Informal logic : issues and techniques / Wayne Grennan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grennan, Wayne, 1938-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Logic.

Reasoning.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 309 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Buffalo : McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Grennan bases his evaluation of arguments on two criteria: logical adequacy and pragmatic adequacy. He asserts that the common formal logic systems, while logically sound, are not very useful for evaluating everyday inferences, which are almost all deductively invalid as stated. Turning to informal logic, he points out that while more recent informal logic and critical thinking texts are superior in that their authors recognize the need to evaluate everyday arguments inductively, they typically cover only inductive fallacies, ignoring the inductively sound patterns frequently used in successful persuasion. To redress these problems, Grennan introduces a variety of additional inductive patterns. Concluding that informal logic texts do not encourage precision in evaluating arguments, Grennan proposes a new argument evaluation procedure that expresses judgments of inferential strength in terms of probabilities. Based on theories of Stephen Toulmin, Roderick Chisholm, and John Pollock, his proposed system allows for a more precise judgment of the persuasive force of arguments.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Tables

Figures

Preface

Arguments

Current Argument-Evaluation Techniques

An Argument-Evaluation System

Diagramming Arguments

Evaluation of Deductive Inference

Inductive Inference Evaluation

An Inductive Argument Typology

Premiss Evaluation

Missing Premisses

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-304) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-85436-4

9786612854361

0-7735-6645-7

OCLC:

929121094