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BOOK REVIEWS 

Many of our subscribers have asked whether we plan to do 
reviews. The answer is a qualified "yes." The qualifications 
are two. First, we propose that reviews should be expository 
rather than critical. The aim of our newsletter, at this point, 
is to provide information and act as a network through which to 
feed it. It is our opinion that expository reviews will serve 
this purpose better than would critical reviews. There may come 
a time when we shall add critical reviews, but we don't think 
we've reached that stage yet. Second, while we are willing to do 
our share, the editors have no intention of undertaking the task 
alone. We will start this feature off in this number, but we 
solicit support from our subscribers. If there is a text or 
book which you have read, please share your knowledge with us, 
using the format of the two expository reviews which follow. 

Understanding Arguments: An Introduction to Informal Logic. 
Robert J. Fogelin. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 
Inc., 1978. Pp. 351 + xii. 

1) Statement of Purpose: "This book is about arguments. It 
considers arguments not in the narrow sense of quarrels or 
squabbles but in the broader, logician's sense of giving reasons 
in behalf of some claim. Viewing arguments in this way, we see 
that they are a common feature of daily life •••• For certain 
purposes, arguments are best studied as abstract patterns. Logic 
is not concerned with particular arguments--for example, your 
attempt to prove that the bank, not you, has made a mistake. The 
task of logic is to discover the fundamental principles for 
distinguishing good arguments from bad ones .••• A different 
but complementary way of viewing an argument is to treat it as 
a particular use of language: arguing is one of the things 
that we do with words. This approach places stress upon arguing 
as a linguistic activity. Instead of studying arguments as 
abstract patterns, it takes them "in the rough," as they occur in 
actual argumentation. It raises questions of the following kind: 
What is the place of argument within language as a whole? In a 
given language (say, our own) what words or phrases are characteristi 
of arguments? What task or tasks are arguments supposed to perform? 
When an approach to arguments has this form, the study is called 
informal logic. As its subtitle indicates, Understanding Arguments 
is primarily a text in informal logic." (v-vi) 

2) Table of Contents: 

Part One: The Analysis of Argument 

1. The Web of Language 
2. The Language of Argument 
3. The Art of Close Analysis 
4. Fallacies of Clarity and Relevance 
5. Other Uses of Argument 
6. The Formal Analysis of Argument: Part One 
7. The Formal Analysis of Argument: Part Two 



Part Two: Specimens of Argument 

Issues of Public Concern 
Legal Reasoning 
A Moral Debate 

• Scientific Arguments 
. A Theological Debate 

Philosophical Arguments 

3) Special Features: 

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'****Fogelin gives attention, in Chapter 1, to speech acts performatives, 
conversational implication, and pragmatics. Appendices to the text 
contain Austin's article "Performative Utterances" and Grice's 
"Logic and Conversation." 
****In Chapter 2, Fogelin deals with what he calls assuring, 
hedging, and discounting--as devices which are used to build 
defensive perimeters:. That is, they are ways of someone' s 
trying to shield his or her position against criticism. 
****Also in Chapter 2, Fogelin discusses various substitutes for 
argument: slanting and persuasive definition. 
****In Chapter 3, Fogelin presents a method for analyzing arguments 
of some length. His procedure involves making notations (using 
a set of abbreviations) in the margins of the argument. This 
method is an adaptation of a method first used by Monroe Beardsley 
in Practical Logic (1950) and also used by Stephen Thomas in 
Practical Reasoning in Natural Language (1973). 
****Chapter 3 ends wIth a discussion of argument standpoints, such 

. as claiming middle ground, the disinterested party, the reasonable 
man, the voice in the wilderness and others. 
****In Chapter 5, under "Refutations," Fogelin deals with various 
methods of refuting arguments: counter-examples, how to handle 
self-sealing positions. 
****As the Table of Contents shows, Part Two consists of examples 
of argumentation drawn from different areas. In Chapter 8, for 
example, the issues dealt with are Safety in Nuclear Power Plants 
(190-208) with various illustrative materials; and Affirmative 
Action and Reverse Discrimination (209-216). Generally these 
chapters are about thirty pages long with several long passages 
of reasoning presented as specimens. 

Argument, A Guide to Critical Thinking, Perry Weddle. 
New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1978. Pp. 192 + xi. 

1) Statement of Purpose: "This book is designed to encourage the 
democratic ar~of thoughtful, articulate discussion. It attempts 
to help its readers think out their own ideas and those of others. 
It should prove useful to students of rhetoric, composition, and 
debate, and should aid journalism students in improving their 
reporting of scientific and economic news. It complements the 
formal logic provided by a university-level general education 
course in logic. And it should aid the general reader, for its 
guiding principle is the question, 'What skills do educated 
citizens need in order to handle the argumentative raw material 
which confronts them daily?'" (ix) 



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2) Table of contents: 

Ch. 1 The Realm of Reason. Argument Mechanics; Argument Ecology; 
Good Reasoning. 

Ch. 2 Fallacy. Oversimplification; Smokescreen. 
Ch. 3 Language. Argument Language; Trading on Words; Definition. 
Ch. 4 Authority. Experts and Others; Other Sources of Authority; 

Ad Hominem; Statistics. 
Ch. 5 Generality. The Logic of General Statements; Generalizing; 

Sampling Sampling; Polls and Surveys. 
Ch. 6 Comparison. Mastering Analogical Reasoning; Historical 

Comparisons; Moral Comparisons; Implicit Comparisons. 
Ch. 7 Cause. The Idea of Cause; Causal Arguments; Causal Reasoning 

,and the Idea of Cause. 

3) Special Features: 

****The book is salted with examples: some invented to make a 
point (but not artificial); most taken from live argumentation 
(daily press, books on topics under discussion, literature, 
philosophy) . 
****Each chapter has three useful devices to help readers apply 
and develop its ideas: (1) "'Quick Checks,' a series of short 
straightforward problems, with answers or suggestions, which will 
enable readers to develop and gauge comprehension on their own." 
(2) "' Examples and Comments,' . • . intended to foster the arts 
of discussion critical judgment, and patient, orderly explanation. 
About a third of the problems are commented on • • • examples 
range from ones calling for straightforward answers to ones where 
the sensible reply will be, 'I don't know; here are some possibilitie 
(3) "'Applications,' •.• to narrow the gap between the 'on-
paper' world and the world as it really is." (x-xi) 
****Weddle aims to steer a middle ground between starting from 
scratch, ignoring the "rich" but "hodgepodge" ancestry of informal 
logic, and including what has real value in the tradition, what 
would be useful to educated people. 
****The book tries to de-emphasize terminology: "careful 
explanation is invariably better than categorizing and name-
calling" (x). 
****Most tradition informal logic material is discussed at one 
point or another (deductive arguments, uses and abuses of language, 
the application of probability theory and scientific method in 
statistics, polling and causal argument). The book's organization 
is intended, "partly to avoid the impression that scientific, 
technical and inductive thinking differs fundamentally from every 
other kind of thinking" (x). 

INFORMAL LOGIC NETWORK 

In the first issue of the Newsletter there appeared a list 
of the names and addresses of those who attended the Windsor 
symposium on Informal Logic last June, in order to create a 
communication network of people interested in the field. We have 
received a number of requests from others who wish to be included 
in this network. We shall list these and future additions to the 
network in an upcoming issue. In the meantime, others who would 
like to be listed should inform us: write giving your name, 
address for correspondence, and your area(s) of special interest 
in informal logic.