A Concise Introduction to Logic is an introduction to formal logic suitable for undergraduates taking a general education course in logic or critical thinking, and is accessible and useful to any interested in gaining a basic understanding of logic. This text takes the unique approach of teaching logic through intellectual history; the author uses examples from important and celebrated arguments in philosophy to illustrate logical principles. The text also includes a basic introduction to findings of advanced logic. As indicators of where the student could go next with logic, the book closes with an overview of advanced topics, such as the axiomatic method, set theory, Peano arithmetic, and modal logic. Throughout, the text uses brief, concise chapters that readers will find easy to read and to review.

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the following:

Understand the logical connections between ideas.
Identify, construct, and evaluate arguments.
Detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning.
Solve problems systematically.
Identify the relevance and importance of ideas.
Reflect on the justification of one’s own beliefs and values.
Critical thinking is not simply a matter of accumulating information. A person with a good memory and who knows a lot of facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking. Critical thinkers are able to deduce consequences from what they know, make use of information to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of information to inform themselves.

Critical thinking should not be confused with being argumentative or being critical of other people. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing fallacies and bad reasoning, critical thinking can also play an important role in cooperative reasoning and constructive tasks. Critical thinking can help us acquire knowledge, improve our theories, and strengthen arguments. We can also use critical thinking to enhance work processes and improve social institutions.

Some people believe that critical thinking hinders creativity because critical thinking requires following the rules of logic and rationality, whereas creativity might require breaking those rules. This is a misconception. Critical thinking is quite compatible with thinking “out-of-the-box,” challenging consensus views, and pursuing less popular approaches. If anything, critical thinking is an essential part of creativity because we need critical thinking to evaluate and improve our creative ideas.

Christian Kock’s essays show the essential interconnectedness of practical reasoning, rhetoric and deliberative democracy. They constitute a unique contribution to argumentation theory that draws on – and criticizes – the work of philosophers, rhetoricians, political scientists and other argumentation theorists. It puts rhetoric in the service of modern democracies by drawing attention to the obligations of politicians to articulate arguments and objections that citizens can weigh against each other in their deliberations about possible courses of action.

Fundamental Methods of Logic is suitable for a one-semester introduction to logic/critical reasoning course. It covers a variety of topics at an introductory level. Chapter One introduces basic notions, such as arguments and explanations, validity and soundness, deductive and inductive reasoning; it also covers basic analytical techniques, such as distinguishing premises from conclusions and diagramming arguments. Chapter Two discusses informal logical fallacies. Chapters Three and Four concern deductive logic, introducing the basics of Aristotelian and Sentential Logic, respectively. Chapter Five deals with analogical and causal reasoning, including a discussion of Mill's Methods. Chapter Six covers basic probability calculations, Bayesian inference, fundamental statistical concepts and techniques, and common statistical fallacies.

A Guide to Good Reasoning has been described by reviewers as “far superior to any other critical reasoning text.” It shows with both wit and philosophical care how students can become good at everyday reasoning. It starts with attitude—with alertness to judgmental heuristics and with the cultivation of intellectual virtues. From there it develops a system for skillfully clarifying and evaluating arguments, according to four standards—whether the premises fit the world, whether the conclusion fits the premises, whether the argument fits the conversation, and whether it is possible to tell.

The Republic of Plato is one of the classic gateway texts into the study and practice of philosophy, and it is just the sort of book that has been able to arrest and redirect lives. How it has been able to do this, and whether or not it will be able to do this in your own case, is something you can only discover for yourself. The present guidebook aims to help a person get fairly deep, fairly quickly, into the project. It divides the dialogue into 96 sections and provides commentary on each section as well as questions for reflection and exploration. It is organized with a table of contents and is stitched together with a system of navigating bookmarks. Links to external sites such as the Perseus Classical Library are used throughout. This book is suitable for college courses or independent study.

The Introduction to Ethics Course was developed through the Ohio Department of Higher Education OER Innovation Grant. This work was completed and the course was posted in September 2019. The course is part of the Ohio Transfer Assurance Guides and is also named OAH046. For more information about credit transfer between Ohio colleges and universities, please visit: www.ohiohighered.org/transfer.Team LeadNatalie Kertes-Weaver                       Ursuline CollegeContent ContributorsBenjamin Cordry                                Lorain County Community CollegeBrad Lipinski                                      Cuyahoga Community CollegeToni Nicoletti                                      Cleveland State UniversityLibrarianMandi Goodsett                                 Cleveland State UniversityReview TeamTravis Hreno                                      University of AkronRobert Loftis                                      Lorain County Community College 

Welcome to Introduction to Ethics.  This fully online, open access course is intended to meet the needs of teachers and students undertaking a study of introductory level ethics and moral theory[Image - SVG SILH - CC0 1.0 ]

This module contains links to two textbooks on critical thinking and indicates which sections are most relevant to thinking well about ethics.[ Image - Nina Paley, "You May Be Right" - CC BY-SA 3.0 ]

Excerpt edited for the General Intro to Ethics Student:Ethics for A-Level: Introduction -Mark Dimmock and Andrew Fisher, Ethics for A-Level. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2017, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0125 (CC BY 4.0). [Image - olarte.ollie, "detective" - licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0]

This module presents sources in normative ethics.  There are two types of material:  first (in "Section 2"), there is a collection of primary sources with introductions, biographical sketches, and reading/reflecting questions; second (in "Section 3"), there is a link to a textbooks and the sections therein that significantly address normative theory via primary sources.[Image Source - Marsayas, AGMA Ostrakon Themistocle3  - CC BY-SA 3.0. ]

This module presents two resources.  First (in "Section 2"), selections from a textbook that summarize major moral theories; second (in "Section 3"), a link to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Ethics.[Image source: "Moral Compass" by Paul Downey is licensend under CC BY2.0 ]

This section includes introductory and intermediate resources for metaethics. It includes links to open education textbooks with chapters on metaethics that can be used for a brief introduction to meta-ethics, as well as original source readings on topics in meta-ethics. A link to Plato's Euthyphro is included for discussion of the Euthyphro problem, which is related to criticisms of Divine Command Theory and issues having to do with the source and justification of moral judgments. As well, portions of Hume's Treatise is included as it regards the source and justification of moral judgments. There are also links to G. E. Moore's Open Question argument and other links to help students understand the main issues in metaethics. The textbook chapters and original source materials can be used together to orient students to the main issues, as well as to introduce them to the original arguments.