Critical Thinking Skills For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 12

Unlocking the Logic of Real Arguments

IN THIS CHAPTER

Picking out the key elements in everyday arguments

Examining reasoning in detail

Thinking about your listeners or readers

Arguments lie at the heart of critical thinking. (“Oh no, they don’t!” you cry. “Oh yes, they do!” I reply. That’s not an argument, by the way, just irritating contradiction!) Such arguments come in all sorts: hidden, irrational, polemical, or whatever. But a difference exists between the real-life informal arguments of everyday life — ones about real issues addressed to real people — as opposed to the neatly organized formal ones you often find presented in philosophy textbooks.

You encounter these “real” arguments every day. On TV, politicians argue about policies, talent-show judges argue about “talent,” and two-dimensional characters argue in soap operas. People argue about the relevant merits of their favorite sports teams or about whose partner at home is “just the worst.” Often these everyday exchanges aren’t arguments in the philosophical or logical sense; they’re more like disagreements and increasingly forceful statements of entrenched opinion.

In this chapter I examine some short but ...