Customer Reviews

Argument: A Guide to Critical Thinking

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Critical thinking is among other things about fallacies . The copyright date of 1978 leads many to the fallacy of "hasty generalization" and the assumption that this little jewel is out of date. However, the author has a cleverly written summary in three chapters of what most texts take hundreds of pages to cover. The rest of the book is devoted to how most of us think and, used as a text, it spares the student the arduous task of understanding old style logic and deductive reasoning. In fact, right up front, the author downplays the significance of the alleged differences between deductive and inductive reasoning. Used as a text for beginning students of critical thinking, I found this to be understandable, enjoyable, funny at times, and memoriable.

I found the first two chapters intriguing and useful from a critical thinking point of view. Unfortunately, in discussing critical thinking, Mr. Weddle is guilty of the many fallacies he points out. I found this to undercut his discussion.

What I found most interesting, besides the chapter on "Fallacy", was that this book is dated, not in the thinking, but in the examples. I think this would be a useful source for someone looking for examples of thought and opinion in the late seventies. Most of the examples he uses are centered on Watergate, draft dodgers, The Viet Nam War, and, this was only one instance, Patty Hearst's state of mind.

It's a decent introduction to critical thinking, though prejudiced in it's presentation.