COMMENT:Two books claiming to teach people how to discuss things, usually in writing, in a more logical and rational way: "Our emphasis is on teaching students how they can use logic as a tool to accomplish their ends." They state that a number of books have appeared which deal with critical thinking, and that in their experience, students learn to find flaws in the arguments of others, becoming vicious critics, but still commit the same errors themselves. The aim here is to teach the construction of good argument first, and only then introduce criticism as a secondary skill. They discuss fallacious arguments and how to avoid them, what valid arguments are and how to construct them, and then, critiques and defending against critiques. Such a book might well be useful, but it would be nice to see some empirical evidence to back up the claim that such a book really is <em>effective</em>. However, it is unlikely that the book would <em>harm</em> people's arguing abilities, and so it may be of use to people who are interested in educating people in critical and logical thinking.
DATE:19990629
KEYWORDS:critical-thinking
MISC:272p. (workbook 104p.)
PUBLISHER:Lawrence Erlbaum
TITLE:How To Do Things With Logic<br> Workbook To Accompany "How to do things with logic"
