Practical Reasoning in Natural Language

By Stephen Naylor Thomas

Written especially for beginners, this basic manual/workbook shows how to analyze and evaluate any passage of reasoning or argumentation as it actually occurs in natural language contexts -- e.g., books, articles, essays, speeches, editorials, conversations. This book presents a general method of " natural logic" by which the logical structure of any argument" -- Scientific, philosophic, mathematical, political, religious, ethical, legal, " inductive" , " deductive" , modal, semantic, syntactic, evidentiary, etc. -- can be graphically represented without; employing traditional methods used in logic textbooks (e.g. truth-tables, Venn diagrams, etc.). It shows how these techniques can be used to analyze a situation involving many pros and cons, and to identify the argument in discourse where the reasoning is obscure, complex or disorganized.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0136921531
• ISBN13: 9780136921530
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: Prentice Hall College Div
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.7" x 9.8"

Customer Reviews

Professor Thomas--A Great Teacher

I was privileged to be a student of Professor Thomas back in the 1980s. He was one of the frontline thinkers that brought us "fuzzy logic"--precise, defined means of reasoning to a conclusion in non-deductive and even confusing situations. It has to be understood that this sort of reasoning is NOT like your typicial logic text. This is beyond syllogisms and modus ponens, etc. This is logic that can take on more complex arguments and situations. And as such, Professor Thomas was indeed very precise (some might even call it tedious) in making sure we "got it." This was necessary to ensure that we could truly reason out the "weird stuff" that might come our way (on a test, say). I remember we gave values to the premises of arguments, etc., and used that to "score" the argument, and, thus, draw a conclusion. What makes "fuzzy logic" tough is that there is not that clean, absolute, certainty that comes with deductive logic. Rather, one has to learn to settle for the notion of "probably true" or "probably false" at times. And that's just why the subject requires the hand-holding it does. It's been a long time since I've seen or heard of Professor Thomas, but I'm glad to see he's still making waves in the world of logic!

I love Practical Reasoning!

This book is the best! I had to buy it for school, but I would have bought it anyway. It's the greatest. It teaches you all about logic and arguments and other useful stuff. Some words I didn't understand; but I skipped those. Now, I can beat anyone in an argument. Try me! Go ahead. Buy this book!