Logical Reasoning

by Bradley H. Dowden

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The goal of this book is to improve your logical-reasoning skills also called "critical thinking skills." They are a complex weave of abilities that help you get someone's point, generate reasons for your own point, evaluate the reasons given by others, decide what or what not to do, decide what information to accept or reject, explain a complicated idea, apply conscious quality control as you think, and resist propaganda.

Description from LibreTexts.

Publisher
California State University Sacramento
Subjects
Humanities, Philosophy
Licence
CC BY-NC-SA, as LibreTexts states it. Non-commercial use only.
Who can read
Teens profiles and older, judged from its title and subjects

Contents

LibreTexts writes equations in TeX, and here they show as TeX; the PDF has them typeset.

  1. Front Matter
  2. TitlePage
  3. InfoPage
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Licensing
  6. 1: How to Reason Logically
  7. 1.1: 1.1
  8. 1.2: Facing a Decision as a Critical Thinker
  9. 1.3: Advice for Logical Reasoners
  10. 1.4: Examples of Good Reasoning
  11. 1.5: Review of Major Points
  12. 1.6: Glossary
  13. 1.7: Exercises
  14. 2: Claims, Issues, and Arguments
  15. 2.1: What is a Statement?
  16. 2.2: What is an Argument?
  17. 2.3: What is the Issue?
  18. 2.4: What is a Proof?
  19. 2.5: Indicators
  20. 2.6: Rewriting Arguments in Standard Form
  21. 2.7: Conditionals and the Word If
  22. 2.8: Deductively Valid and Inductively Strong
  23. 2.9: Uncovering Implicit Premises
  24. 2.10: Locating Unstated Conclusions
  25. 2.11: Detecting Obscure Argumentation
  26. 2.12: Descriptions and Explanations
  27. 2.13: Review of Major Points
  28. 2.14: Glossary
  29. 2.15: Exercises
  30. 3: Writing with the Appropriate Precision
  31. 3.1: Being Ambiguous
  32. 3.1.1: Context and Background Knowledge
  33. 3.1.2: Disambiguation by Machine
  34. 3.1.3: Semantic Disagreements
  35. 3.1.4: Equivocation
  36. 3.2: Being Too Vague
  37. 3.3: Being Too General
  38. 3.4: Being Pseudoprecise
  39. 3.5: Improper Operationalization
  40. 3.6: Creating Helpful Definitions
  41. 3.6.1: Different Definitions for Different Purposes
  42. 3.6.2: How to Avoid Errors when Creating Definitions
  43. 3.7: Review of Major Points
  44. 3.8: Glossary
  45. 3.9: Exercises
  46. 4: How to Evaluate Information and Judge Credibility
  47. 4.1: The Principles of Charity and Fidelity
  48. 4.2: When Should You Accept Unusual Statements?
  49. 4.3: Assessing a Source's Credibility
  50. 4.4: Seeking a Second Opinion
  51. 4.5: Trust Me, I Know It on Good Authority
  52. 4.6: Suspending Belief
  53. 4.7: Getting Solid Information about Whom to Vote For
  54. 4.8: Fake News and Misinformation
  55. 4.9: Review of Major Points
  56. 4.10: Glossary
  57. 4.11: Exercises
  58. 5: Obstacles to Better Communication
  59. 5.1: Not Realizing What You Are Saying
  60. 5.2: Abusing Rules of Grammar
  61. 5.3: Over-Using Euphemisms
  62. 5.4: Unintended Innuendo
  63. 5.5: Disobeying Rules of Discourse
  64. 5.6: Not Sticking to the Issue and Not Treating It Fairly
  65. 5.6.1: Not Accepting the Burden of Proof
  66. 5.6.2: Diverting Attention from the Issue
  67. 5.7: Giving Too Many Details
  68. 5.8: Re-defining the Issue
  69. 5.9: Covering Up the Reasons That Favor Your Opponent
  70. 5.10: Review of Major Points
  71. 5.11: Glossary
  72. 5.12: Exercises
  73. 6: Writing to Convince Others
  74. 6.1: Writing with Precision and to Your Audience
  75. 6.1.1: The Introduction
  76. 6.1.2: The Middle
  77. 6.1.3: The Ending
  78. 6.1.4: Digressions
  79. 6.2: Improving Your Writing Style
  80. 6.3: Proving Your Conclusion
  81. 6.4: Creating Counterarguments
  82. 6.5: Review of Major Points
  83. 6.6: Glossary
  84. 6.7: Exercises
  85. 7: Defending Against Deception
  86. 7.1: Deception Is All Around Us
  87. 7.2: Exaggeration and Lying
  88. 7.3: Telling Only Half the Truth
  89. 7.4: Telling the Truth, While Still Misleading
  90. 7.5: Saying Little with Lots of Words
  91. 7.6: Persuading Without Using Reasons
  92. 7.7: Deceiving with Loaded Language
  93. 7.8: Using Rhetorical Devices
  94. 7.9: Review of Major Points
  95. 7.10: Glossary
  96. 7.11: Exercises
  97. 8: Detecting Fallacies
  98. 8.1: Ad Hominem Fallacy
  99. 8.2: Fallacy of Circular Reasoning
  100. 8.3: Straw Man Fallacy
  101. 8.4: False Dilemma Fallacy
  102. 8.5: Fallacy of Faulty Comparison
  103. 8.6: Fallacious Appeal to Authority
  104. 8.6.1: More about Assessing Credibility
  105. 8.6.2: Spotting an Authority's Bias
  106. 8.7: Slippery Slope Fallacy
  107. 8.8: Genetic Fallacy
  108. 8.9: Non Sequitur
  109. 8.10: Review of Major Points
  110. 8.11: Glossary
  111. 8.12: Exercises
  112. 9: Consistency and Inconsistency
  113. 9.1: Recognizing Inconsistency and Contradiction
  114. 9.2: Identifying Self-Contradictions and Oxymorons
  115. 9.3: Inconsistency with Presuppositions
  116. 9.4: Refuting General Statements by Finding Counterexamples
  117. 9.5: Resolving Inconsistencies
  118. 9.6: Review of Major Points
  119. 9.7: Glossary
  120. 9.8: Exercises
  121. 10: Deductive Reasoning
  122. 10.1: Implying with Certainty vs. with Probability
  123. 10.2: Distinguishing Deduction from Induction
  124. 10.3: Review of Major Points
  125. 10.4: Glossary
  126. 10.5: Exercises
  127. 11: Logical Form and Sentential Logic
  128. 11.1: What is Logic?
  129. 11.2: Logical Equivalence
  130. 11.3: Logical Forms of Statements and Arguments
  131. 11.3.1: The Logic of Not
  132. 11.3.2: The Logic of And
  133. 11.3.3: The Logic of Or
  134. 11.3.4: The Logic of If-Then
  135. 11.3.5: The Logic of Only, Only-If, and Unless
  136. 11.4: Sentential Logic
  137. 11.4.1: Truth Tables
  138. 11.4.2: Arguments, Logical Consequences and Counterexamples
  139. 11.4.3: 3-Valued Logic
  140. 11.4.4: History of Sentential Logic
  141. 11.5: Review of Major Points
  142. 11.6: Glossary
  143. 11.7: Exercises
  144. 12: Aristotelian Logic and Venn-Euler Diagrams
  145. 12.1: Aristotle's Logic of Classes
  146. 12.2: Using Venn-Euler Diagrams to Test for Invalidity
  147. 12.3: The Logic of Only in Class Logic
  148. 12.4: Review of Major Points
  149. 12.5: Glossary
  150. 12.6: Exercises
  151. 13: Inductive Reasoning
  152. 13.1: Generalizing from a Sample
  153. 13.1.1: Random Sample
  154. 13.1.2: Sample Size
  155. 13.1.3: Sample Diversity
  156. 13.1.4: Stratified Samples
  157. 13.1.5: Statistical Significance
  158. 13.1.6: Designing a Paired Comparison Test
  159. 13.2: Obstacles to Collecting Reliable Data
  160. 13.3: Varieties of Inductive Arguments
  161. 13.3.1: Argument from Authority
  162. 13.3.2: Argument from Analogy
  163. 13.3.3: Induction from Past to Future (Prediction).
  164. 13.3.4: Appeal to a Typical Example
  165. 13.3.5: Argument Based on Signs
  166. 13.3.6: Causal Inference
  167. 13.3.7: Inference to the Best Explanation
  168. 13.4: How New Information Affects an Argument’s Strength
  169. 13.5: Statistics and Probability
  170. 13.6: Review of Major Points
  171. 13.7: Glossary
  172. 13.8: Exercises
  173. 14: Reasoning about Causes and Their Effects
  174. 14.1: Correlations
  175. 14.2: Significant Correlations
  176. 14.3: Causal Claims
  177. 14.4: Inferring from Correlation to Causation
  178. 14.5: Criteria for a Causal Relationship
  179. 14.6: Criteria for Creating Good Explanations
  180. 14.7: Assessing Alternative Explanations
  181. 14.8: The Scientific Method
  182. 14.9: Some Case Studies
  183. 14.10: Review of Major Points
  184. 14.11: Glossary
  185. 14.12: Exercises
  186. 15: Scientific Reasoning
  187. 15.1: What is Science?
  188. 15.2: Reviewing the Principles of Scientific Reasoning
  189. 15.2.1: Testability, Accuracy, and Precision
  190. 15.2.2: Reliability of Scientific Reporting
  191. 15.2.3: Causal Explanations vs. Causal Arguments
  192. 15.2.4: Good Evidence
  193. 15.2.5: A Cautious Approach with an Open Mind
  194. 15.2.6: Discovering Causes, Creating Explanations, and Solving Problems
  195. 15.2.7: Confirming by Testing
  196. 15.2.8: Aiming to Disconfirm
  197. 15.3: Superstition
  198. 15.4: Looking for Alternative Explanations
  199. 15.5: Creating Scientific Explanations
  200. 15.5.1: Probabilistic and Deterministic Explanations
  201. 15.5.2: Fruitful and Unfruitful Explanations
  202. 15.6: Testing Scientific Explanations
  203. 15.6.1: Designing a Scientific Test
  204. 15.6.2: Retaining Hypotheses Despite Negative Test Results
  205. 15.6.3: Three Conditions for a Well-Designed Test
  206. 15.6.4: Deducing Predictions for Testing
  207. 15.7: Detecting Pseudoscience
  208. 15.8: Paradigms and Possible Causes
  209. 15.9: Review of Major Points
  210. 15.10: Glossary
  211. 15.11: Exercises
  212. Back Matter
  213. Index
  214. Glossary
  215. Detailed Licensing