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Author: Paul Gingrich
Publisher: Halifax, N.S. : Fernwood
Published: 1993
Total Pages: 192
ISBN-13: 9781895686449
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book focuses on both constructing-and demolishing-arguments based on numbers. It brings a fresh approach to the study of statistics, one which will have students asking for more rather than avoiding the next statistics course.
Author: James Wynn
Publisher: Penn State Press
Published: 2021-05-14
Total Pages: 303
ISBN-13: 0271089237
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAs discrete fields of inquiry, rhetoric and mathematics have long been considered antithetical to each other. That is, if mathematics explains or describes the phenomena it studies with certainty, persuasion is not needed. This volume calls into question the view that mathematics is free of rhetoric. Through nine studies of the intersections between these two disciplines, Arguing with Numbers shows that mathematics is in fact deeply rhetorical. Using rhetoric as a lens to analyze mathematically based arguments in public policy, political and economic theory, and even literature, the essays in this volume reveal how mathematics influences the values and beliefs with which we assess the world and make decisions and how our worldviews influence the kinds of mathematical instruments we construct and accept. In addition, contributors examine how concepts of rhetoric—such as analogy and visuality—have been employed in mathematical and scientific reasoning, including in the theorems of mathematical physicists and the geometrical diagramming of natural scientists. Challenging academic orthodoxy, these scholars reject a math-equals-truth reduction in favor of a more constructivist theory of mathematics as dynamic, evolving, and powerfully persuasive. By bringing these disparate lines of inquiry into conversation with one another, Arguing with Numbers provides inspiration to students, established scholars, and anyone inside or outside rhetorical studies who might be interested in exploring the intersections between the two disciplines. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Catherine Chaput, Crystal Broch Colombini, Nathan Crick, Michael Dreher, Jeanne Fahnestock, Andrew C. Jones, Joseph Little, and Edward Schiappa.
Author: David R. Morrow
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Published: 2019-11-18
Total Pages: 587
ISBN-13: 1624668798
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDavid Morrow and Anthony Weston build on Weston's acclaimed A Rulebook for Arguments to offer a complete textbook for a course in critical thinking or informal logic. Features of the book include: Homework exercises adapted from a wide range of actual arguments from newspapers, philosophical texts, literature, movies, YouTube videos, and other sources.Practical advice to help students succeed when applying the Rulebook's rules.Suggestions for further practice that outline activities students can do by themselves or with classmates to improve their critical thinking skills.Detailed instructions for in-class activities and take-home assignments designed to engage students in critical thinking.An appendix on mapping arguments, a topic not included in the Rulebook, that introduces students to this vital skill in evaluating or constructing complex and multi-step arguments.Model responses to odd-numbered exercises, including commentaries on the strengths and weaknesses of selected model responses as well as further discussion of some of the substantive intellectual, philosophical, and ethical issues raised by the exercises. The third edition of Workbook contains the entire text of the recent fifth edition of the Rulebook, supplementing this core text with extensive further explanations and exercises. Updated and improved homework exercises ensure that the examples continue to resonate with today’s students. Roughly one-third of the exercises have been replaced with updated or improved examples. A new chapter on engaging constructively in public debates—including five new sets of exercises—trains students to engage respectfully and constructively on controversial topics, an increasingly important skill in our hyper-partisan age. Three new critical thinking activities offer further opportunities to practice constructive dialogue.
Author: Sanjoy Mahajan
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2010-03-05
Total Pages: 152
ISBN-13: 0262265591
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn antidote to mathematical rigor mortis, teaching how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In problem solving, as in street fighting, rules are for fools: do whatever works—don't just stand there! Yet we often fear an unjustified leap even though it may land us on a correct result. Traditional mathematics teaching is largely about solving exactly stated problems exactly, yet life often hands us partly defined problems needing only moderately accurate solutions. This engaging book is an antidote to the rigor mortis brought on by too much mathematical rigor, teaching us how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In Street-Fighting Mathematics, Sanjoy Mahajan builds, sharpens, and demonstrates tools for educated guessing and down-and-dirty, opportunistic problem solving across diverse fields of knowledge—from mathematics to management. Mahajan describes six tools: dimensional analysis, easy cases, lumping, picture proofs, successive approximation, and reasoning by analogy. Illustrating each tool with numerous examples, he carefully separates the tool—the general principle—from the particular application so that the reader can most easily grasp the tool itself to use on problems of particular interest. Street-Fighting Mathematics grew out of a short course taught by the author at MIT for students ranging from first-year undergraduates to graduate students ready for careers in physics, mathematics, management, electrical engineering, computer science, and biology. They benefited from an approach that avoided rigor and taught them how to use mathematics to solve real problems. Street-Fighting Mathematics will appear in print and online under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share Alike license.
Author: George Szpiro
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2020-11-03
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13: 0691209081
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe author takes the general reader on a tour of the mathematical puzzles and paradoxes inherent in voting systems, such as the Alabama Paradox, in which an increase in the number of seats in the Congress could actually lead to a reduced number of representatives for a state, and the Condorcet Paradox, which demonstrates that the winner of elections featuring more than two candidates does not necessarily reflect majority preferences. Szpiro takes a roughly chronological approach to the topic, traveling from ancient Greece to the present and, in addition to offering explanations of the various mathematical conundrums of elections and voting, also offers biographical details on the mathematicians and other thinkers who thought about them, including Plato, Pliny the Younger, Pierre Simon Laplace, Thomas Jefferson, John von Neumann, and Kenneth Arrow.
Author: David Hitchcock
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Published: 2007-01-24
Total Pages: 430
ISBN-13: 1402049382
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn The Uses of Argument (1958), Stephen Toulmin proposed a model for the layout of arguments: claim, data, warrant, qualifier, rebuttal, backing. Since then, Toulmin’s model has been appropriated, adapted and extended by researchers in speech communications, philosophy and artificial intelligence. This book assembles the best contemporary reflection in these fields, extending or challenging Toulmin’s ideas in ways that make fresh contributions to the theory of analysing and evaluating arguments.
Author: Ali Almossawi
Publisher: The Experiment, LLC
Published: 2014-09-23
Total Pages: 66
ISBN-13: 1615192263
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“This short book makes you smarter than 99% of the population. . . . The concepts within it will increase your company’s ‘organizational intelligence.’. . . It’s more than just a must-read, it’s a ‘have-to-read-or-you’re-fired’ book.”—Geoffrey James, INC.com From the author of An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language, here’s the antidote to fuzzy thinking, with furry animals! Have you read (or stumbled into) one too many irrational online debates? Ali Almossawi certainly had, so he wrote An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments! This handy guide is here to bring the internet age a much-needed dose of old-school logic (really old-school, a la Aristotle). Here are cogent explanations of the straw man fallacy, the slippery slope argument, the ad hominem attack, and other common attempts at reasoning that actually fall short—plus a beautifully drawn menagerie of animals who (adorably) commit every logical faux pas. Rabbit thinks a strange light in the sky must be a UFO because no one can prove otherwise (the appeal to ignorance). And Lion doesn’t believe that gas emissions harm the planet because, if that were true, he wouldn’t like the result (the argument from consequences). Once you learn to recognize these abuses of reason, they start to crop up everywhere from congressional debate to YouTube comments—which makes this geek-chic book a must for anyone in the habit of holding opinions.
Author: Sharon Rivkin
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2009-10-01
Total Pages: 241
ISBN-13: 0762758171
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRevealing where the real conflict lies in a relationship—and resolving it * Breaking the Argument Cycle is a book for all those who've ever found themselves arguing with their significant other, again and again, about money, sex, or even a seemingly trivial topic—when, at its core, the conflict is about something completely different. A longtime marriage and family therapist, Sharon Rivkin has helped hundreds of couples fix their relationships by understanding why they fight. Here, she shows how anyone can use the tools of therapy to break the cycle of destructive fighting—namely, by resolving the core issues of early arguments, which have their roots in childhood and get repeated over time. Presenting real-life stories and easy exercises, Rivkin sets forth a simple, three-step process—Peel, Reveal, Heal—to empower couples to identify and then resolve their core issues themselves, shedding light on what they're really arguing about. This is then followed up with healing exercises. By thus breaking the argument cycle, confusion and chaos turn into clarity and healing—and everyone can learn how and why they get hooked into an argument, how to unhook, and how to develop lasting tools to turn conflict into intimacy . . . even after years of fighting.
Author: Martin H. Weissman
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
Published: 2020-09-15
Total Pages: 341
ISBN-13: 1470463717
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNews about this title: — Author Marty Weissman has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2020. (Learn more here.) — Selected as a 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title — 2018 PROSE Awards Honorable Mention An Illustrated Theory of Numbers gives a comprehensive introduction to number theory, with complete proofs, worked examples, and exercises. Its exposition reflects the most recent scholarship in mathematics and its history. Almost 500 sharp illustrations accompany elegant proofs, from prime decomposition through quadratic reciprocity. Geometric and dynamical arguments provide new insights, and allow for a rigorous approach with less algebraic manipulation. The final chapters contain an extended treatment of binary quadratic forms, using Conway's topograph to solve quadratic Diophantine equations (e.g., Pell's equation) and to study reduction and the finiteness of class numbers. Data visualizations introduce the reader to open questions and cutting-edge results in analytic number theory such as the Riemann hypothesis, boundedness of prime gaps, and the class number 1 problem. Accompanying each chapter, historical notes curate primary sources and secondary scholarship to trace the development of number theory within and outside the Western tradition. Requiring only high school algebra and geometry, this text is recommended for a first course in elementary number theory. It is also suitable for mathematicians seeking a fresh perspective on an ancient subject.
Author: Greg Harvey
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 2010-08-13
Total Pages: 410
ISBN-13: 0470904763
DOWNLOAD EBOOKReinforce your understanding of Excel with these Workbook exercises Boost your knowledge of important Excel tasks by putting your skills to work in real-world situations. The For Dummies Workbook format provides more than 100 exercises that help you create actual results with Excel so you can gain proficiency. Perfect for students, people learning Excel on their own, and financial professionals who must plan and execute complex projects in Excel, Excel 2010 Workbook For Dummies helps you discover all the ways this program can work for you. Excel is the world's most popular number-crunching program, and For Dummies books are the most popular guides to Excel The Workbook approach offers practical application, with more than 100 exercises to work through and plenty of step-by-step guidance This guide covers the new features of Excel 2010, includes a section on creating graphic displays of information, and offers ideas for financial planners Also provides exercises on using formulas and functions, managing and securing data, and performing data analysis A companion CD-ROM includes screen shots and practice materials Excel 2010 Workbook For Dummies helps you get comfortable with Excel so you can take advantage of all it has to offer. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.
