Tracy Bowell

التفكير النقدي

Gary Kemp

A much-needed guide to thinking critically for oneself and how to tell a good argument from a bad one. Includes topical examples from politics, sport, medicine, music, chapter summaries, glossary and exercises.

A Concise Guide

Critical Thinking

Robert Cowan

We are frequently confronted with arguments. Arguments are attempts to persuade us - to influence our beliefs and actions – by giving us reasons to believe this or that. Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide will equip students with the concepts and techniques used in the identification, analysis and assessment of arguments whatever the subject-matter or context. Through precise and accessible discussion, this book provides the tools to become a successful critical thinker, one who can act and believe in accordance with good reasons, and who can articulate and make explicit those reasons. Key topics discussed include: Core concepts in argumentation How language can serve to obscure or conceal the real content of arguments; how to distinguish argumentation from rhetoric How to avoid common confusions surrounding words such as ‘truth’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘opinion’ How to identify and evaluate the most common types of argument How to distinguish good reasoning from bad in terms of deductive validity and induction. This fifth edition has been revised and extensively updated throughout, including a significantly expanded range of ‘complete examples’, the introduction of Venn diagrams, and the discussion of fake news and related phenomena arising in the contemporary scene. The dynamic Routledge Critical Thinking companion website provides thoroughly updated resources for both instructors and students, including new examples and case studies, flashcards, sample questions, practice questions and answers, student activities and a testbank of questions for use in the classroom. Visit www.routledge.com/cw/bowell.

Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide is a much-needed guide to argument analysis and a clear introduction to thinking clearly and rationally for oneself. Through precise and accessible discussion this book equips students with the essential skills required to tell a good argument from a bad one. Key features of the book are: clear, jargon-free discussion of key concepts in argumentation how to avoid common confusions surrounding words such as ‘truth’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘opinion’ how to identify and evaluate the most common types of argument how to spot fallacies in arguments and tell good reasoning from bad chapter summaries, glossaries and useful exercises. This third edition has been revised and updated throughout, with new exercises, and up-to-date topical examples, including: ‘real-world’ arguments; practical reasoning; understanding quantitative data, statistics, and the rhetoric used about them; scientific reasoning; and expanded discussion of conditionals, ambiguity, vagueness, slippery slope arguments, and arguments by analogy. The Routledge Critical Thinking companion website, features a wealth of further resources, including examples and case studies, sample questions, practice questions and answers, and student activities. Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide is essential reading for anyone, student or professional, at work or in the classroom, seeking to improve their reasoning and arguing skills.

Tracy Bowell

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