An Introduction to Critical and Creative Thinking

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Chapter 1. Basic Concepts of Reasoning
Chapter 2. Diagramming Reasoning
Chapter 3. Evaluating Arguments
Chapter 4. Diagramming: Reasons For and Against
Chapter 5. Forms of Argument
Chapter 6. Reconstructing and Constructing Arguments and Writing Evaluative Essays
Chapter 7. Fallacies
Chapter 8. Categorical Logic
Chapter 9. Propositional Logic
Chapter 10. Definitions
Chapter 11. Practical Applications

Index

This book is written for anyone involved or interested in learning ordinary language reasoning. It provides an introduction to methods of critical and creative thinking, including the construction of arguments as they appear in ordinary discourse, and the reconstruction and evaluation of such arguments. Although this book is not primarily anintroduction to methods in formal logic, we do provide an introduction to categorical and propositional logic. Throughout, we emphasise techniques for producing arrow diagrams of arguments in ordinary language in order to understand and clarify their structure in order to then assess whether they represent good reasoning. If you work your way carefully through this book, you will become better at reasoning both in terms of understanding and clarifying other peoples arguments and also at producing increasingly sophisticated and compelling arguments of your own. You will learn howto recognise common but often seductive mistakes in reasoning and so be empowered to avoid making these mistakes yourself. With perseverance, your writing skills will improve. Your oral presentation skills will improve and you will hone your ability to define crucial terms in argument, debate, and discussion. Ultimately, you will learn how to ‘think outside the box’.