Critical thinking unleashed PDF
Preview Critical thinking unleashed
Critical Thinking Unleashed Critical Thinking Unleashed Elliot D. Cohen ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham (cid:129) Boulder (cid:129) New York (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2009 Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cohen, Elliot D. Critical thinking unleashed / Elliot D. Cohen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7425-6431-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7425-6432-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-0005-0 (electronic) 1. Critical thinking—Textbooks. I. Title. B809.2.C65 2009 160—dc22 2009009411 Printed in the United States of America (cid:2) ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Contents Preface to the Student xiii Introduction: Freethinking 1 Part I. Kinds of Reasoning 1 The Nuts and Bolts of Reasoning 11 Arguments 11 Statements That Do Not Form Arguments 12 Presenting an Argument versus Presenting a Good Argument 14 Exercise Set 1.1 15 Inductive and Deductive Arguments 17 Exercise Set 1.2 17 Identifying Premises and Conclusions in Arguments 19 Exercise Set 1.3 22 Deduction 2 Deductive Reasoning 25 Basics of Deductive Reasoning 25 Exercise Set 2.1 27 Exercise Set 2.2 29 3 Hypothetical Syllogisms 33 The Vocabulary of Conditional Statements 33 Necessary versus Sufficient Conditions 35 Exercise Set 3.1 36 Forms of Hypothetical Syllogism 37 Exercise Set 3.2 46 v vi Contents Nonsyllogistic Conditional Arguments 48 Exercise Set 3.3 48 Setting Ordinary Language Arguments Up as Hypothetical Syllogisms 49 Exercise Set 3.4 56 4 Disjunctive Syllogisms 59 The Core Meaning of “Or” 59 Forms of Disjunctive Syllogisms 60 Exercise Set 4.1 65 Black or White Major Premises in Disjunctive Syllogisms 67 Exercise Set 4.2 69 False Dilemmas 70 Exercise Set 4.3 71 Exercise Set 4.4 75 5 Truth-Functional Logic 77 The Meaning of Truth-Functional Logic 77 Symbolizing Truth-Functional Connectives 77 Constructing Truth Tables to Define Truth-Functional Connectives 79 Using Truth Tables to Determine the Validity of Truth-Functional Arguments 80 Exercise Set 5.1 83 Exercise Set 5.2 84 Symbolizing and Analyzing Arguments in Ordinary Language 84 Exercise Set 5.3 87 Statement Forms 89 The Practical Import of Distinguishing Between Tautologous, Contingent, and Contradictory Statement Forms 90 Exercise Set 5.4 91 Material versus Logical Equivalence 92 Three Logical Equivalences 92 Exercise Set 5.5 93 6 Categorical Statements 95 Universal and Particular Quantifiers 95 Quantity and Quality 96 Standard Categorical Form Statements 96 Exercise Set 6.1 99 Translating Ordinary Language Statements into Standard Categorical Form 100 Exercise Set 6.2 102 Exercise Set 6.3 107 Existential Import 109 Exercise Set 6.4 111 Contents vii 7 Immediate Deductions 113 The Square of Opposition 113 Exercise Set 7.1 117 Exercise Set 7.2 120 Exercise Set 7.3 122 Other Immediate Inferences 123 Exercise Set 7.4 124 Exercise Set 7.5 126 Exercise Set 7.6 128 Making Multiple Immediate Deductions 128 Exercise Set 7.7 129 8 Categorical Syllogisms 131 The Basic Parts of a Categorical Syllogism 131 Exercise Set 8.1 132 Distribution of Terms 133 Exercise Set 8.2 134 Five Rules for Testing the Validity of Categorical Syllogisms 134 Fallacies in Categorical Syllogisms 135 Exercise Set 8.3 147 Formulating and Assessing Categorical Syllogisms in Ordinary Language: The Case for “All Wars Are Civil Wars” 148 Exercise Set 8.4 150 Exercise Set 8.5 151 Induction 9 Generalization 155 Induction as Probabilistic Reasoning 155 The Defeasibility of Induction 156 Probability as Relative to Bearers of Evidence 156 Exercise Set 9.1 157 Induction as Reasoning beyond Direct Experience 157 Generalization 158 Exercise Set 9.2 161 Exercise Set 9.3 163 Exercise Set 9.4 165 Exercise Set 9.5 167 Exercise Set 9.6 168 10 Predictions 169 Magnifying Risks 170 Exercise Set 10.1 172 The Fallacy of Insisting on the Past 172 Exercise Set 10.2 173 The Fallacy of Ignoring the Past 174 Exercise Set 10.3 175 viii Contents Seeking Probability as an Antidote to Insisting On and Ignoring the Past 175 Exercise Set 10.4 176 Induction by Analogy: The Case of Animal Experimentation 177 Exercise Set 10.5 180 Exercise Set 10.6 181 11 Testimonials 183 Surfing the Internet to Keep Informed 184 Exercise Set 11.1 186 Mainstream Media as an Information Source 186 Exercise Set 11.2 187 Parroting: The Case of Judith Miller and the New York Times 187 Exercise Set 11.3 189 12 Inductive Hypothesis 191 Inductive Hypotheses 191 Exercise Set 12.1 193 The Scientific Method: The Case of O. J. Simpson 194 Exercise Set 12.2 207 Exercise Set 12.3 207 13 Causation 209 The Meaning of Causation 209 Exercise Set 13.1 211 Constant Conjunction 212 Exercise Set 13.2 214 Fear and Superstition as the Basis of Causal Judgment 214 Exercise Set 13.3 215 Mill’s Methods of Establishing Causal Relationships 215 Exercise Set 13.4 220 Contrary-to-Fact Conditionals 223 Exercise Set 13.5 225 Behavioral and Emotional Reasoning 14 Behavioral Reasoning 227 The Practical Syllogism 227 Behavioral Reasoning 229 A Basic Example: Bill O’Reilly’s Rudeness Argument 229 Exercise Set 14.1 231 Reasoning Containing a Subargument: Adolph Eichmann’s Refusal to Take Responsibility for His Nazi War Crimes 232 Exercise Set 14.2 235 Analyzing Extended Arguments: The Case of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq 235 Exercise Set 14.3 242 Contents ix 15 Refutation in Practical Reasoning 247 Deductive Falsification 248 Exercise Set 15.1 248 Insufficient Inductive Evidence 249 Exercise Set 15.2 250 Exercise Set 15.3 250 Reductio ad Absurdum 251 Exercise Set 15.4 252 Double Standards 252 Exercise Set 15.5 254 Exercise Set 15.6 254 Informal Fallacies in Practical Reasoning 254 16 Emotional Reasoning 257 Emotional Reasoning 257 What’s in an Emotion? 257 Exercise Set 16.1 259 How to Identify an Emotion and Find Its Premises 260 Exercise Set 16.2 261 Refuting Irrational Premises in Emotional Reasoning 262 Exercise Set 16.3 262 Cognitive Dissonance 263 Exercise Set 16.4 264 Finding an Antidote to a Fallacious Premise in Emotional Reasoning 264 Exercise Set 16.5 268 Exercising Willpower 268 Logic-Based Stress Management 269 Exercise Set 16.6 271 Part II: Informal Fallacies Fallacies that Promote Self-Destructive Emotions 17 Inferences from “Must,” “Awful,” and “Can’t” 275 The Linguistic Theory of Emotions 275 Demanding Perfection 275 Exercise Set 17.1 277 Exercise Set 17.2 279 Exercise Set 17.3 281 Awfulizing 281 Exercise Set 17.4 285 Exercise Set 17.5 285 Exercise Set 17.6 287 Can’tstipation 287 Exercise Set 17.7 290 Exercise Set 17.8 293 Exercise Set 17.9 294
The list of books you might like
