The Critical Thinking Toolkit is a comprehensive compendium that equips readers with the essential knowledge and methods for clear, analytical, logical thinking and critique in a range of scholarly contexts and everyday situations. Takes an expansive approach to critical thinking by exploring concepts from other disciplines, including evidence and justification from philosophy, cognitive biases and errors from psychology, race and gender from sociology and political science, and tropes and symbols from rhetoric Follows the proven format of The Philosopher s Toolkit and The Ethics Toolkit with concise, easily digestible entries, see also recommendations that connect topics, and recommended reading lists Allows readers to apply new critical thinking and reasoning skills with exercises and real life examples at the end of each chapter Written in an accessible way, it leads readers through terrain too often cluttered with jargon Ideal for beginning to advanced students, as well as general readers, looking for a sophisticated yet accessible introduction to critical thinking

The Critical Thinking Toolkit is a comprehensive compendium that equips readers with the essential knowledge and methods for clear, analytical, logical thinking and critique in a range of scholarly contexts and everyday situations.* Takes an expansive approach to critical thinking by exploring concepts from other disciplines, including evidence and justification from philosophy, cognitive biases and errors from psychology, race and gender from sociology and political science, and tropes and symbols from rhetoric* Follows the proven format of The Philosopher's Toolkit and The Ethics Toolkit with concise, easily digestible entries, "see also" recommendations that connect topics, and recommended reading lists* Allows readers to apply new critical thinking and reasoning skills with exercises and real life examples at the end of each chapter* Written in an accessible way, it leads readers through terrain too often cluttered with jargon* Ideal for beginning to advanced students, as well as general readers, looking for a sophisticated yet accessible introduction to critical thinking

Acknowledgments xvIntroduction 1The Very Idea of Critical Thinking 1Critical thinking in the formal and empirical sciences 2Critical thinking, critical theory, and critical politics 4Critical thinking, finitude, and self-understanding 5Using this book 51 Basic Tools for Critical Thinking about Arguments 71.1 Claims 71.2 Arguments 111.3 Premises 131.4 Conclusions 162 More Tools for Critical Thinking about Arguments 192.1 Deductive and Inductive Arguments 192.2 Conditional Claims 222.3 Classifying and Comparing Claims 262.4 Claims and Definitions 292.5 The Critical Thinker's "Two Step": Validity and Soundness/Cogency and Strength 322.6 Showing Invalidity by Counterexample 353 Tools for Deductive Reasoning with Categories 393.1 Thinking Categorically 393.2 Categorical Logic 403.3 Translating English Claims to Standard Form 463.4 Formal Deduction with Categories: Immediate Inferences 503.5 Formal Deduction with Categories: Syllogisms 634 Tools for Deductive Reasoning with Claims 724.1 Propositional vs. Categorical Logics 724.2 Common Deductively Valid Forms 834.3 Equivalences 904.4 Formal Deduction with Forms and Equivalences 964.5 Common Formal Fallacies 1015 Tools for Detecting Informal Fallacies 1075.1 Critical Thinking, Critical Deceiving, and the "Two Step" 1075.2 Subjectivist Fallacy 1095.3 Genetic Fallacies 1125.4 Ad Hominem Fallacies: Direct, Circumstantial, and Tu Quoque 1135.5 Appeal to Emotions or Appeal to the Heart (argumentum ad passiones) 1205.6 Appeal to Force (argumentum ad baculum) 1245.7 Appeal to Ignorance (argumentum ad ignorantiam) 1255.8 Appeal to Novelty (argumentum ad novitatem) 1275.9 Appeal to the People (argumentum ad populum) 1285.10 Appeal to Unqualified Authority (argumentum ad verecundiam) 1325.11 Fallacy of Accident 1355.12 False Dilemma 1375.13 Semantic and Syntactic Fallacies 1385.14 Begging the Question (petitio principii) 1435.15 Question-Begging Sentences 1445.16 Missing the Point (ignoratio elenchi) 1455.17 Fallacy of Composition 1465.18 Fallacy of Division 1485.19 Is-Ought Fallacy 1495.20 Appeal to Tradition 1525.21 Quoting Out of Context 1535.22 Red Herring 1585.23 Straw Man and Fidelity 1595.24 Hasty Fallacization 1615.25 A Brief Argument Clinic 1626 Tools for Critical Thinking about Induction 1666.1 Inductive vs. Deductive Arguments Again 1666.2 Analogies and Arguments from Analogy 1676.3 Fallacies about Causation 1706.4 Inductive Statistical Reasoning 1776.5 Base Rate Fallacy 1826.6 Slippery Slope and Reductio ad Absurdum 1846.7 Hasty Generalization 1886.8 Mill's Five Methods 1897 Tools for Critical Thinking about Experience and Error 1957.1 Error Theory 1957.2 Cognitive Errors 1977.3 Environment and Error 2067.4 Background and Ignorance 2097.5 Misleading Language 2107.6 Standpoint and Disagreement 2118 Tools for Critical Thinking about Justification 2158.1 Knowledge: The Basics 2158.2 Feelings as Evidence 2198.3 Skepticism and Sensory Experience 2238.4 Emotions and Evidence 2298.5 Justifying Values 2378.6 Justification: The Basics 2428.7 Truth and Responsible Belief 2468.8 How Does JustificationWork? 2488.9 A Problem for Responsible Belief 2518.10 Evidence:Weak and Strong 2568.11 Justification: Conclusions 2669 Tools for Critical Thinking about Science 2719.1 Science and the Value of Scientific Reasoning 2719.2 The Purview of Science 2739.3 Varieties of Possibility and Impossibility 2809.4 Scientific Method 2839.5 Unfalsifiability and Falsification Resistance 2899.6 Experiments and Other Tests 2939.7 Six Criteria for Abduction 2989.8 Bad Science 30210 Tools from Rhetoric, Critical Theory, and Politics 30510.1 Meta-Narratives 30510.2 Governing Tropes 30810.3 The Medium Is the Message 31110.4 Voice 31310.5 Semiotics: Critically Reading Signs 31610.6 Deconstruction 31910.7 Foucault's Critique of Power 32210.8 The Frankfurt School: Culture Critique 32610.9 Class Critiques 32810.10 Feminist and Gender Critiques 33210.11 Critiques of Race and Racism 33810.12 Traditionalist and Historicist Critiques 34110.13 Ecological Critiques 345Appendix: RecommendedWeb Sites 349Index 351