Critical Reasoning

First lines

We cannot begin to evaluate someone's reasoning if we do not understand it, or if we understand the words but fail to grasp that reasons are being offered for accepting a point of view.

About this book

Anne Thomson combines practical examples drawn from newspaper articles, such as the BSE controversy and reporting on crime statistics, with exercises designed to promote the students' ability to reason well. Her approach is valuable in four important ways: practising particular skills will improve readers' ability to evaluate longer passages of reasoning; the use of lively topics of general interest does not require readers to have specialist knowledge; model answers enable readers to check their progress throughout the book in the classroom or at home; and a final exercise allows readers to form their own opinions on longer passages. This stimulating new textbook encourages students to develop a range of transferable reasoning skills for any discipline, providing an invaluable foundation that will prove useful well beyond school, undergraduate or college studies.

Themes & subjects