Anthony Weston

I was reading this textbook for an assignment prior to a class, and a professor of mine walked by and said, "'A Practical Companion to Ethics?' What's so practical about ethics?" I shrugged, and then he concluded, "Ah, so the companion is what's practical!"

Sadly to say, I'm not entirely sure to accept the second assumption. I have found this text to be almost insulting in the lack of information given. The companion seems to make allegory and non-precise definitions a habit. Geez! If you're show more talking about Kantian ethics, just call it Kantian ethics! This book seems to talk about ethics in such an abstract way, it's not entirely educational.

I think the text's thesis is something along the lines of "ethics are important," and as someone who is involved in some local academic politics, I can say that in the face of overwhelming STEM education pushes form government, philosophy is wrongly-considered inept or useless, and frankly, this shows in writing of this "companion." Rather than interrogate ethical schools or the idea of ethics, it serves as a lackluster primer for what isn't a strong discussion on ethics.

To clarify one thing, I am a college student (at the time of writing), so if this is marketed towards middle schoolers, I apologize for the confusion. show less

Concise and Precise

This concise introduction to critical thinking presents rules for clear thinking, valid communications, and creating and assessing persuasive arguments. Its 87 brief pages are readily accessible to high school students, and useful to anyone interested in offering correct evidence and valid reasons to support conclusions. When so much of what we read, hear, and see is intended to persuade us, or even mislead us, it is important to distinguish valid arguments from careless show more or manipulative ones.

If good writing is clear thinking made visible, then this book provides excellent advice for writers. As a rulebook, it begins by presenting 30 rules for clearly constructing a valid case supporting your conclusion. It then turns to applying these rules for writing argumentative essays. It also treats fallacies and includes an appendix on correct use of definitions. The author recognizes this book is only an introduction to these topics and provides a good list of further reading.

Fallacies are seductive and often go unnoticed and unchallenged. In this book, many fallacies are described alongside the rules they violate. A short chapter then names and briefly describes many types of fallacies. I would have liked to see this expanded. We have long recognized sexist and racist language and work to purge it from use. I look forward to a time when a broader set of fallacies will be routinely recognized and corrected in everyday conversation. Perhaps then it will be common to interrupt the speaker to say something like: "Excuse me, but you just used the fallacy of modus ponens by affirming the consequent. Please correct that logic error before proceeding." show less

I enjoyed it. Lots of ideas I have been previously exposed to, but all gathered under one roof with the hope of helping people reach an understanding. The table of contents serves as a good resource to review when making an important argument. Other points I liked include:

- You begin with an issue but not necessarily a position. Do not feel that you must immediately embrace some position and then try to shore it up with arguments. Likewise, even if you have a position, do not just dash off show more the first argument that occurs to you. You are not being asked for the first opinion that occurs to you. You are being asked to arrive at a well-informed opinion that you can defend with solid arguments.
- Encourage your readers to be critical, and commit yourself to being a critical reader for them in turn. If need be, you might even assign your readers a quota of specific criticisms and suggestions to make, so they don’t fear hurting your feelings by suggesting some.
- Try for a more open-minded approach—before you “come back” with your own views. Your job is not only to understand other debaters’ conclusions, but also to understand their premises, their reasons—to listen for their arguments. This means much more than passively waiting out someone’s statement of their views. You need to actively seek out their reasons, and understand why they find those reasons so compelling.
- Raise good arguments, then, as openly and thoughtfully as you can. Offer something positive. Hear the other side out, and respond and connect as best you can. But recognize that the debate will continue. Life is short, the debate is long. There are also many worthwhile and constructive things to do besides debate, both in and out of public discourse. At some point you will need to step away. Just leave them thinking when you go! show less

Anthony Weston created an indispensable handbook here. It's small, easy to carry, easy to read, and is incredibly useful as a resource to help one hone his or her skills in analyzing the logic of arguments. I strongly recommend keeping a copy of 'A Rulebook for Arguments' around and handy, it could be more frequently useful than one might imagine. Now, to be clear, Weston doesn't go much into giving a list of fallacies. Rather, he delves into structure of arguments and the ways to scrutinize show more their logic. It is a book of vital lessons in logic. show less