Basics of Reasoning / Edition 1

by Ronald Munson, David Conway

Overview

Based upon the authors' successful ELEMENTS OF REASONING, this text is an even more concise introduction to the basic elements of argumentative prose and the tools to understand, analyze, criticize and construct arguments. More direct, essential coverage of basics is provided with fewer exercises.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780534538842
Publisher:	Cengage Learning
Publication date:	08/17/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Ronald Munson is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Medicine at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a nationally acclaimed bioethicist. After receiving his Ph.D. from Columbia University, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Biology at Harvard University and a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Munson has served as a bioethicist for the National Eye Institute and the National Cancer Institute, as an editor for the AMERICAN JOURANAL OF SURGERY, and as a member of the Washington University Human Studies Committee. Munson's other books include RAISING THE DEAD: ORGAN TRANSPLANTS, ETHICS, AND SOCIETY, THE WOMAN WHO DECIDED TO DIE: CHALLENGES AND CHOICES AT THE EDGES OF MEDICINE, REASONING IN MEDICINE, and ELEMENTS OF REASONING, 7e (with Andrew Black). He is also the author of the novels NOTHING HUMAN, FAN MAIL, NIGHT VISION, and THE HARVARD GAME.


David A. Conway received his Ph.D. at Princeton University and has written in the areas of social philosophy and philosophy of religion. Currently he is Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.

Table of Contents

Preface. Orientation. 1. Recognizing Arguments. 2. Analyzing Arguments. 3. Evaluating Arguments. 4. Some Valid Argument Forms. 5. More Valid Argument Forms: Categorical Reasoning and Venn Diagrams. 6. Causal Analysis. 7. Argument by Analogy and Models. 8. Definition. 9. Vagueness and Ambiguity. 10. Reasonable Belief. Answers to Selected Exercises. Index.