Making Up Your Mind - Revised Edition: A Textbook in Critical Thinking(The Broadview Library of Logic & Critical Thinking)

Making Up Your Mind is oriented toward the writing of arguments. It gives students techniques that they can use to better understand, organize, and present their own thoughts. The book provides an exceptionally clear statement of what critical thinking adds to the study of logic, along with complete and systematic coverage of all crucial logical operators and major logical relations. It also offers exceptionally clear and informative discussions of the definition of argument, the distinction between induction and deduction, and the role of emotion in argument. The second half of the book presents an argument outline which students can use to organize virtually any ethical argument. This outline is also used to illustrate the most important informal fallacies and how they can be avoided. In its closing chapters, the book discusses the nature of good evidence and good sources of evidence and their role in argument. Included are discussions of scientific method, the logical form of arguments about causal theories, and arguments from analogy.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Preface Introduction Section 1: Thinking Section 2: Assertions Section 3: Critical Thinking and Logic Section 4: Facts versus Opinions Section 5: A Brief Introduction to Argument Chapter One: Assertions Section 1: Types of Sentences Section 2: Ambiguity Section 3: The Logical Form of an Assertion Chapter Two: Implication Section 1: Implication between Assertions Section 2: Implication within a Conditional Chapter Three: Contradiction Section 1: Subject-Predicate Assertions Section 2: Conjunctions and Disjunctions Section 3: Goals and Alternatives Chapter Four: Conditionals and Universal Assertions Section 1: Conditionals Section 2: What Makes a Conditional True Section 3: Universal Assertions Section 4: Contradicting a Universal Assertion Section 5: Contraries to a Universal Assertion Section 6: Counter-examples Section 7: Quantified Assertions with Complex Predicates Chapter Five: Prescriptive Assertions Section 1: Prescriptive Terms Section 2: Types of Values Section 3: Quantified Prescriptive Assertions Chapter Six: Explanations Section 1: Explanation Indicators Section 2: The Logical Form of a Syllogism Section 3: Causal Explanations Chapter Seven: Arguments Section 1: Argument Indicators Section 2: The Argument Outline Chapter Eight: Validity, Deduction, and Induction Section 1: Validity Section 2: Checking Syllogisms for Validity Section 3: Validity and Soundness Section 4: Deduction Section 5: Induction Section 6: Validity and Logical Conflict Chapter Nine: Unstated Premises Section 1: Implicit Premises Section 2: General, Unstated Premises Section 3: Argument Reconstruction Chapter Ten: Relevance Section 1: Direct Relevance Section 2: Indirect Relevance Section 3: Necessary and Sufficient Conditions Chapter Eleven: Basic Fallacies of Relevance Section 1: Begging the Question Section 2: The Straw Man Fallacy Section 3: Ad Hominem Fallacies Section 4: Shifting the Burden of Proof Chapter Twelve: Fallacies of Emotional Appeal Section 1: Basic Types of Emotion Section 2: The Relevance of Emotion in Thinking Section 3: The Relevance of Emotion in Argument Section 4: The Irrelevance of Emotion in Argument Section 5: Fallacious Appeals to Anger Section 6: Fallacious Appeals to Gratitude Section 7: Fallacious Appeals to Fear Section 8: Fallacious Appeals to Hope Chapter Thirteen: Sources of Evidence Section 1: Primary Sources of Evidence Section 2: Conditions of Observation Section 3: Qualifications and Expertise Section 4: Bias Section 5: Consensus of Opinion Chapter Fourteen: Causal Arguments Section 1: The Form of a Causal Argument Section 2: Post Hoc Fallacies Section 3: Correlation-to-Cause Fallacies Section 4: Scientific Causal Arguments Chapter Fifteen: Arguments from Analogy Section 1: Inductive Generalization Arguments Section 2: Basic Inductive Analogies Answer Key Index

About the Author :
Robert Mutti teaches in the Department of Philosophy at San Francisco State University.