Think Again How to Reason and Argue by Walter Armstrong

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Contents of Think Again eBook

• Preface: Why I Wrote This Book
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Our Cultural Rut
• How Did We Get Here?
• How Do We Get Out of Here?
• PART I: WHY TO ARGUE
• So Close and Yet So Far
• What Is Polarization?
• Are the Poles Moving Apart?
• Can’t We at Least Agree on the Facts?
• Do You Hate Your Opponents?
• Has the Epidemic Gone Global?
• Toxic Talk
• Can We Be Civil, Please?
• Who Doesn’t Like a Good Caricature?
• Are We All Crazy Clowns?
• Are Insults Funny?
• How Low Can We Go?
• Is Europe Civilized?
• How Much Is Too Much?
• The Sound of Silencing
• Why Try?
• Where Did You Hear That?
• Why Ask?
• So What?
• Isn’t Silence Soothing?
• What Arguments Can Do
• Who Is the Slave?
• Is There Any Hope?
• What Do We Get Out of Arguing?
• Learning
• Respect
• Humility
• Abstraction
• Compromise
• Where Do We Stand Now?
• INTERMISSION: FROM WHY TO HOW
• Why to Learn How to Argue
• Do You Want to Make a Deal?
• Will Your Wishes Come True?
• Can You Trust Representatives?
• Should You Turn Over a New Leaf?
• Can We Get Better?
• PART II: HOW TO ARGUE
• How to Spot Arguments
• How Much Would You Pay for an Argument?
• What Is an Argument?
• What Purposes Do Arguments Serve?
• When Is an Argument (Being Given)?
• How to Stop Arguments
• Can We Stop Soon?
• What If We Can’t Stop?
• How Can We Stop?
• Guarding
• Assuring
• Evaluating
• Discounting
• How Can Words Work Together?
• How to Complete Arguments
• Which Arguments Are Valid?
• When Is Validity Formal?
• What Makes Arguments Sound?
• What Are You Assuming?
• Do These Methods Scale Up?
• Without Argument
• Justification
• Explanation
• How to Evaluate Arguments
• Was Sherlock Holmes a Master of Deduction?
• What’s So Great about Deduction?
• How Strong Are You?
• How Do I Induce Thee? Let Me Count the Ways
• How Can Dates and Polls Go So Wrong?
• Generalization
• Application
• Why Did That Happen?
• Hussein’s Tubes
• PART III: HOW NOT TO ARGUE
• How to Avoid Fallacies
• What Do You Mean?
• Double Entendre
• Slip Sliding Away
• Can I Trust You?
• Attacking People
• Questioning Authority
• Have We Gotten Anywhere Yet?
• Is That All?
• How to Refute Arguments
• Does the Exception Prove the Rule?
• Is This Absurdity Made of Straw?
• What Is Just Like Arguing . . . ?