Detailed Contents (with links to Parts and Chapters)
Real-World Reasoning (RW)
Introduction
Classifying 1 (flag words; reasoning vs. non-reasoning)
Classifying 2 (justifying belief vs. explaining; inferring vs. arguing)
Analyzing 1 (propositions; conjunctions)
Analyzing 2 (standard form; rewriting sentences; things to omit)
Reasoning Substitutes (various ways not to reason, or to short-circuit reason-giving, by claiming the reasons are obvious, pointing imprecisely at reasons, shifting the burden of proof, appealing to ignorance, abusing flag words, begging the question)
Problems With Meaning – (imprecise language, euphemism, metaphor, vagueness, weasel words, ambiguity)
Two Criteria Of Evaluation – (soundness; valid-strong-weak; ignoring confidence indicators)
Everyday Inferences – Sources, Character, Motives (sources, character, motives: argument from authority; various ad hominems)
Everyday Inferences – Emotional Reasons For Practical Conclusions (Decision-making)
Everyday Inferences – Reasoning With Properties, Parts, & Relations (Identity/difference, part-whole, symmetricality, chain (with relations), transitivity)
Everyday Inferences – Reasoning With Classes & Propositions (chain (with classes), instantiation, affirming the antecedent, chain (with propositions), elimination)
Warrants – (Adding warrants/missing premises, sincerity & charity)
Diagramming - Basic (Standard form and diagramming of single-target reasoning)
Diagramming - Complex (Multiple targets, either from a single set of reasons or in sequence)
Diagramming - Dialogue(Objections, objections to objections, support for objections)
Diagramming - Very Long Passages
Propositional & Categorical Reasoning (P&C)
Validity & Non-Validity (Note: there is a section on valid-strong-weak (and soundness) in RW's Two Criteria)
Logical Structure Of Propositions (Negations, Conjunctions, Disjunctions, Conditionals)
Necessary & Sufficient Conditions
Big 8 Method (Single-step derivation using 8 basic rules)
Method Of Derivation (Multi-step derivation)
Truth Tables & Truth Trees
Categorical Reasoning (Very rudimentary introduction)
Inductive & Scientific Reasoning (I&S)
Valid, Strong, Weak (Note: there's a separate section on valid-not valid in P&C, and a quick section on valid-strong-weak and soundness in RW's Basic Evaluation.)
Causation, Causal Explanation & Causal Inferences (Causation & Causal Explanation, Inference to a Cause, Inference to an Effect)
Analogy & Inference To The Best Explanation (Hypothesis development when at a loss)
Experimental Methods (Controlled, Randomized, Prospective, Retrospective, Natural)
Induction (Generalization, Instantiation and Induction to a Particular)
Problems In Induction (Problem of Induction, New Riddle of Induction, Lottery Paradox. Philosophical appendix - No Exercises.)
Association Diagrams & Cross-Tabulations (Association, Cross-Tabulations, Present-Present Fallacy)
Explanation-Building (including INUS Conditions)
Chapter 1: Reconstructing and analyzing arguments
1.1 What is an argument?
1.2 Identifying arguments
1.3 Arguments vs. explanations
1.4 More complex argument structures
1.5 Using your own paraphrases of premises and conclusions to reconstruct arguments in standard form
1.6 Validity
1.7 Soundness
1.8 Deductive vs. inductive arguments
1.9 Arguments with missing premises
1.10 Assuring, guarding, and discounting
1.11 Evaluative language
1.12 Evaluating a real-life argument
Chapter 2: Formal methods of evaluating arguments
2.1 What is a formal method of evaluation and why do we need them?
2.2 Propositional logic and the four basic truth functional connectives
2.3 Negation and disjunction
2.4 Using parentheses to translate complex sentences
2.5 “Not both” and “neither nor”
2.6 The truth table test of validity
2.7 Conditionals
2.8 “Unless”
2.9 Material equivalence
2.10 Tautologies, contradictions, and contingent statements
2.11 Proofs and the 8 valid forms of inference
2.12 How to construct proofs
2.13 Short review of propositional logic
2.14 Categorical logic
2.15 The Venn test of validity for immediate categorical inferences
2.16 Universal statements and existential commitment
2.17 Venn validity for categorical syllogisms
Chapter 3: Evaluating inductive arguments and probabilistic and statistical fallacies
3.1 Inductive arguments and statistical generalizations
3.2 Inference to the best explanation and the seven explanatory virtues
3.3 Analogical arguments
3.4 Causal arguments
3.5 Probability
3.6 The conjunction fallacy
3.7 The base rate fallacy
3.8 The small numbers fallacy
3.9 Regression to the mean fallacy
3.10 Gambler’s fallacy
Chapter 4: Informal fallacies
4.1 Formal vs. informal fallacies
4.1.1 Composition fallacy
4.1.2 Division fallacy
4.1.3 Begging the question fallacy
4.1.4 False dichotomy
4.1.5 Equivocation
4.2 Slippery slope fallacies
4.2.1 Conceptual slippery slope
4.2.2 Causal slippery slope
4.3 Fallacies of relevance
4.3.1 Ad hominem
4.3.2 Straw man
4.3.3 Tu quoque
4.3.4 Genetic
4.3.5 Appeal to consequences
4.3.6 Appeal to authority
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 The Greeks: The Origins of Philosophy in the West
Chapter 3 Philosophy of Religion and the Problem of God
Chapter 4 Metaphysics
Chapter 5 Epistemology
Chapter 6 The Mind- Body Problem
Chapter 7 Freedom and Determinism
Chapter 8 Ethics
Chapter 9 Social Philosophy
Chapter 10 Political Philosophy
Chapter 11 Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics
Chapter 12 Conclusion
Critical Thinking & Reasoning: Introduction
Critical Thinking & Reasoning: Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking and Reasoning: Logic and the Role of Arguments
Critical Thinking & Reasoning: Understanding Fallacies
Critical Thinking and Reasoning: Formal Fallacies
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