILITY


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 7 Fake News


• TAXONOMY OF MISINFORMATION


• A Fake News Masterpiece


• TELLING FAKE FROM REAL


• Read Laterally


• The Ethics of Sharing Fake News


• Read Critically


• Use Google and Wikipedia Carefully


• Check Your Own Biases


• Trustworthy Fact-Checkers


• FAKE IMAGES


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 8 Advertising: Commercial and Political


• HOW ADVERTISING WORKS


• INTERNET ADVERTISING


• OLD SCHOOL ADVERTISING TRICKS


• POLITICAL ADVERTISING


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 9 Causal Arguments


• TESTING FOR CAUSES


• Agreement or Difference


• Both Agreement and Difference


• Correlation


• CAUSAL CONFUSIONS


• Misidentifying Relevant Factors


• Mishandling Multiple Factors


• Coincidence, Birth Dates, and US Presidents


• Being Misled by Coincidence


• Confusing Cause with Temporal Order


• Confusing Cause and Effect


• The Deadly Post Hoc Fallacy


• NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT CONDITIONS


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 10 Inference to the Best Explanation


• EXPLANATIONS AND INFERENCE


• Darwin and the Best Explanation


• THEORIES AND CONSISTENCY


• THEORIES AND CRITERIA


• Testability


• Fruitfulness


• Scope


• Simplicity


• Conservatism


• TELLING GOOD THEORIES FROM BAD


• A Doomed Flight


• An Amazing Cure


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 11 Judging Scientific Theories


• WHAT SCIENCE IS AND IS NOT


• THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD


• TESTING SCIENTIFIC THEORIES


• Nonintervention (Population) Studies


• JUDGING SCIENTIFIC THEORIES


• Copernicus Versus Ptolemy


• Climate Change


• Is It Too Late to Prevent Climate Change?


• If the World Is Warming, Why Are Winters and Summers Still Very cold??


• SCIENCE AND WEIRD THEORIES


• MAKING WEIRD MISTAKES


• Leaping to the Weirdest Theory


• Mixing What Seems with What Is


• Misunderstanding the Possibilities


• JUDGING WEIRD THEORIES


• Crop Circles


• Eyewitness Testimony and Extraordinary Things


• Talking with the Dead


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 12 Fallacies and Persuaders


• FALLACIES: IRRELEVANT PREMISES


• Genetic Fallacy


• Composition


• Division


• Appeal to the Person


• How to Respond to Ad Hominem Attacks


• Equivocation


• Appeal to Popularity


• Appeal to Tradition


• Appeal to Ignorance


• Can You Prove a Negative?


• Appeal to Emotion


• Red Herring


• Straw Man


• Two Wrongs Make a Right


• FALLACIES: UNACCEPTABLE PREMISES X


• Begging the Question


• False Dilemma


• Decision-Point Fallacy


• Slippery Slope


• Hasty Generalization


• PERSUADERS: RHETORICAL MOVES


• Innuendo


• Euphemisms and Dysphemisms


• Stereotyping


• Ridicule


• Rhetorical Definitions


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• CHAPTER 13 Critical Thinking and Extremism


• PARTISAN BLINDNESS


• Whose Pants Are on Fire?


• Political Bias and Consistency


• CONSPIRACY THEORIES


• Challenging Conspiracy Thinking


• Key Words


• Exercises


• Self-Assessment Quiz


• Writing Assignments


• Appendix A: Answers to Exercises


• Appendix B: Answers to Self-Assessment Quizzes


• Appendix C: Answers to Critical Thinking Skills Test


• Notes


• Glossary


• Credits


• Index

About the author

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.

Summary

Lewis Vaughn's Concise Guide to Critical Thinking, third Edition, offers a clear and compact introduction to critical thinking and argumentative writing. Based on his best-selling text, The Power of Critical Thinking, this affordable volume strikes a unique balance for instructors. While it is more succinct than the leading comprehensive texts, it covers more key content, and does so more effectively, than any of the briefer critical thinking handbooks. In addition to six core chapters on identifying, evaluating, and devising deductive and inductive arguments, the text features:



*Extensive coverage of scientific reasoning, with chapters on inductive reasoning, causal arguments, scientific theories and inference, and scientific method and theory evaluation. 

* A chapter on obstacles to critical thinking

* A chapter on fallacies and rhetorical persuaders

* A substantial chapter on writing argumentative essays

Throughout the text, Vaughn places emphasis on evaluation of evidence, authority, and credibility. Students don’t just learn about critical thinking; they learn the skills necessary to think critically. Each chapter reinforces these skills with numerous exercises, including review questions, writing assignments, and self-assessment quizzes.

Product details

• Authors: Lewis Vaughn, Vaughn Lewis
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 06.06.2024
• EAN: 9780197768365
• ISBN: 978-0-19-776836-5
• No. of pages: 392
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; PHILOSOPHY / Logic, Philosophy: logic