By Anne Thomson
All of us have interaction within the means of reasoning, yet we don't continuously be aware of no matter if we're doing it good. This publication deals scholars the chance to training reasoning in a clear-headed and significant manner, with the goals of constructing an understanding of the significance of reasoning good, and of bettering the reader's ability in analysing and comparing arguments. during this moment variation of the hugely winning severe Reasoning: a pragmatic creation , Ann Thomson has up to date and revised the publication to incorporate new and topical examples for you to advisor scholars in the course of the methods of serious reasoning in a transparent and fascinating approach.
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Additional info for Critical Reasoning: A Practical Introduction
Sample text
The discovery that this argument does not give strong support to its conclusion does not establish that its conclusion is false. Perhaps violence shown on television does affect viewers’ behaviour, but, if this is so, it is a truth which cannot be established by means of this particular argument. The ability to identify the mistakes in other people’s reasoning is a valuable skill which will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter. The examples discussed above have been of specific assumptions relating to the subject matter of particular arguments.
However, those concerned with argument analysis typically make a distinction between reasons, conclusions and assumptions in an argument, and we shall be accepting this distinction here. Moreover, our use of the word will not imply a distinction between what is known and what is merely believed. For the purpose of our discussion of assumptions in reasoning, we shall use the word ‘assumption’ to mean something which is taken for granted, but not stated – something which is implicit rather than explicit.
His nickname was ‘Tricky Dickie’. Now read the passage, say what you think is its main conclusion, and write down a list of assumptions which you think it makes. Two justifications are generally given for the examination of a politician’s sex life. The first is the prissy syllogism that ‘if a man would cheat on his wife, he would cheat on his country’. But Gerry Ford and Jimmy Carter were, by most accounts, strong husbands but weak Presidents. I would guess that Pat Nixon knew where Dick was every night.