Asking the Right Questions

 Preface

   Key ongoing features of Asking the Right Questions

   The special features of this new edition

 

Chapter 1: The Benefit and Manner of Asking the Right Questions

   The Sponge and Panning for Gold: Alternative Thinking Styles

   Tan Example of the Panning for Gold Approach

   The Myth of the “Right Answer”

   The Usefulness of Asking the Question: “Who Cares?”

   Weak-Sense and Strong-Sense Critical Thinking

   The Satisfaction of Panning for Gold

   The Importance of Practice

   The Right Questions

   Critical Thinking is a Social Activity

   Values and Other People

   The Primary Values of a Critical Thinker

   Thinking and Feeling

   Keeping the Conversation Going

   Creating a Friendly Environment for Communication

   Wishful Thinking: Perhaps the Biggest Single Obstacle to Critical Thinking

 

Chapter 2: What are the Issue and the Conclusion?

   Kinds of Issues

   Searching for the Issue

   Searching for the Author’s or Speaker’s Conclusion

   USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION

   Clues to Discovery: How to Find the Conclusion

   Critical Thinking and Your Own Writing and Speaking

   Narrowing Your Issue Prior to Writing

   Practice Exercises

   Sample Responses

 

Chapter 3: What Are the Reasons?

   Initiating the Questioning Process

   Words that Identify Reasons

   Kinds of Reasons   

   Keeping the Reasons and Conclusions Straight

   USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION

   Critical Thinking and Your Own Writing and Speaking

   Practice Exercises

   Sample Responses

 

Chapter 4: What Words or Phrases Are Ambiguous?

   The Confusing Flexibility of Words

   Locating Key Terms and Phrases

   Checking for Ambiguity

   USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION

   Determining Ambiguity

   Context and Ambiguity

   USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION

   Ambiguity, Definitions, and the Dictionary

   Ambiguity and Loaded Language

   Limits of Your Responsibility to Clarify Ambiguity

   Ambiguity and Your Own Writing and Speaking

   Practice Exercises

   Sample Responses

 

Chapter 5: What Are the Value and Descriptive Assumptions?

   General Guide for Identifying Assumptions

   Value Conflicts and Assumptions

   From Values to Value Assumptions

   Typical Value Conflicts

   The Communicator’s Background as a Clue to Value Assumptions

   Consequences as Clues to Value Assumptions

   More Hints for Finding Value Assumptions

   Finding Value Assumptions on Your Own

   USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION

   Values and Relativism

   Identifying and Evaluating Descriptive Assumptions

   Illustrating Descriptive Assumptions

   Clues for Locating Assumptions

   Avoiding Analysis of Trivial Assumptions

   Practice Exercises

   Sample Responses

 

Chapter 6: Are There Any Fallacies in the Reasoning?

   A Questioning Approach to Finding Reasoning Fallacies

   Evaluating Assumptions as a Starting Point

   Discovering Other Common Reasoning Fallacies

   Looking for Diversions

   Sleight of Hand: Begging the Question

   USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION

   Summary of Reasoning Errors

   Expanding Your Knowledge of Fallacies

   Fallacies and Your Own Writing and Speaking

   Practice Exercises

   Sample Responses

 

Chapter 7: How Good Is the Evidence: Intuition, Personal Experience, Case Examples, Testimonials, and Appeals to Authority?

   The Need for Evidence

   Locating Factual Claims

   Sources of Evidence

   Intuition as Evidence

   Personal Experience as Evidence

   Case Examples as Evidence

   Testimonials as Evidence

   Appeals to Authority as Evidence

   USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION

   EVIDENCE AND YOUR WRITING AND SPEAKING

   Practice Exercises

   Sample Responses

 

Chapter 8: How Good Is the Evidence: Personal Observation, Research Studies, and Analogies?

   Personal Observation

   Research Studies as Evidence

   Problems with Research Findings

   Generalizing from the Research Sample

   Biased Surveys and Questionnaires

   Critical Evaluation of a Research-Based Argument

   Analogies as Evidence

   Identifying and Comprehending Analogies

   Evaluating Analogies

   USING EVIDENCE IN YOUR OWN WRITING

   Research and the Internet

   Practice Exercises

   Sample Responses

 

Chapter 9: Are There Rival Causes?

   When to Look For Rival Causes

   The Pervasiveness of Rival Causes

   Detecting Rival Causes

   The Cause or a Cause

   Rival Causes for Differences Between Groups

   Confusing Causation with Association

   Confusing “After this” with “Because of this”

   Explaining Individual Events or Acts

   Evaluating Rival Causes

   RIVAL CAUSES AND YOUR OWN COMMUNICATIoN

   Exploring Potential Causes

   Narrowing Down Your List of Potential Causes

   Practice Exercises

   Sample Responses

 

Chapter 10: Are the Statistics Deceptive?

   Unknowable and Biased Statistics

   Confusing Averages

   Concluding One Thing, Proving Another

   Deceiving by Omitting Information

   Risk Statistics and Omitted Information   

   USING STATISTICS IN YOUR WRITING

   Practice Exercises

   Sample Responses

 

Chapter 11: What Significant Information is Omitted?

   The Benefits of Detecting Omitted Information

   The Certainty of Incomplete Reasoning

   Questions that Identify Omitted Information

   The Importance of the Negative View

   Omitted Information That Reminas Missing

   MISSING INFORMATION IN YOUR OWN ARGUMENTS

   USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION

   Practice Exercises

   Sample Responses

 

Chapter 12: What Reasonable Conclusions Are Possible?

   Assumptions and Multiple Conclusions

   Dichotomous Thinking: Impediment to Considering Multiple Conclusions

   Two Sides or Many?
   Searching for Multiple Conclusions

   Productivity of If-Clauses

   Alternative Solutions as Conclusions

   The Liberating Effect of Recognizing Alternative Conclusions

   All Conclusions Are Not Created Equal

   Summary

   Practice Exercises

   Sample Respones

 

Final Word