Table of Contents

Introduction 7
Part I: Reasoning 13
1.1: Reasoning and other modes of persuasion 15
1.2: The elements of reasoning 23
Part II: The Structure of Reasoning 43
2.1 Marking reasoning 45
2.2: Mapping simple inferences 54
2.3: Reasoning with three statements 64
2.4: Real-life arguments 79
Part III: Evaluating Reason 109
3.1: Evaluating inference strength 111
3.2 Evaluating premise plausibility 128
3.3 Digging deeper into ‘factual’ premises 143
Part IV: The Big Picture 163
4.1: The taken for granted 165
4.2: Frames and framing 178
4.3: When ideologies and facts collide 190
Appendix 202
References 219
About the authors 221

About the Author

William Fish is a Professor in the School of Humanities at Massey. His research interests are Philosophy of Mind (Philosophy of Perception and Philosophy of Consciousness), Epistemology and Philosophy of Psychology. Steve Duffin is a lecturer in Philosophy at the School of Humanities at Massey.