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This work was developed as an Open Textbook (OER, Open Educational Resource) for use in a lower-level Philosophy course at Golden West College (a California Community College). It covers the basics of how to critically read, analyze texts, understand formal and informal logical methodologies (including fallacies), and write a well-structured argumentative paper. It is licensed under a CC-BY-NC-ND as a whole, but some chapters contain different licenses. Please contact the editor for comments, feedback, or suggestions. It meets accessibility requirements as well. The Table of Contents is listed below:

UNIT ONE: INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THINKING, REASONING, AND LOGIC 1 Introduction and Thought Experiments: The Trolley Problem 2 Truth and Its Role in Argumentation: Certainty, Probability, and Monty Hall 3 Distinction of Proof from Verification; Our Biases and the Forer Effect 4 The Scientific Method 5 Diagramming Thoughts and Arguments: Analyzing News Media 6 Creating a Philosophical Outline UNIT TWO: LANGUAGE: MEANING AND DEFINITION 7 Cognitive and Emotive Meaning: Abortion and Capital Punishment 8 Functions of Language and Precision in Speech 9 Defining Terms: Types and Purposes of Definitions 10 Techniques of Defining: “Semantics” vs “Syntax” and Avoiding more Ambiguity 11 Criteria for Framing Definitions: It’s all about Context and Audience 12 Defining Terms Appropriately UNIT THREE: INFORMAL FALLACIES: MISTAKES IN REASONING 13 Classification of Fallacies: All the Ways we Say Things Wrong 14 Fallacies of Evidence 15 Fallacies of Weak Induction 16 Fallacies of Ambiguity and Grammatical Analogy 17 The Detection of Fallacies in Ordinary Language 18 Searching Your Essays for Fallacies UNIT FOUR: DEDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS 19 Statements and Symbolizing 20 Propositions, Inferences, and Judgments 21 Validity and Soundness 22 Commons Forms of Arguments 23 Formal Fallacies 24 Formalizing your Arguments UNIT FIVE: INDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS 25 Cogency and Strong Arguments 26 Causality and Scientific Reasoning 27 Analogy 28 Statistical Reasoning: Bayes’ Theorem 29 Legal Reasoning and Moral Reasoning 30 Editing Your Final Essay

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