Practical Reasoning in Natural Language

This basic manual-workbook uses natural language to analyze and evaluate inductive reasoning. Unlike many traditional texts, which depend on truth-tables, Venn diagrams, and so forth, Stephen Naylor Thomas presents a method of "natural logic" that casts reasoning into a standard diagrammatic form without the need for symbolic notation and without commitments to selected informal fallacies or limited formal patterns. The text is written to reach students on their own level. It develops linguistic and logical skills simultaneously. As students gain confidence in their ability to reason using natural language, the text presents more challenging arguments. Every section of each chapter offers exercises on topics such as reasons and conclusions, conditional relationships, common mistakes in reasoning, reasons against the validity of other reasons, and analyzing disorganized or confused complex philosophical reasoning. By reading this text and doing the exercises, students will develop the skill to analyze and evaluate any argument (political, religious, mathematical, philosophical, etc.) that they encounter in books, newspapers, speeches, advertising, and other natural-language contexts.