The Logic of Real Arguments

by Alec Fisher

This book aims to help college students to think critically about the kind of sustained, theoretical arguments which they commonly encounter in the course of their studies: arguments about the natural world, about society, about policy, about philosophy, and so on. The book expounds a novel method for handling such arguments and applies to reasoning expressed in natural language - has two distinctive features. It employs what is called the 'Assertibility Question', a key question in extracting and evaluating arguments, and it deals fully with the technique of 'suppositional reasoning', an important method of reasoning which is commonly ignored by writers in this field. The author applies the method to examples from a wide variety of sources. These range from newspaper articles to extracts from classic texts. There is a special chapter on scientific method and an appendix which explains some classical formal logic (a 'little light logic'). The book contains numerous exercises and concludes with carefully selected passages on which students can practise their critical thinking skills.

Genres: Philosophy, Logic, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like logic! Well, I teach logic. Maybe I don't actually like it, because this book was so tedious. It presents a method for assessing arguments (basically: find certain keywords, determine the structure, determine what would count as evidence for the premises) and then gives a smattering of different sample arguments, from Galileo to Hume to Wittgenstein. But about 50% of the book is reprints of the same arguments with little in-line notations marking up the structure. I'm sure there is a better way to convey that information!

Also, this author is very clearly British. Most of his initial examples are about British society, politics, and economics, which makes me laugh because I guess I'm so used to America-centric texts. The shoe's on the other foot, me! But also, he doesn’t use any commas with “and” and “but” and the sentences feel very robotic and run-on-y for it. Is this regional? Very interesting.

The spelling of “premiss” and the calling of every country “she/her” was similarly distracting for USA-me. But since there was no new content for me to be distracted from, it was fine! 😇

[David Top · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very accessible introduction to informal logic and methods of analyzing arguments. The author offers an easy method for structuring, analyzing and evaluating arguments given in text through many examples.

I would recommend this book to everyone with an interest in evaluating and examine the justification of arguments from politicians, philosophers, scientists, journalists or whoever could be a source of information. Sometimes one would be surprised to see the hidden flaws in an apparently good argument.

With this being said it is by no means comprehensive but only seeks to give an idea of an applicable logic for everyday use.

[James Redmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not particularly absorbing as a book (and indeed as a topic, I guess) - but I feel it could have been made easier to read. My neurons switched off half-way through, and I power-read the rest. Thus, I probably suck at both formulating a case for, and picking apart, an argument - so i'll just nod like the Churchill dog when one says "The Logic of Real Arguments was distinctly average"!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

thoroughly enjoyed.