Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, 12th edition

• Preface

1. The Benefit and Manner of Asking the Right Questions
   • The Noisy, Confused World We Live In
   • Experts Cannot Rescue Us, Despite What They Say
   • The Necessity of Relying on Our Mind
   • Critical Thinking to the Rescue
   • The Sponge and Panning for Gold: Alternative Thinking Styles
   • Weak-Sense and Strong-Sense Critical Thinking
     • The Importance of Practice
   • Critical Thinking and Other People
     • Primary Values of a Critical Thinker
   • Keeping the Conversation Going
     • Creating a Friendly Environment for Communication
   • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
2. What Are the Issue and the Conclusion?
   • Kinds of Issues
   • Searching for the Issue
   • Searching for the Author’s or Speaker’s Conclusion
   • Clues to Discovery: How to Find the Conclusion
   • Practice Exercises
   • Sample Responses
3. What Are the Reasons?
   • Initiating the Questioning Process
   • Words That Identify Reasons
   • Keeping the Reasons and Conclusions Straight
     • Reasons First, Then Conclusions
   • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
   • Practice Exercises
   • Sample Responses
4. What Words or Phrases Are Ambiguous?
   • The Confusing Flexibility of Words
   • Locating Key Terms and Phrases
   • Checking for Ambiguity
   • Determining Ambiguity
   • Context and Ambiguity
   • Ambiguity, Definitions, and the Dictionary
   • Limits of Your Responsibility to Clarify Ambiguity
   • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
   • Practice Exercises
   • Sample Responses
5. What Are the Value and Descriptive Assumptions?
   • General Guide for Identifying Assumptions
   • Value Conflicts and Assumptions
   • From Values to Value Assumptions
   • Typical Value Conflicts
   • The Communicator’s Background as a Clue to Value Assumptions
   • Consequences as Clues to Value Assumptions
   • More Hints for Finding Value Assumptions
   • The Value of Knowing the Value Priorities of Others
   • Values and Relativism
   • Identifying and Evaluating Descriptive Assumptions
   • Illustrating Descriptive Assumptions
   • Common Descriptive Assumptions
   • Clues for Locating Assumptions
   • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
   • Practice Exercises
   • Sample Responses
6. Are There Any Fallacies in the Reasoning?
   • A Questioning Approach to Finding Reasoning Fallacies
   • Evaluating Assumptions as a Starting Point
   • Discovering Other Common Reasoning Fallacies
   • Looking for Diversions
   • Sleight of Hand: Begging the Question
   • Summary of Reasoning Errors
   • Expanding Your Knowledge of Fallacies
   • Practice Exercises
   • Sample Responses
7. The Worth of Personal Experience, Case Examples, Testimonials, and Statements of Authority as Evidence
   • Fact or Opinion?
   • The Need for Dependable Evidence
   • Sources of Evidence
   • Personal Experience as Evidence
   • Case Examples as Evidence
   • Testimonials as Evidence
   • Appeals to Authority as Evidence
   • Practice Exercises
   • Sample Responses
8. How Good Is the Evidence: Personal Observation and Research Studies?
   • Personal Observation as Evidence
   • Biased Surveys and Questionnaires
   • Research Studies as Evidence
     • General Problems with Research Findings
   • Generalizing From the Research Sample
   • Generalizing From the Research Measures
   • When You Can Most Trust Expert Opinion
     • Research and the Internet
   • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
   • Practice Exercises
   • Sample Responses
9. Are There Rival Causes?
   • When to Look for Rival Causes
   • The Pervasiveness of Rival Causes
   • Detecting Rival Causes
   • The Cause or a Cause
   • Multiple Perspectives as a Guide to Rival Causes
   • Confusing Causation with Association
   • Confusing “After This” with “Because of This”
   • Explaining Individual Events or Acts
   • Evaluating Rival Causes
   • Rival Causes and Your Own Communication
     • Exploring Potential Causes
   • Practice Exercises
   • Sample Responses
10. Are Any Statistics Deceptive?
    • Unknowable and Biased Statistics
    • Confusing Averages
    • Measurement Errors
    • Concluding One Thing, Proving Another
    • Deceiving by Omitting Information
    • Using Statistics in Your Writing
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
11. What Significant Information Is Omitted?
    • The Benefits of Detecting Omitted Information
    • The Certainty of Incomplete Reasoning
    • Questions That Identify Omitted Information
    • But We Need to Know the Numbers
    • The Importance of the Negative View
    • Omitted Information That Remains Missing
    • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
12. What Reasonable Conclusions Are Possible?
    • Dichotomous Thinking: Impediment to Considering Multiple Conclusions
    • Grey Thinking: Two Sides or Many?
    • Productivity of If-Clauses
    • The Liberating Effect of Recognizing Alternative Conclusions
    • Summary
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
13. Speed Bumps Interfering with Your Critical Thinking
    • The Discomfort of Asking the Right Questions
    • Thinking Too Quickly
    • Stereotypes
    • Mental Habits That Betray Us
      • Halo Effect
      • Belief Perseverance
      • Availability Heuristic
      • Answering the Wrong Question
    • Egocentrism
    • Wishful Thinking: Perhaps the Biggest Single Speed Bump on the Road to Critical Thinking
    • Final Words

Index