Preface.
PART I: HOW TO ANALYZE ARGUMENTS.
1. Uses of Arguments.
What Arguments Are. Justifications. Explanations. Combinations: An
Example.
2. The Web of Language.
Language and Convention. Linguistic Acts. Speech Acts.
Performatives. Kinds of Speech Acts. Conversational Acts.
Conversational Rules. Conversational Implication. Violating
Conversational Rules. Rhetorical Devices. Deception. Bronston v.
United States. Summary.
3. The Language of Argument.
Argument Markers. If . . . , then. Arguments in Standard Form. Some
Standards for Evaluating Arguments. Validity. Truth. Soundness. A
Tricky Case. A Problem and Some Solutions. Assuring. Guarding.
Discounting. Evaluative Language. Spin Doctoring.
4. The Art Of Close Analysis.
An Extended Example. Clerk Hire Allowance, House of
Representatives.
5. Deep Analysis.
Getting Down to Basics. Clarifying Crucial Terms. Dissecting the
Argument. Arranging Subarguments. Suppressed Premises. Contingent
Facts. Linguistic Principles. Evaluative Suppressed Premises. Uses
and Abuses of Suppressed Premises. The Method of Reconstruction.
Digging Deeper. An Example of Deep Analysis: Capital
Punishment.
PART II: HOW TO EVALUATE ARGUMENTS: DEDUCTIVE STANDARDS.
6. Propositional Logic.
The Formal Analysis of Arguments. Basic Propositional Connectives.
Conjunction. Disjunction. Negation. Process of Elimination. How
Truth-Functional Connectives Work. Testing for Validity. Some
Further Connectives. Conditionals. Truth Tables for Conditionals.
Logical Language and Everyday Language. Other Conditionals in
Ordinary Language.
7. Categorical Logic.
Beyond Propositional Logic. Categorical Propositions. The Four
Basic Categorical Forms. Translation into the Basic Categorical
Forms. Contradictories. Existential Commitment. Validity for
Categorical Arguments. Categorical Immediate Inferences. The Theory
of the Syllogism. Appendix: The Classical Theory. The Classical
Square of Opposition. The Classical Theory of Immediate Inference.
The Classical Theory of Syllogisms.
PART III: HOW TO EVALUATE ARGUMENTS: INDUCTIVE STANDARDS.
8. Arguments To And From Generalizations.
Induction versus Deduction. Statistical Generalizations. Should We
Accept the Premises? Is the Sample Large Enough? Is the Sample
Biased? Is the Result Biased in Some Other Way? Statistical
Applications.
9. Causal Reasoning.
Reasoning About Causes. Sufficient Conditions and Necessary
Conditions. The Sufficient Condition Test. The Necessary Condition
Test. The Joint Test. Rigorous Testing. Reaching Positive
Conclusions. Applying These Methods to Find Causes. Normality.
Background Assumptions. A Detailed Example. Calling Things Causes.
Concomitant Variation.
10. Inference To The Best Explanation And From Analogy.
Inferences to the Best Explanation. Arguments from Analogy.
11. CHANCES.
Some Fallacies of Probability. The Gambler's Fallacy. Strange
Things Happen. Heuristics. The Language of Probability. A Priori
Probability. Some Rules of Probability. Bayes's Theorem.
12. CHOICES.
Expected Monetary Value. Expected Overall Value. Decisions Under
Ignorance.
PART IV: FALLACIES.
13. Fallacies Of Vagueness.
Uses of Unclarity. Vagueness. Heaps. Slippery Slopes. Conceptual
Slippery-Slope Arguments. Fairness Slippery-Slope Arguments. Causal
Slippery-Slope Arguments.
14. Fallacies Of Ambiguity.
Ambiguity. Equivocation. Definitions.
15. Fallacies Of Relevance.
Relevance. Ad Hominem Arguments. Appeals to Authority. More
Fallacies of Relevance.
16. Fallacies Of Vacuity.
Circularity. Begging the Question. Self-Sealers.
17. Refutation.
What Is Refutation? Counterexamples. Reductio Ad Absurdum. Straw
Men and False Dichotomies. Refutation by Parallel Reasoning.
PART V: AREAS OF ARGUMENTATION.
18. Legal Reasoning.
Components of Legal Reasoning. Questions of Fact. Questions of Law.
The Law of Discrimination. The Equal Protection Clause. Applying
the Equal Protection Clause. The Strict Scrutiny Test. The Bakke
Case. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. Legal
Developments Since Bakke. Grutter v. Bollinger. Gratz v. Bollinger.
Burden of Proof.
19. Moral Reasoning.
Moral Disagreements. The Problem of Abortion. The Pro-Life"
Argument. "Pro-Choice" Responses. Analogical Reasoning in Ethics.
Weighing Factors. "A Defense of Abortion," by Judith Jarvis
Thomson. "An Argument that Abortion Is Wrong," by Don Marquis.
20. Scientific Reasoning.
Standard Science. Scientific Revolutions. "Molecular Machines:
Experimental Support for the
Design Inference," by Michael J. Behe. "Living with Darwin," by
Philip Kitcher.
21. Religious Reasoning.
"Five Reasons to Believe in God," by William Lane Craig. "Seven
Deadly Objections to Belief in the Christian God," by Edwin
Curley.
22. Philosophical Reasoning.
"Computing Machinery and Intelligence," by A. M. Turing. "The Myth
of the Computer," by John R. Searle.
Credits.
Index."
Robert J. Fogelin is Professor of Philosophy and Sherman Fairchild Professor in the Humanities at Dartmouth College. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong is Chauncey Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Department of Philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.
"This book is a well-crafted and philosophically-infused work. It
gets students engaged with the material and genuinely challenges
them to think critically. It works particularly well for courses on
critical thinking that are aimed at developing students' skills in
quantitative reasoning."
"With its lucid explanations, penetrating analysis of real-world
issues, and its selection of exemplary, timely readings,
Understanding Arguments should be required reading in any course
whose objectives include improving critical thinking and analytical
skills."
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