The Critical Thinking Toolkit

Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
The Very Idea of Critical Thinking 1
Critical thinking in the formal and empirical sciences 2
Critical thinking, critical theory, and critical politics 4
Critical thinking, finitude, and self–understanding 5
Using this book 5

1 Basic Tools for Critical Thinking about Arguments 7
1.1 Claims 7
1.2 Arguments 11
1.3 Premises 13
1.4 Conclusions 16

2 More Tools for Critical Thinking about Arguments 19
2.1 Deductive and Inductive Arguments 19
2.2 Conditional Claims 22
2.3 Classifying and Comparing Claims 26
2.4 Claims and Definitions 29
2.5 The Critical Thinker s Two Step : Validity and Soundness/Cogency and Strength 32
2.6 Showing Invalidity by Counterexample 35

3 Tools for Deductive Reasoning with Categories 39
3.1 Thinking Categorically 39
3.2 Categorical Logic 40
3.3 Translating English Claims to Standard Form 46
3.4 Formal Deduction with Categories: Immediate Inferences 50
3.5 Formal Deduction with Categories: Syllogisms 63

4 Tools for Deductive Reasoning with Claims 72
4.1 Propositional vs. Categorical Logics 72
4.2 Common Deductively Valid Forms 83
4.3 Equivalences 90
4.4 Formal Deduction with Forms and Equivalences 96
4.5 Common Formal Fallacies 101

5 Tools for Detecting Informal Fallacies 107
5.1 Critical Thinking, Critical Deceiving, and the Two Step 107
5.2 Subjectivist Fallacy 109
5.3 Genetic Fallacies 112
5.4 Ad Hominem Fallacies: Direct, Circumstantial, and Tu Quoque 113
5.5 Appeal to Emotions or Appeal to the Heart (argumentum ad passiones) 120
5.6 Appeal to Force (argumentum ad baculum) 124
5.7 Appeal to Ignorance (argumentum ad ignorantiam) 125
5.8 Appeal to Novelty (argumentum ad novitatem) 127
5.9 Appeal to the People (argumentum ad populum) 128
5.10 Appeal to Unqualified Authority (argumentum ad verecundiam) 132
5.11 Fallacy of Accident 135
5.12 False Dilemma 137
5.13 Semantic and Syntactic Fallacies 138
5.14 Begging the Question (petitio principii) 143
5.15 Question–Begging Sentences 144
5.16 Missing the Point (ignoratio elenchi) 145
5.17 Fallacy of Composition 146
5.18 Fallacy of Division 148
5.19 Is–Ought Fallacy 149
5.20 Appeal to Tradition 152
5.21 Quoting Out of Context 153
5.22 Red Herring 158
5.23 Straw Man and Fidelity 159
5.24 Hasty Fallacization 161
5.25 A Brief Argument Clinic 162