Understanding Arguments: An Introduction to Informal Logic , Eighth Edition

Front Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 8
PREFACE......Page 16
PART I: HOW TO ANALYZE ARGUMENTS......Page 18
What Arguments Are......Page 20
Justifications......Page 21
Explanations......Page 24
Combinations: An Example......Page 27
Language and Convention......Page 34
Linguistic Acts......Page 36
Speech Acts......Page 39
Conversational Acts......Page 49
Summary......Page 65
Argument Markers......Page 68
Arguments in Standard Form......Page 72
Some Standards for Evaluating Arguments......Page 74
A Problem and Some Solutions......Page 79
Evaluative Language......Page 86
An Extended Example......Page 94
Getting Down to Basics......Page 122
Dissecting the Argument......Page 126
Arranging Subarguments......Page 128
Suppressed Premises......Page 133
The Method of Reconstruction......Page 139
Digging Deeper......Page 142
An Example of Deep Analysis: Capital Punishment......Page 144
PART II: HOW TO EVALUATE ARGUMENTS: DEDUCTIVE STANDARDS......Page 156
The Formal Analysis of Arguments......Page 158
Basic Propositional Connectives......Page 159
Conditionals......Page 179
Beyond Propositional Logic......Page 196
Categorical Propositions......Page 197
Validity for Categorical Arguments......Page 207
Appendix: The Classical Theory......Page 220
PART III: HOW TO EVALUATE ARGUMENTS: INDUCTIVE STANDARDS......Page 230
Induction versus Deduction......Page 232
Statistical Generalizations......Page 236
Statistical Applications......Page 242
Reasoning About Causes......Page 248
Sufficient Conditions and Necessary Conditions......Page 250
Applying These Methods to Find Causes......Page 260
Concomitant Variation......Page 267
Inferences to the Best Explanation......Page 274
Arguments from Analogy......Page 284
Some Fallacies of Probability......Page 294
The Language of Probability......Page 299
A Priori Probability......Page 300
Some Rules of Probability......Page 302
Bayes's Theorem......Page 308
Expected Monetary Value......Page 320
Expected Overall Value......Page 323
Decisions Under Ignorance......Page 325
PART IV: FALLACIES......Page 332
Uses of Unclarity......Page 334
Vagueness......Page 335
Heaps......Page 337
Slippery Slopes......Page 339
Ambiguity......Page 350
Equivocation......Page 354
Definitions......Page 360
Relevance......Page 370
Ad Hominem Arguments......Page 371
Appeals to Authority......Page 377
More Fallacies of Relevance......Page 381
Circularity......Page 386
Begging the Question......Page 387
Self-Sealers......Page 392
What Is Refutation?......Page 398
Counterexamples......Page 399
Reductio Ad Absurdum......Page 403
Straw Men and False Dichotomies......Page 407
Refutation by Parallel Reasoning......Page 409
PART V: AREAS OF ARGUMENTATION......Page 418
CHAPTER 18 LEGAL REASONING......Page 420
Components of Legal Reasoning......Page 421
The Law of Discrimination......Page 428
Grutter v. Bollinger......Page 436
Gratz v. Bollinger......Page 442
Burden of Proof......Page 447
Moral Disagreements......Page 450
The Problem of Abortion......Page 451
Analogical Reasoning in Ethics......Page 459
Weighing Factors......Page 461
Standard Science......Page 494
Scientific Revolutions......Page 496
CHAPTER 21 RELIGIOUS REASONING......Page 522
"Five Reasons to Believe in God"......Page 523
"Seven Deadly Objections to Belief in the Christian God"......Page 529
CHAPTER 22 PHILOSOPHICAL REASONING......Page 540
"Computing Machinery and Intelligence"......Page 541
"The Myth of the Computer"......Page 553
CREDITS......Page 560
INDEX......Page 562