Workbook for Arguments : A Complete Course in Critical Thinking

This book builds on Anthony Weston's "Rulebook for Arguments" to offer a complete textbook for a course in critical thinking or informal logic. The workbook contains the entire text of the fourth edition of the "Rulebook", while supplementing this core text with extensive further explanations and exercises: homework exercises adapted from a wide range of actual arguments from newspapers, philosophical texts, literature, movies, YouTube videos, and other sources; practical advice to help students succeed when applying the "Rulebook's" rules to the examples in the homework exercises; suggestions for further practice, outlining activities that students can do by themselves or with classmates to improve their critical thinking skills, or pointing them to online resources to do the same; and, detailed instructions for in-class activities and take-home assignments designed to engage students in critical thinking. It also includes an appendix on mapping arguments, giving students a solid introduction to this vital skill in evaluating or constructing complex and multi-step arguments, as well as model answers to odd-numbered problems, including commentaries on the strengths and weaknesses of selected sample answers and further discussion of some of the substantive intellectual, philosophical, or ethical issues they raise.