Author(s): William Fish; Stephen Duffin

Philosophy

Being able to describe, evaluate and generate reasoning and arguments effectively, appropriately and sympathetically is a key life, professional and academic skill. But there are hidden complexities inherent in this approach, and it has limits when employed as a form of persuasion. This eloquent and profound book, which draws on key philosophers, explores the issues, deepens understanding and supplies the tools.

Contents: Introduction 7 Part I: Reasoning 13 1.1: Reasoning and other modes of persuasion 15 1.2: The elements of reasoning 23 Part II: The Structure of Reasoning 43 2.1 Marking reasoning 45 2.2: Mapping simple inferences 54 2.3: Reasoning with three statements 64 2.4: Real-life arguments 79 Part III: Evaluating Reason 109 3.1: Evaluating inference strength 111 3.2 Evaluating premise plausibility 128 3.3 Digging deeper into 'factual' premises 143 Part IV: The Big Picture 163 4.1: The taken for granted 165 4.2: Frames and framing 178 4.3: When ideologies and facts collide 190 Appendix 202 References 219 About the authors 221