A Workbook for Arguments: A Complete Course in Critical Thinking (Third Edition)

David Morrow and Anthony Weston build on Weston’s acclaimed A Rulebook for Arguments to offer a complete textbook for a course in critical thinking or informal logic. Features of the book include:

• An updated companion website.

• Homework exercises adapted from a wide range of actual arguments from newspapers, philosophical texts, literature, movies, YouTube videos, and other sources.

• Practical advice to help students succeed when applying the Rulebook's rules.

• Suggestions for further practice that outline activities students can do by themselves or with classmates to improve their critical thinking skills.

• Detailed instructions for in-class activities and take-home assignments designed to engage students in critical thinking.

• An appendix on mapping arguments, a topic not included in the Rulebook, that introduces students to this vital skill in evaluating or constructing complex and multi-step arguments.

• Model responses to odd-numbered exercises, including commentaries on the strengths and weaknesses of selected model responses as well as further discussion of some of the substantive intellectual, philosophical, and ethical issues raised by the exercises.

The third edition of Workbook contains the entire text of the recent fifth edition of the Rulebook, supplementing this core text with extensive further explanations and exercises.

Updated and improved homework exercises ensure that the examples continue to resonate with today’s students. Roughly one-third of the exercises have been replaced with updated or improved examples.

A new chapter on engaging constructively in public debates—including five new sets of exercises—trains students to engage respectfully and constructively on controversial topics, an increasingly important skill in our hyper-partisan age. Three new critical thinking activities offer further opportunities to practice constructive dialogue.

Comments on the first edition:

"Quite simply, one of the best critical-thinking texts I have read. Unlike many critical-thinking books, there is a particular and efficacious focus on helping the reader write an argumentative essay. . . . The expository clarity is as good as it gets."
      —Chris Jackson, Teaching Philosophy

About the Authors:

David R. Morrow is Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at George Mason University.

Anthony Weston is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Environmental Studies at Elon University.