Dr. Bruce N. Waller is Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University. He received his Ph.D. in 1979 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His other works include Consider Ethics: Theory, Readings, and Contemporary Issues, Critical Thinking: Consider the Verdict, You Decide! Current Debates in Criminal Justice, You Decide! Current Debates in Contemporary Moral Problems, You Decide! Current Debates in Introductory Philosophy, You Decide! Current Debates in Ethics, Coffee and Philosophy: A Conversational Introduction to Philosophy with Readings, and Against Moral Responsibility.

For undergraduate courses in Critical Thinking, Informal Logic, and Critical Writing, as well as introductory or advanced argumentation courses.

Organized around lively and authentic examples drawn from jury trials, contemporary political and social debate, and advertising, this introduction shows students how to detect fallacies and how to examine, and construct cogent arguments. Accessible and reader friendly yet thorough and rigorous it shows how to integrate all logic skills into the critical decision-making process.

Preface
1 Introduction 1
2 A Few Important Terms 10
3 What's the Question? 22
4 Relevant and Irrelevant Reasons 30
5 The Burden of Proof 46
6 Analyzing Arguments 59
7 Necessary and Sufficient Conditions 82
8 Symbolic Sentential Logic 110
9 Arguments about Classes 146
10 Ad Hominem Arguments 176
11 Appeal to Authority 205
12 The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth 219
13 Strawman, Slippery Slope, Dilemma, and Golden Mean Arguments: Their Use and Abuse 245
14 Begging the Question 274
15 Arguments by Analogy 289
16 Questions of Cause 328
Cumulative Exercises One (Chapters 1 through 11) 343
Cumulative Exercises Two (Chapters 1 through 14) 348
Cumulative Exercises Three (Chapters 1 through 16) 360
Consider Your Verdict: Comprehensive Critical Thinking in the Jury Room 376
Answers to Selected Exercises 404
Index 429