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• Half-Title
• Title
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface to the 2nd edition
• Also available from Bloomsbury
• Part One The basics of good reasoning
• 1 The basic tools of reasoning
• Claims
• Different types of claims
• Operators
• Major operators
• Quantifiers
• Evidence
• Emotions as evidence?
• Arguments
• Identifying arguments
• Real-life examples
• 2 Evaluating arguments
• Extraneous material
• Implicit claims (enthymemes and disguised claims)
• Questions used as claims
• Ambiguity and vagueness
• Ambiguity: Lexical and syntactic
• Vagueness
• Argument form
• Two types of argument: Deductive and inductive
• Deductive arguments: Validity and soundness
• Inductive arguments
• Good arguments: The battery analogy
• Inductive strength indicators
• Strong claims?
• Simple and complex arguments
• Wrapping up: Evaluating arguments
• Real-life examples
• Part Two Deductive reasoning
• 3 Thinking and reasoning with categories
• Categories
• Relating categories to one another
• Standard-form categorical claims
• Parts of categorical claims
• Translating singular expressions and proper nouns
• The traditional square of opposition
• The super/subalternation of A-claims and I-claims, and E-claims and O-claims
• Conversion, obversion, and contraposition
• Translation tips
• Syllogisms and testing for validity with Venn diagrams
• Valid syllogisms, A-claims and E-claims, and the distributed middle term
• The limitations of categorical logic
• Real-life examples
• 2. Mexican Holy Week
• 4 Basic propositional logic
• A new language
• Translating English claims into claims of propositional logic
• Translating claims with operators
• Well-formed formulas
• The major operator
• Basic translation
• Tips for translating more difficult phrases
• Translating arguments
• Real-life examples
• 5 Truth tables
• Constructing truth tables: The basics
• Truth tables for operators
• Using truth tables to test for validity: The long method
• The long method of testing for validity
• Using truth tables to test for validity: The short method
• Real-life examples
• 6 Rules of deductive inference
• Deductive inference
• Four basic rules of valid inference
• Simplification
• Conjunction
• modus ponens
• modus tollens
• Eleven valid rules of replacement
• DeMorgan’s Laws
• Two valid proof strategies
• Three mistakes to avoid: Formal fallacies
• Real-life examples
• Part Three Inductive reasoning
• 7 Probability and inductive reasoning
• Inductive arguments
• Inductive strength
• Types of probability
• Conditional probabilities
• Using probability to guide decisions: The cost–benefit analysis
• An obstacle: The problem of induction
• Real-life examples
• General Principle of Reasoning Used
• Further Development of Argument
• 8 Generalization, analogy, and causation
• Inductive generalization
• Errors in statistics and probability
• The regression fallacy
• The base rate fallacy
• The gambler’s fallacy
• Argument from analogy
• Strengths and weaknesses of analogies
• Causal arguments
• Explanations vs. arguments
• Evaluating causal arguments
• Real-life examples
• 9 Scientific experiments and inference to the best explanation
• Testing causal claims
• The structure of a scientific experiment
• Simple models of confirmation and disconfirmation
• Complex models of confirmation and disconfirmation
• Formal experiments
• Informal experiments
• A problem for causal tests: Underdetermination
• A new type of argument: Inference to the best explanation
• Explanatory virtues
• Applying the virtues
• Three examples
• Real-life examples
• 10 Informal fallacies
• Formal and informal fallacies
• Hasty generalization and false cause
• Argumentum ad hominem, abusive (appeal to the man/person)
• Argumentum ad hominem, circumstantial
• Tu quoque (“you, too” or hypocrite fallacy)
• Argumentum ad populum (appeal to the people)
• Appeal to snobbery/vanity
• Argumentum ad verecundiam (appeal to inappropriate authority)
• Argumentum ad baculum (appeal to force)
• Argumentum ad misericordiam (appeal to pity or other emotions)
• Argumentum ad ignorantiam (appeal to ignorance)
• Circular argument (begging the question)
• Straw man
• Red herring
• Slippery slope
• False dilemma
• Composition and division
• Real-life examples
• Part Four Application
• 11 Putting it all together
• Applying critical thinking skills
• Two readings for evaluation
• Hints for evaluation
• Hints for evaluation
• Additional readings for evaluation
• Hints for evaluation
• Hints for evaluation
• Hints for evaluation
• Some assignment suggestions
• 12 Reasoning on graduate school entrance exams
• Introduction to graduate school entrance exams
• Basic analytic reasoning questions
• Interpreting complicated instructions
• Strengthen/weaken questions
• Inference questions
• Logic puzzles or games
• Flaw questions
• Parallel-the-reasoning questions
• Glossary
• Index