Critical Thinking

A Beginner's Guide

Sharon M. Kaye

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781780741475
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Logic in Philosophy

Discover how to put your point across more effectively! Critical thinking shows people how to analyze arguments, speeches, and newspaper articles to see which faults the authors are making in their reasoning. It looks at the structure of language to demonstrate rules by which you can identify good analytical thinking and helps people to formulate clear defensible arguments themselves. As people are always trying to put a certain point/opinion across in a variety of arenas in our lives, this is a very useful skill. With real life newspaper extracts, a glossary, exercises and answers, and a guide to essay writing, this is an invaluable tool for both students wanting to improve their grades and general readers wanting to boost their brainpower.

1

What is an argument?

A noble heart will always capitulate to reason.

Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

The first step toward becoming a critical thinker is to learn how to identify arguments. In everyday conversation, the term ‘argument’ is most often used for an angry exchange of words. People therefore typically think of an argument as an unpleasant situation to be avoided. In academic and professional circles, however, the term ‘argument’ has a technical meaning. An argument is a discussion in which reasons are advanced in favor of a proposal. Argument is the best way to support your opinions – it need not be angry or unpleasant at all.

Standard form

In order to identify and study arguments we rewrite them in standard form. Standard form is a schema for identifying the steps of an argument. This is the general format:

1. The first reason is . . .

2. The second reason is . . .

3. Therefore, the proposal is . . .

The steps above the line are called the ‘premises’ while the final step below the line is called the ‘conclusion’.

An argument can contain any number of premises leading to a single conclusion. It can also contain a series of subconclusions. A subconclusion is a conclusion that functions as a premise for a further conclusion. For example:

1. Hybrids are the most efficient cars.

2. The most efficient cars are cheapest to drive.

3. So, hybrids are the cheapest to drive.

4. I should buy whatever car is cheapest to drive.

5. Therefore, I should buy a hybrid.

Step 3 of this standard form is a subconclusion. It is conventional to signal subconclusions by the word ‘So’ instead of the word ‘Therefore’ in order to tell the reader more is coming.

Although arguments are everywhere, they are often difficult to recognize. This is because authors almost never present their arguments in standard form. Instead they typically couch them within long expositions, leaving it to the reader to figure out exactly what the premises and conclusions are.

The following is a rare case in which author William Lane Craig not only tells you he is about to discuss an argument, but also lays out its steps for you in standard form.

PROFESSOR MACKIE AND THE KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

[I]n this piece I should like to focus on Mackie’s analysis of one particular argument, the kalam cosmological argument. For his discussion at this point seems to me to be superficial, and I think it can be shown that he has failed to provide any compelling or even intuitively appealing objection against the argument.

The kalam argument . . . . may be schematized:

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause of its existence.

2. The universe began to exist.

. . .

3. Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence.

W. L. Craig, ‘Professor Mackie and the kalam cosmological argument’, Religious Studies 20 (1985), pp. 367–8

Craig’s standard form presentation of the kalam argument sets him up for a well–organized discussion of the issue. His proposal is that the universe has a cause of its existence. His opponent, Mackie, maintains the opposite – that the universe could be uncaused. Faced with Craig’s argument, Mackie will have to explain which of Craig’s premises he finds objectionable.

Anticipating Mackie will focus his objection against premise two, Craig proceeds to add two subarguments to support this premise, ending up with an eleven–step argument:

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause of its existence.

2. The universe began to exist.

2.1 Argument based on the impossibility of an actual infinite:

2.11 An actual infinite cannot exist.

2.12 An infinite temporal regress of events is an actual infinite.

2.13 Therefore, an infinite temporal regress of events cannot exist.

2.2 Argument based on the impossibility of the formation of an actual infinite by successive addition:

2.21 A collection formed by successive addition cannot be actually infinite.

2.22 The temporal series of past events is a collection formed by successive addition.

2.23 Therefore, the temporal series of past events cannot be actually infinite.

3. Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence.

Needless to say, there are a lot of technical concepts in these subarguments, which Craig will need to define and explain. We don’t need to get into any of these details, however, to see that Craig’s argument constitutes a formidable challenge to Mackie.

A reader who was already familiar with the kalam argument would no doubt welcome Craig’s schematic presentation since it captures the issue in such a clear and logical way. Would it be better if everyone always wrote schematically like Craig? Imagine a world in which politicians laid out their arguments in standard form! Perhaps we would have an easier time figuring out where they actually stand, but we would also never get a sense of their personalities, and we might just fall asleep before they’d finished. It’s probably just as well that most authors don’t schematize their arguments for us. This leaves us, the readers, with something to figure out. We have to read actively, thereby gaining the opportunity to interpret the author in our own way.

Consider the following passage from Napoleon Hill’s classic motivational book of the 1930s, Think and Grow Rich. Selling more than thirty million copies worldwide, this book is still today ranked in the top ten on the BusinessWeek Best–seller List. It is completely different from the Craig passage in both style and content, yet it contains an argument just the same.

THE MYSTERY OF SEX TRANSMUTATION

The emotion of sex brings into being a state of mind.

Because of ignorance on the subject, this state of mind is generally associated with the physical, and because of improper influences, to which most people have been subjected in acquiring knowledge of sex, things essentially physical have highly biased the mind.

The emotion of sex has back of it the possibility of three constructive potentialities. They are:

1. The perpetuation of mankind.

2. The maintenance of health (as a therapeutic agency, it has no equal).

3. The transformation of mediocrity into genius through transmutation.

Sex transmutation is simple and easily explained. It means the switching of the mind from thoughts of physical expression to thoughts of some other nature.

Sex desire is the most powerful of human desires. When driven by this desire, men develop keenness of imagination, courage, will–power, persistence, and creative ability unknown to them at other times. So strong and impelling is the desire for sexual contact that men freely run the risk of life and reputation to indulge it. When harnessed, and redirected along other lines, this motivating force maintains all of its attributes of keenness of imagination, courage, etc., which may be used as powerful creative forces in literature, art, or in any other profession or calling, including, of course, the accumulation of riches.

The transmutation of sex energy calls for the exercise of will–power, to be sure, but the reward is worth the effort. The desire for sexual expression is inborn and natural. The desire cannot, and should not be submerged or eliminated. But it should be given an outlet through forms of expression which enrich the body, mind, and spirit of man. If not given this form of outlet, through transmutation, it will seek outlets through purely physical channels.

A river may be dammed, and its water controlled for a time, but eventually, it will force an outlet. The same is true of the emotion of sex. It may b...