The voice of reason : fundamentals of critical thinking by Porter, Burton F instant download

The voice of reason : fundamentals of critical thinking by Porter, Burton F instant download

xvii, 365 pages : 23 cm, \"The Voice of Reason examines the traditional elements of the field and also explores new ground. The first section of the book elucidates the relationship between thought and language, explaining how words function. It discusses meaning, connotation, vagueness, ambiguity, and definition, identifying the linguistic elements that can produce mistakes in thinking. The next section describes the rules of systematic reasoning, examining such topics as truth, relevance, and adequacy; deductive logic (categorical, hypothetical, and disjunctive); and induction (cause and effect, analogy, generalization, and hypothesis). Sixteen fallacies in thinking are also described through extensive illustrations and applications, The final section of the book offers a unique study of what constitutes proof in several different areas - including politics, advertising, law, and social issues - as well as in the academic disciplines of literature, science, history, and ethics. The author describes the various rules of evidence, using essays by major figures in each field as examples.\" \"A text for courses in critical thinking, informal logic, and reasoning and writing, The Voice of Reason offers numerous pedagogical features including a host of examples; assignments, exercises, and puzzles at both the halfway point and at the end of each chapter; cartoons and quotations throughout; and practical applications of theoretical concepts.\"--Jacket, Includes bibliographical references and index, Critical thinking -- The way words work -- Language and definition -- Disagreements, claims, and reasons -- Common mistakes in thinking -- More subtle errors of thought -- Reasoning in a formal way -- Patterns of deductive thinking -- Inductive thinking : identifying causes, drawing analogies -- Deriving generalizations, forming hypothesis -- Discourse communities -- Arguments in the disciplines