Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

592 Pages·2013·2.44 MB·English

by  Sylvan Barnet

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CRITICAL THINKING,
READING, and WRITING
A Brief Guide to Argument
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EIGHTH EDITION
CRITICAL THINKING,
READING, and WRITING
A Brief Guide to Argument
SYLVAN BARNET
Professor of English, Tufts University
HUGO BEDAU
Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University
Bedford/St. Martin’s BOSTON ◆ NEW YORK
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Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments and copyrights are shown at the back of the book on pages 514–17, which
constitute an extension of the copyright page. It is a violation of the law to reproduce these
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LATEST A HEAD OR SA LAST NAME / ST V
Preface
This book is a text — a book about reading other people’s arguments and
writing your own arguments — and it is also an anthology — a collection
of more than a hundred selections, ranging from Plato to the present,
with a strong emphasis on contemporary arguments and, in this edition,
new modes of argument, from documentary fi lm trailers to political
speeches to infographics. Before we describe these selections f urther,
we’d like to describe our chief assumptions about the aims of a course
that might use Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Brief Guide to
Argument.
Probably most students and instructors would agree that, as critical
readers, students should be able to
(cid:129) Summarize accurately an argument they have read;
(cid:129) Locate the thesis (the claim) of an argument;
(cid:129) Locate the assumptions, stated and unstated, of an argument;
(cid:129) Analyze and evaluate the strength of the evidence and the sound-
ness of the reasoning offered in support of the thesis; and
(cid:129) Analyze, evaluate, and account for discrepancies among various
readings on a topic (for example, explain why certain facts are
used, why probable consequences of a proposed action are exam-
ined or are ignored, or why two sources might interpret the same
facts differently).
Probably, too, students and instructors would agree that, as thoughtful
writers, students should be able to
(cid:129) Imagine an audience and write effectively for it (for instance, by
using the appropriate tone and providing the appropriate amount
of detail);
v
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vi PREFACE
(cid:129) Present information in an orderly and coherent way;
(cid:129) Be aware of their own assumptions;
(cid:129) Locate sources and incorporate them into their own writing, not
simply by quoting extensively or by paraphrasing but also by hav-
ing digested material so that they can present it in their own words;
(cid:129) Properly document all borrowings — not merely quotations and
paraphrases but also borrowed ideas; and
(cid:129) Do all these things in the course of developing a thoughtful argu-
ment of their own.
In the fi rst edition of this book we quoted Edmund Burke and John
Stuart Mill. Burke said,
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill.
Our antagonist is our helper.
Mill said,
He who knows only his own side of the cause knows little.
These two quotations continue to refl ect the view of argument that
underlies this text: In writing an essay one is engaging in a serious effort
to know what one’s own ideas are and, having found them, to contribute
to a multisided conversation. One is not setting out to trounce an oppo-
nent, and that is partly why such expressions as “marshaling evidence,”
“attacking an opponent,” and “defending a thesis” are misleading. True,
on television talk shows we see right-wingers and left-wingers who have
made up their minds and who are concerned only with pushing their
own views and brushing aside all others. But in an academic community,
and indeed in our daily lives, we learn by listening to others and also by
listening to ourselves.
We draft a response to something we have read, and in the very act
of drafting we may fi nd — if we think critically about the words we are
putting down on paper — we are changing (perhaps slightly, perhaps
radically) our own position. In short, one reason that we write is so that
we can improve our ideas. And even if we do not drastically change our
views, we and our readers at least come to a better understanding of
why we hold the views we do.
FEATURES
The Text
Parts One and Two Critical Thinking and Reading (Chapters 1–4) and
Critical Writing (Chapters 5–7), together offer a short course in meth-
ods of thinking about and writing arguments. By “thinking” we mean
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PREFACE vii
serious analytic thought, including analysis of one’s own assumptions
(Chapter 1); by “writing” we mean the use of effective, respectable tech-
niques, not gimmicks (such as the notorious note a politician scribbled
in the margin of the text of his speech: “Argument weak; shout here”).
For a delightfully wry account of the use of gimmicks, we recommend
that you consult “The Art of Controversy” in The Will to Live by the
nineteenth-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. Scho-
penhauer reminds readers that a Greek or Latin quotation (however
irrelevant) can be impressive to the uninformed and that one can knock
down almost any proposition by loftily saying, “That’s all very well in
theory, but it won’t do in practice.”
We offer lots of advice about how to set forth an argument, but we
do not offer instruction in one-upmanship. Rather, we discuss respon-
sible ways of arguing persuasively. We know, however, that before one
can write a persuasive argument, one must clarify one’s own ideas — a
process that includes arguing with oneself — to fi nd out what one really
thinks about a problem. Therefore, we devote Chapter 1 to critical think-
ing, Chapters 2, 3, and 4 to critical reading (Chapter 4 is about reading
images), and Chapters 5, 6, and 7 to critical writing.
Parts One and Two together contain thirty-four readings (six are stu-
dent papers) for analysis and discussion. Some of these essays originated
as op-ed newspaper pieces, and we reprint some of the letters to the edi-
tor that they generated, so students can easily see several sides to a given
issue. In this way students can, in their own responses, join the conver-
sation, so to speak. (We have found, by the way, that using the format of
a letter helps students to frame their ideas, and therefore in later chap-
ters we occasionally suggest writing assignments in the form of a letter to
the editor. In an e-Pages section on ethical arguments, we reprint three
letters written by Randy Cohen of the New York Times Magazine, and we
invite students to write their own responses.)
All of the essays in the book are accompanied by a list of Topics for
Critical Thinking and Writing.1 This is not surprising, given the emphasis
we place on asking questions in order to come up with ideas for writ-
ing. Among the chief questions that writers should ask, we suggest, are
“What is X?” and “What is the value of X?” (pp. 232–33). By asking such
questions — for instance (to look only at these two types of questions),
“Is the fetus a person?” or “Is Arthur Miller a better playwright than
Tennessee Williams?” — a writer probably will fi nd ideas coming, at least
after a few moments of head scratching. The device of developing an
argument by identifying issues is, of course, nothing new. Indeed, it goes
back to an ancient method of argument used by classical rhetoricians,
who identifi ed a stasis (an issue) and then asked questions about it: Did
1With a few exceptions, the paragraphs in the essays are, for ease of reference, numbered
in increments of fi ve (5, 10, 15, and so on). The exceptions involve essays in which paragraphs
are uncommonly long; in such cases, every paragraph is numbered.
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viii PREFACE
X do such and such? If so, was the action bad? If bad, how bad? (Finding
an issue or stasis — a position where one stands — by asking questions is
discussed in Chapter 6.)
In keeping with our emphasis on writing as well as reading, we raise
issues not only of what can roughly be called the “content” of the essays
but also of what can (equally roughly) be called the “style” — that is, the
ways in which the arguments are set forth. Content and style, of course,
cannot fi nally be kept apart. As Cardinal Newman said, “Thought and
meaning are inseparable from each other. . . . Style is thinking out into lan-
guage.” In our Topics for Critical Thinking and Writing we sometimes ask
the student
(cid:129) To evaluate the effectiveness of an essay’s opening paragraph,
(cid:129) To explain a shift in tone from one paragraph to the next, or
(cid:129) To characterize the persona of the author as revealed in the whole
essay.
In short, the book is not designed as an introduction to some power-
ful ideas (though in fact it is that, too); it is designed as an aid to writing
thoughtful, effective arguments on important political, social, scientifi c,
ethical, legal, and religious issues.
The essays reprinted in this book also illustrate different styles of
argument that arise, at least in part, from the different disciplinary back-
grounds of the various authors. Essays by journalists, lawyers, judges,
social scientists, policy analysts, philosophers, critics, activists, and other
writers — including fi rst-year undergraduates — will be found in these
pages. The authors develop and present their views in arguments that
have distinctive features refl ecting their special training and concerns.
The differences in argumentative styles found in these essays foreshadow
the differences students will encounter in the readings assigned in many
of their other courses.
Parts One and Two, then, offer a preliminary (but we hope substan-
tial) discussion of such topics as
(cid:129) Identifying assumptions;
(cid:129) Getting ideas by means of invention strategies;
(cid:129) Finding, evaluating, and citing printed and electronic sources;
(cid:129) Interpreting visual sources;
(cid:129) Evaluating kinds of evidence; and
(cid:129) Organizing material
as well as an introduction to some ways of thinking.
Part Three Further Views on Argument consists of Chapters 8
through 13.
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