Trudy Govier

Description
This clear and accessible book about argument has established itself as a classic text in the field of practical logic. It is frequently used for first and second year courses on critical thinking in university departments of philosophy. The book is also widely used by philosophy instructors in community colleges, and is used for courses on argument in university departments of communication, speech, and English.

The lively and well-written text helps students and other readers to understand the use of good arguments. At the same time, it offers enough clearly explained theory to explain why certain arguments are good or bad. With its guidance, students learn to accurately interpret arguments encountered in daily life and various academic disciplines. A carefully developed framework integrates accounts of deductive and inductive arguments, analogies, 'conductive' or good reasons arguments, and many common fallacies. In a lively chapter on language, euphemisms, emotionally loaded language, and various types of definition are discussed. Throughout the book, examples have been selected for their significance and interest to a wide variety of readers. Examples and exercises are culled from a variety of sources including the media, serious non-fiction, and classical and popular literature.

Every chapter includes a summary, a review of terms introduced in the chapter, and extensive exercises ranging from easy to intermediate to relatively difficult. Answers to all exercises are provided, either in the back of the book or in the Instructor's Manual. Five essays for analysis are appended, so as to offer students an opportunity to apply their skills to more extended examples.

The five previous editions of this book (1985, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2001) were widely used in the United States and Canada and similar use is anticipated for the sixth edition. The book has been used in England, Holland, Australia, South Africa, Spain, Israel, and Japan.

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Comments and Reviews

Morton L. Schagrin, State University of New York, Fredonia

A top-notch textbook. When colleagues ask my advice for a text, I point them in Govier's direction.

Al Spangler, California State University, Long Bear

I use Trudy Govier's A Practical Study of Argument because it is clearly written and contains a wide variety of examples taken from varied sources. My students give it high praise, too, for its clarity and intelligent discussion of complex issues.

Andrew Irvine, University of British Columbia

A Practical Study of Argument provides students with a strong introduction to critical reasoning and fallacies, as well as a sound introduction to the scientific study of argument. In addition, I find the text's exercises to be excellent and appreciate the book's international flavor.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS of A Practical Study of Argument

1. What is an Argument? (And What is Not?)

2. Pinning Down Argument Structure

3. When is an Argument a Good One?

4. Looking at Language

5. Premises: What to Accept and Why

6. Working on Relevance

7. Deductive Arguments: Categorical Logic

8. Deductive Arguments: Propositional Logic

9. An Introduction to Inductive Arguments

10. Causal Inductive Arguments

11. Analogies: Reasoning from Case to Case

12. Conductive Arguments and Counterconsiderations

Appendix A: A Summary of Fallacies

Appendix B: Selected Essays for Analysis

Answers to Selected Exercises

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1. What is an Argument? (And What is Not?)

• What is an argument?
• Argument and opinion
• Argument and indicator words
• Where and how do you find arguments?
• Why are arguments important?
• What isn't an argument?
• Argument and explanation: the difference

2. Pinning Down Argument Structure

• Standardizing an argument
• General strategies for standardizing arguments
• Further Tools for Understanding Arguments: Location, Scope, and Commitment
• Patterns of Arguments
• Unstated Premises and Conclusions
• An Interesting Sideline: The Question of Visual Arguments
• Charity and Accuracy in Argument Interpretation

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3. When is an Argument a Good One?

• The ARG conditions
• More on the R and G Conditions
• Using the ARG conditions to evaluate arguments
• The significance of argument evaluation
• The challenge of argument
• Evaluating arguments and constructing your own arguments
• The dialectical context

4. Looking at Language

• Definitions
• Language and Clarity
• Language and Its Emotional Connotations
• Clarity and Audience: Lingo, Technical Languages, and Jargon

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5. Premises: What to Accept and Why

• The dilemma of premises
• When premises are acceptable
• When premises are unacceptable
• Internet sources

6. Working on Relevance

• Understanding Relevance
• Relevance and the ARG Conditions
• Fallacies Involving Irrelevance
• Emotional Appeals, Irrelevance, and Distraction

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7. Deductive Arguments: Categorical Logic

• Deductive relations
• Four categorical forms
• Natural language and categorical form
• Venn Diagrams
• Rules of immediate inference
• Contrary and contradictory predicates and false dichotomies
• Categorical logic: some philosophical background
• The categorical syllogism
• The rules of the categorical syllogism
• Applying categorical logic

8. Deductive Arguments: Propositional Logic

• Definition of the basic symbols used in propositional logic
• Testing for validity by the truth table technique
• The shorter truth table technique
• Translating from English into propositional logic
• Further points about translation
• Simple proofs in propositional logic
• Propositional logic and cogent arguments.

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9. An Introduction to Inductive Arguments

• Philosophical background
• Inductive generalizations
• The Same and the Population
• Applying Statistical Generalizations: Statistical Syllogisms
• Language Problems in Contexts of Inductive Argument
• Common Errors in Inductive Reasoning

10. Causal Inductive Arguments

• Causation and Meaning
• Distinguishing Between Correlation and Cause
• Associations and Links
• Causal Reasoning: Mill's Methods
• Background Knowledge and Inference to the Best Explanation
• Errors in Causal Reasoning

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11. Analogies: Reasoning from Case to Case

• The nature and functions of analogy
• Analogy and consistency
• Inductive analogies
• Further critical strategies
• Loose and misleading analogies

12. Conductive Arguments and Counterconsiderations

• The Nature of Conductive Arguments
• Counterconsiderations and Conductive Arguments
• Evaluating Conductive Arguments
• Objections and Counterconsiderations
• The Confirmation Bias

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Appendix A: A Summary of Fallacies

Appendix B: Selected Essays for Analysis

• Mark Battersby, "Critical Thinking in a Life and Death Situation"
• Trudy Govier, "Believing in the Goddess?"
• Gary Bauslaugh, "Zero Tolerance"
• Rose Kemp, "No Kidding?"
• Ernie Regehr, "Culpable Nonviolence: The Moral Ambiguity of Pacifsm"
• David Ehrenfeld, "In Ethics, Context Matters!"

Answers to Selected Exercises

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ORDERING INFORMATION for A Practical Study of Argument

Trudy Govier. A Practical Study of Argument.
Sixth edition, Wadsworth Publishing, 2005,
ISBN/ISSN: 0534605257 (Paper).

• List Price:  CDN $75.95,
• Wadsworth's Price:  CDN $75.95
• Also available on tape for University of Waterloo students.

For further information about the book and the teaching resources that accompany it, contact:

Thomson Wadsworth

Wadsworth/Thomson Learning,

10 Davis Drive,

Belmont, CA 94002-3098

1-800-423-0563

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