(A Textbook in Critical Thinking)
by
Robert Mutti
Now available from Broadview Press.
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From the Preface:
This book is meant to be used in a critical thinking course that covers about 40 classroom hours. In general, the book should be read straight through. The main exception is the second written exercise in Chapter Seven, which is designed to be studied along with Chapters Eight through Fifteen.
The exercises in the book are intended to facilitate as well as to test comprehension of the material, and students should put serious effort into completing them. Answers to all of the exercises are given in the back of the book, mainly to provide students with immediate feedback after an exercise is completed, but also to make it less likely that any student will feel the need to give up on an exercise because one particular part of it is confusing.
The book has a special section on argument writing in Chapter Seven. The argument outline given in this chapter draws upon all of the skills taught in the first seven chapters, and it provides a focus for the study of all the skills taught in the last seven chapters. The central place given to argument writing is what gives this book its unique brand of coherence. The consistent emphasis is on giving students the tools and the confidence they need to make up their own minds and to create arguments that express their own thoughts and values.