The Critical Thinking Toolkit

Galen Foresman is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, USA.  His research interests include ethics, philosophy of punishment, philosophy of religion, and philosophy as it applies to pop culture.  He is the author of several book chapters and the editor of Supernatural and Philosophy (Wiley Blackwell, 2013). Peter S. Fosl is Professor and Chair of Philosophy and Chair of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Transylvania University, USA. A David Hume Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, his research interests include skepticism and the history of philosophy, as well as, topics in politics and religion. He is author or editor of many books, including The Big Lebowski and Philosophy (Wiley Blackwell, 2012), The Philosopher's Toolkit (second edition, Wiley Blackwell, 2010), and The Ethics Toolkit (Wiley Blackwell, 2007). He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Open Access academic journal, CogentOA: Arts & Humanities. Jamie Carlin Watson is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Broward College, USA. His primary research is in the social epistemology of epistemic advantage and expertise, especially as they influence testimony in practical fields such as medicine and business. He has published articles in journals such as Episteme and Journal of Applied Philosophy, and he is the co-author of Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Reasoning Well (second edition, 2015), What's Good on TV? Understanding Ethics Through Television (Wiley Blackwell, 2011), and Philosophy Demystified (2011).

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 1

The Very Idea of Critical Thinking 1

Critical thinking in the formal and empirical sciences 2

Critical thinking, critical theory, and critical politics 4

Critical thinking, finitude, and self-understanding 5

Using this book 5

1 Basic Tools for Critical Thinking about Arguments 7

1.1 Claims 7

Beliefs and opinions 8

Simple and complex claims 9

Truth functionality 10

1.2 Arguments 11

Logic vs. eristics 12

Arguments vs. explanations 12

1.3 Premises 13

Enthymemes 14

Identifying premises 14

1.4 Conclusions 16

Argument structure 16

Simple and complex arguments 16

Identifying conclusions 17

2 More Tools for Critical Thinking about Arguments 19

2.1 Deductive and Inductive Arguments 19

Deduction 20

Induction 21

2.2 Conditional Claims 22

Necessary and sufficient conditions 23

Biconditional claims 25

2.3 Classifying and Comparing Claims 26

Comparing claims 26

Classifying single claims 28

2.4 Claims and Definitions 29

Lexical, stipulative, ostensive, and negative definition 30

Extension and intension 30

Generic similarities and specific differences 31

Definiens and definiendum 31

2.5 The Critical Thinker’s “Two Step”: Validity and Soundness/Cogency and Strength 32

Structure before truth 33

2.6 Showing Invalidity by Counterexample 35

3 Tools for Deductive Reasoning with Categories 39

3.1 Thinking Categorically 39

Types and tokens 39

3.2 Categorical Logic 40

Quality, quantity, and standard form 40

Venn diagrams and the meaning of categorical claims 42

Distribution and its implications 44

Existential import 45

3.3 Translating English Claims to Standard Form 46

Implicit quantifiers 46

Individuals 47

Getting the verb right 47

Adverbials 48

Trust your instincts 50

A caveat 50

3.4 Formal Deduction with Categories: Immediate Inferences 50

Equivalences 51

Conversion 52

Contraposition 53

Obversion 56

The Aristotelian and Boolean Squares of Opposition 58

3.5 Formal Deduction with Categories: Syllogisms 63

Categorical syllogisms 64

Major and minor terms 64

Mood and figure 65

The Venn diagram test for validity 66

Five easy rules for evaluating categorical syllogisms 69

Gensler star test 70

4 Tools for Deductive Reasoning with Claims 72

4.1 Propositional vs. Categorical Logics 72

Translating claims into propositional logic 73

Truth tables for claims 76

Testing for validity and invalidity with truth tables 78

Indirect truth tables 79

Strange validity 82

4.2 Common Deductively Valid Forms 83

Modus ponens 83

Modus tollens 84

Hypothetical syllogism 86

Disjunctive syllogism 86

Constructive and destructive dilemmas 87

4.3 Equivalences 90

Double negation 90

Tautology 91

Commutativity 91

Associativity 92

Transposition 92

Material implication 93

Material equivalence 93

Exportation 94

Distribution 95

DeMorgan’s Law 95

4.4 Formal Deduction with Forms and Equivalences 96

Three simple rules 97

4.5 Common Formal Fallacies 101

Affirming the consequent 101

Denying the antecedent 103

Affirming a disjunct 104

5 Tools for Detecting Informal Fallacies 107

5.1 Critical Thinking, Critical Deceiving, and the “Two Step” 107

5.2 Subjectivist Fallacy 109

5.3 Genetic Fallacies 112

5.4 Ad Hominem Fallacies: Direct, Circumstantial, and Tu Quoque 113

Direct 114

Circumstantial 115

Tu quoque 118

5.5 Appeal to Emotions or Appeal to the Heart (argumentum ad passiones) 120

Appeal to pity (argumentum ad misericordiam) 120

Appeal to fear (argumentum ad metum) 122

Appeal to guilt 122

5.6 Appeal to Force (argumentum ad baculum) 124

5.7 Appeal to Ignorance (argumentum ad ignorantiam) 125

Negative evidence and no evidence 126

5.8 Appeal to Novelty (argumentum ad novitatem) 127

5.9 Appeal to the People (argumentum ad populum) 128

Bandwagon 128

Appeal to snobbery 129

Appeal to vanity 129

5.10 Appeal to Unqualified Authority (argumentum ad verecundiam) 132

5.11 Fallacy of Accident 135

5.12 False Dilemma 137

5.13 Semantic and Syntactic Fallacies 138

Ambiguity, two types: lexical and syntactic 138

Vagueness vs. ambiguity 139

Vagueness, two types: degree and context 139

Equivocation and fallacious amphiboly 140

5.14 Begging the Question (petitio principii) 143

5.15 Question-Begging Sentences 144

5.16 Missing the Point (ignoratio elenchi) 145

5.17 Fallacy of Composition 146

5.18 Fallacy of Division 148

5.19 Is-Ought Fallacy 149

5.20 Appeal to Tradition 152

5.21 Quoting Out of Context 153

5.22 Red Herring 158

5.23 Straw Man and Fidelity 159

5.24 Hasty Fallacization 161

5.25 A Brief Argument Clinic 162

Context 162

Charity 162

Productivity 163

6 Tools for Critical Thinking about Induction 166

6.1 Inductive vs. Deductive Arguments Again 166

6.2 Analogies and Arguments from Analogy 167

Criticizing analogies 168

6.3 Fallacies about Causation 170

Post hoc ergo propter hoc 170

Correlation is not always causation 171

Cum hoc ergo propter hoc 172

Neglecting a common cause 172

Oversimplified and contributing causes 174

Proximate, remote, and intervening causes 175

6.4 Inductive Statistical Reasoning 177

Sampling: random and biased 177

Stratification 178

The gambler’s fallacy 179

Averages: mean, median, and mode 179

Distributions 180

6.5 Base Rate Fallacy 182

6.6 Slippery Slope and Reductio ad Absurdum 184

6.7 Hasty Generalization 188

6.8 Mill’s Five Methods 189

1. Method of Concomitant Variation 189

2. Method of Agreement 190

3. Method of Difference 191

4. Joint Method of Agreement and Difference 191

5. Method of Residues 192

7 Tools for Critical Thinking about Experience and Error 195

7.1 Error Theory 195

7.2 Cognitive Errors 197

Perceptual error 197

Memory 199

Stress and trauma 201

Projection 202

Transference 203

Confirmation bias 203

Denial 204

A little bit of knowledge … 204

The fallacy of false consensus 205

Naïve realism 205

7.3 Environment and Error 206

Obstruction and distraction 206

Duration 207

Motion 207

Distance 207

Context and comparison 208

Availability error 208

7.4 Background and Ignorance 209

7.5 Misleading Language 210

Suspect the negative 210

Implications and connotations 210

Damning by silence or understatement 211

7.6 Standpoint and Disagreement 211

The mosaic of truth 213

Incommensurability and deep disagreement 213

8 Tools for Critical Thinking about Justification 215

8.1 Knowledge: The Basics 215

Ordinary belief and hinge propositions 216

Plato’s definition of knowledge 216

Chisholm and belief 217

8.2 Feelings as Evidence 219

Some important features of all types of feelings 220

The importance of distinguishing sense experience from emotion 222

8.3 Skepticism and Sensory Experience 223

The weaknesses of sense experience as evidence 224

The strengths of sense experience as evidence 227

8.4 Emotions and Evidence 229

The weaknesses of emotional experience as evidence 229

The strengths of emotional experience as evidence 232

Tips for eliminating the negative effects of emotions 235

8.5 Justifying Values 237

The role of moral values in arguments 238

Four common views of value judgment 239

Tools for reasoning about moral values 241

8.6 Justification: The Basics 242

Justification and the problem of access 243

No reasons not to believe 244

Beyond a reasonable doubt 244

Obligation and permission to believe 245

8.7 Truth and Responsible Belief 246

Why is responsibility relevant to belief? 247

Responsibility without truth 247

8.8 How Does Justification Work? 248

Claims as evidence 248

Experience as evidence 249

8.9 A Problem for Responsible Belief 251

Gettier cases 252

Processes and probabilities as justification 253

Varieties of externalism 254

8.10 Evidence: Weak and Strong 256

Direct and indirect evidence 256

Testimony as evidence 258

Strong enough evidence? 259

Suppressed evidence fallacy 260

Four tips for recognizing “good” evidence 261

8.11 Justification: Conclusions 266

9 Tools for Critical Thinking about Science 271

9.1 Science and the Value of Scientific Reasoning 271

Useful, durable, and pleasant goods 271

An agreement engine 272

A path to knowledge 272

9.2 The Purview of Science 273

The limits of empiricism 274

What is and what ought to be 274

Different kinds of science 275

Critiques of science 279

9.3 Varieties of Possibility and Impossibility 280

Logical possibility 281

Physical possibility 281

Other types of possibility 282

9.4 Scientific Method 283

Causal explanation 283

Observation 284

Verification and falsification 285

Paradigms: normal and revolutionary science 288

9.5 Unfalsifiability and Falsification Resistance 289

Ad hoc hypotheses and the fallacy of unfalsifiability 290

Falsification and holism: hypothesis vs. theory 291

The “no true Scotsman” fallacy 291

9.6 Experiments and Other Tests 293

Controls and variables 293

Epidemiological studies 294

Personal experience and case studies 295

Blinding and double blinding 296

In vitro studies 297

Non-human animal studies 297

9.7 Six Criteria for Abduction 298

1. Predictive power 299

2. Scope 299

3. Coherence with established fact 300

4. Repeatability 300

5. Simplicity 300

6. Fruitfulness 301

9.8 Bad Science 302

Junk science 302

Pseudo-science 302

Fringe science 303

Ideological science 303

10 Tools from Rhetoric, Critical Theory, and Politics 305

10.1 Meta-Narratives 305

Stories that govern stories plus a whole lot more 305

Governing, varying, and disintegrating narratives 306

10.2 Governing Tropes 308

Simile, analogy, metaphor, and allegory 308

Metonymy and synecdoche 309

10.3 The Medium Is the Message 311

10.4 Voice 313

10.5 Semiotics: Critically Reading Signs 316

Peirce and Saussure 316

Of virgins, ghosts, and cuckolds 316

The semiological problem 317

10.6 Deconstruction 319

Critique of presence 320

Undermining binaries 320

The politics of deconstruction 321

10.7 Foucault’s Critique of Power 322

Archeological method 323

Genealogical method 323

Microphysics of power and biopower 324

Normalization 324

10.8 The Frankfurt School: Culture Critique 326

Lipstick is ideology 326

Makers who are made 327

The Dialectic of Enlightenment 327

10.9 Class Critiques 328

Classical Marxism: superstructure and substructure 328

It’s the class hierarchy, stupid 329

Exploitation, alienation, and class struggle 329

False consciousness 330

Criticizing class critique 330

10.10 Feminist and Gender Critiques 332

Politics and gender 333

Feminist critique 335

Text and gender 336

10.11 Critiques of Race and Racism 338

Scientific critique of race 338

Liberal critique of race 338

Marxist critique of race 339

Critical race theory 340

10.12 Traditionalist and Historicist Critiques 341

A history of thinking about history 342

Views from nowhere 342

The harm in forgetting 343

The importance of careful listening 343

10.13 Ecological Critiques 345

Consumption and pollution 345

Ecological justice 346

Non-human life 347

Appendix: Recommended Web Sites 349

Index 351