Philosophy

For undergraduate level courses in Critical Thinking, and Writing courses.

This text offers students the clearest explanations and the most examples of any critical thinking text on the market. Begins with issues concerning words, examines techniques for evaluating explanations and arguments, and concludes by applying all the skills to reading essays and writing argumentative essays.

• Systematic approach to critical thinking—Provides an accessible discussion of issues concerning words, descriptions, and explanations before turning to arguments, and provides a step-by-step procedure for writing argumentative essays.

  • Takes students from basic issues concerning words, through the evaluation of arguments, to large-scale applications and applying all the skills to reading and writing argumentative essays.

• Combines intellectual rigor with student-friendly presentation—Introduces both six rules for evaluating syllogisms and the Venn diagram approach.

  • Provides students with different learning styles with a way to find a missing premise in a categorical syllogism.

• Categorical propositions and the Venn Diagram technique for evaluating categorical syllogisms.

  • Provides students with techniques for determining what premise will yield a valid syllogism.

• Over 1200 exercises and discussion questions.

  • Enables students to see how the elements discussed play out in the real world.

• Examples and exercises from many distinct areas—Drawn from classical literature, textbooks, novels, self-help manuals, motion pictures, advertisements, newspapers and magazines.

  • Provides students with examples drawn from real-world sources that cover a broad base of subjects areas, rather than focusing solely on politics, newspapers and popular magazines or informal fallacies.

• Detailed discussion of writing—Including issues germane to nonargumentative and nonexplanatory uses of language, as well extensive discussion on the description function of language.

  • Provides students with concrete, usable guidelines that tie in all skills learned throughout the book.

• Assessing observation claims and testimony.

  • Provides students with strategies for determining what is claimed by a statement or what is required by a command, as well as the various questions students should ask in reading descriptions and some hazards of drawing inferences from descriptions.

• Informal fallacies discussion follows discussions of arguments and argumentative weaknesses.

  • Provides students with a foundation to assess argument as persuasive discourse and argument as a discourse providing reasons to accept a conclusion.

• What Follows? problems.

  • Provide students with simple proofs that include a step-by-step symbolic derivation of the conclusion.

• 25 fallacies.

  • Sensitizes students to the sorts of problems that arise when examining the content of arguments.

(NOTE: Each section begins with an Introduction.)

I. SOME USES OF LANGUAGE.

II. ARGUMENTS.

III. CHECKING THE EVIDENCE.

IV. CATEGORICAL SYLLOGISMS.

V. PROPOSITIONAL ARGUMENTS.

VI. INDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS.

VII. INFORMAL FALLACIES.

VIII. LARGE-SCALE APPLICATIONS.

Informal Logic  (Philosophy)
Critical Thinking  (Philosophy)

"(This book)... is superior to nearly all in one respect: it contains both in the text and the exercises an unusually large number of excellent examples, many of which are drawn from contemporary sources." — John Nolt, University of Tennessee

"The selections on reading and writing critically are very useful overall innovations to a text of this scope." — Pedro Bias Gonzalez, Barry University

"I like the examples and many of the problem sets for examining concepts. I particularly like things such as explaining how to create random numbers in an Excel spreadsheet- the sort of thing that encourages students to apply what they are learning outside of class." — Keith Abney, California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo

"The text is eminently clear. Nothing in the text is obscure or beyond the ability of undergraduates to understand." — Michael Papazian, Berry College

Dan Flage provides a comprehensive and systematic approach to critical thinking in his text The Art of Questioning. It begins with simple issues at the level of words and concludes with large-scale applications, applying all the skills discussed in this book to reading and writing essays. Throughout, there is a commitment to intellectual rigor and student-friendliness. Each topic begins with relatively simple and straightforward cases and moves systematically to the kinds of messy cases found in ordinary language.

• Contains over 1,200 exercises and discussion questions drawn from diverse sources and covering numerous distinct topics
• Draws examples and exercises from a wide range of fields- both timeless classic and contemporary issues, such as the events of September 11.
• Includes solutions to the odd-numbered exercises, which gives students immediate feedback on their work.
• Contains unique chapters on evaluation of essays (Chapter 32) and writing argumentative essays (Chapter 33) that pull together all the individual skills honed in the earlier chapters.

Companion Website - Flage
Flage
©2004 | Prentice Hall | On-line Supplement | Instock
ISBN-10: 0131834401 | ISBN-13: 9780131834408
URL:  http://www.prenhall.com/flage

Companion Website - Flage
Flage
©2004 | Prentice Hall | On-line Supplement | Instock
ISBN-10: 0131834401 | ISBN-13: 9780131834408
URL:  http://www.prenhall.com/flage

Instructor's Manual with Tests
Flage
©2004 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 96 pp | Out of Stock
ISBN-10: 0130492388 | ISBN-13: 9780130492388

Companion Website - Flage
Flage
©2004 | Prentice Hall | On-line Supplement | Instock
ISBN-10: 0131834401 | ISBN-13: 9780131834408
URL:  http://www.prenhall.com/flage

Student Study Guide
Flage
©2004 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 128 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 013049237X | ISBN-13: 9780130492371
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Common Philosophical Terms
Prentice Hall
©2005 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 72 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 013189661X | ISBN-13: 9780131896611
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InterWrite PRS RF (Personal Response System)
InterWrite PRS & Allyn & Bacon/Longman
©2005 | Prentice Hall | Electronic Supplement | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205436951 | ISBN-13: 9780205436958

Philosophy Cafe Website (Open access)
Longman
©2005 | Prentice Hall | Website | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321275853 | ISBN-13: 9780321275851
URL:  http://www.ablongman.com/philosophycafe

ResearchNavigator.com Guide
Allyn & Bacon
©2007 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 48 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205517196 | ISBN-13: 9780205517190

ResearchNavigator.com Guide
Allyn & Bacon & Barr
©2007 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 48 pp | Out of Stock
ISBN-10: 020552396X | ISBN-13: 9780205523962

iClicker Classroom Response System
iClicker & Allyn & Bacon/Longman
©2008 | Prentice Hall | Electronic Supplement | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205594506 | ISBN-13: 9780205594504

Companion Website - Flage
Flage
©2004 | Prentice Hall | On-line Supplement | Instock
ISBN-10: 0131834401 | ISBN-13: 9780131834408
URL:  http://www.prenhall.com/flage

Pearson Higher Education offers special pricing when you choose to package your text with other student resources. If you're interested in creating a cost-saving package for your students, browse our available packages below, or contact your Pearson Higher Education representative to create your own package.

Package ISBN-10: 0131061992 | ISBN-13: 9780131061996
©2004 | Instock (Additional assembly time required) | Suggested retail price: $135.53 | Buy from myPearsonStore
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