Helpful Resources for Chapter 5:
A Guide to Skeptical Reading and Logical Writing

• Making deductive arguments
• Using Venn diagrams to determine whether a deductive argument is valid

pp. 176-180 The importance of making rational arguments and three major tools for making such arguments: clear definitions, deduction, and induction

pp. 178 -180 Inductive arguments

• Examples of inductive arguments
• Note that inductive arguments rarely yield absolute proof. For example, Europeans used to say that there was no such thing as a black swan because they had seen thousands of swans for centuries, and none of theose swans had been black. However, it turned out their were black swans--they just hadn't seen them. Similarly, even though we have never seen two snowflakes that are identical, we cannot definitively say that no two snowflakes are identical. We can only say that it is extremely unlikely that two there are two identical snowflakes.
• 3 minute video tutorial on inductive arguments

pp. 181-183 (Nonobjective thinking): For a good list of what not to do, look at Dave Barry's humorous article "How to Argue Effectively." Note that to show that you are not making things up, you should cite your sources. You should also forget, rather than memorize, Dave's list of meaningless words and phrases. The next to the last paragraph is a funny example of using ad hominem attacks.

• Nice, extremely short summary of 20 common logical fallacies
• Brief summary of 26  logical fallacies that commonly pop up in psychological literature and discussions

pp. 183-186 Inferring causation from correlation This short article does a good job of explaining the value of control groups.

• Dilbert weighs in on correlation versus causation by having the boss make the "causation implies correlation" mistake
  • The boss fools himself
  • Wally fools the boss (by being a third variable)

pp. 190-191

• Summary of making logical arguments (from Dartmouth)
• Twenty tips for interpreting scientific claims (from the journal Nature)