Building upon the strengths of prior editions, this text helps students to understand reasoning in the context of real-world experience and examples. Emphasizing clear explanations and the application of techniques, the text provides sufficient basic logic without losing students in theory and a wealth of longer real-life passages such as newspaper editorials and essays.
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Cederblom (U. of Nebraska, Omaha) and Paulsen (Evergreen State College) address deciding what to believe, the anatomy of arguments (premises and conclusions), reconstructing arguments, evaluation, whether conclusions follow from premises, fallacies or bad arguments, unclear and misleading definitions, non-deductive arguments, explanation and criticism of theories, and putting all the above together. New to the fifth edition of this textbook are more day-to-day tips on decisionmaking, analysis of convergent (as opposed to "linked") arguments, a simplified classification of fallacies, easier-to-apply procedures for criticizing empirical arguments, and new and updated examples and exercises. A glossary is included. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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