For Bedford/St. Martin’s Developmental Editor:Adam Whitehurst Production Editor:Kerri A. Cardone Assistant Production Manager:Joe Ford Marketing Manager:Molly Parke Editorial Assistants:Shannon Walsh and Nicholas McCarthy Copyeditor:Karen Stocz Senior Art Director:Anna Palchik Text Design:Linda M. Robertson Cover Design:Donna Lee Dennison Cover Art:© Hitomi Hokada/amanaimages/Corbis Composition:Glyph International Printing and Binding:RR Donnelley and Sons President:Joan E. Feinberg Editorial Director:Denise B. Wydra Editor in Chief:Karen S. Henry Director of Marketing:Karen R. Soeltz Director of Editing, Design, and Production:Susan W. Brown Associate Director of Editorial Production:Elise S. Kaiser Managing Editor:Elizabeth M. Schaaf Library of Congress Control Number: 2010920412 Copyright © 2011, 2008, 2005, 2002 by Bedford/St. Martin’s All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be expressly permitted by the applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher. Manufactured in the United States of America. 5 4 3 2 1 0 f e d c b a For information, write:Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116 (617-399-4000) ISBN-10: 0–312–60160–3 ISBN-13: 978–0–312–60160–7 Acknowledgments Derek Bok, “Protecting Freedom of Expression on the Campus.” (Originally titled, “Protecting Freedom of Expression at Harvard.”) From the Boston GlobeMay 21, 1991. Copyright © 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author. Susan Brownmiller, “Let’s Put Pornography Back in the Closet.” Originally published in Newsday, 1979. Copyright © 1979 by Susan Brownmiller. Reprinted by permission of the author. Peter Cave, “Should We Save the Jeroba?” from What’s Wrong With Eating People?Copyright © One World Publishers. Reprinted by permission. Acknowledgments and copyrights can be found at the back of the book on pages 551–552, which constitute an extension of the copyright page. It is a violation of the law to reproduce these selections by any means whatsoever without the written permission of the copyright holder. This page intentionally left blank SEVENTH EDITION CRITICAL THINKING, READING, and WRITING A Brief Guide to Argument SYLVAN BARNET Professor of English, Tufts University HUGO BEDAU Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University Bedford/St. Martin’s BOSTON ◆ NEW YORK Preface This book is a text about critical thinking and argumentation—a book about getting ideas, using sources, evaluating kinds of evidence, and organizing material. It also includes about fifty readings, with a strong emphasis on contemporary arguments. In a moment we will be a little more specific about what sorts of readings we include, but first we want to mention our chief assumptions about the aims of a course that might useCritical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Brief Guide to Argument. Probably most students and instructors would agree that, as critical readers,students should be able to • Summarize accurately an argument they have read; • Locate the thesis (the claim) of an argument; • Locate the assumptions, stated and unstated; • Analyze and evaluate the strength of the evidence and the sound- ness of the reasoning offered in support of the thesis; and • Analyze, evaluate, and account for discrepancies among various readings on a topic (for example, explain why certain facts are used, why others are ignored, why probable consequences of a proposed action are examined or ignored, or why two sources might interpret the same facts differently). Probably, too, students and instructors would agree that, asthoughtful writers,students should be able to • Imagine an audience and write effectively for it (for instance, by using the appropriate tone and providing the appropriate amount of detail); • Present information in an orderly and coherent way; • Be aware of their own assumptions; iii iv PREFACE • Locate sources and incorporate them into their own writing, not simply by quoting extensively or by paraphrasing but also by hav- ing digested material so that they can present it in their own words; • Properly document all borrowings—not merely quotations and paraphrases but also borrowed ideas; and • Do all these things in the course of developing a thoughtful argu- ment of their own. In the first edition of this book we quoted Edmund Burke and John Stuart Mill. Burke said, He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. Mill said, He who knows only his own side of the cause knows little. These two quotations continue to reflect the view of argument that underlies this text: In writing an essay one is engaging in a serious effort to know what one’s own ideas are and, having found them, to con- tribute to a multisided conversation. One is not setting out to trounce an opponent, and that is partly why such terms as marshaling evidence, attack- ing an opponent, and defending a thesis are misleading. True, on television talk shows we see right-wingers and left-wingers who have made up their minds and who are concerned only with pushing their own views and brushing aside all others. But in an academic community, and indeed in our daily lives, we learn • by listening to others and also • by listening to ourselves. We draft a response to something we have read, and in the very act of drafting we may find—if we think critically about the words we are putting down on paper—we are changing (perhaps slightly, perhaps radically) our own position. In short, one reason that we write is so that we can improve our ideas. And even if we do not drastically change our views, we and our readers at least come to a better understanding of why we hold the views we do. FEATURES The Text Parts One and Two Part One, Critical Thinking and Reading (Chapters 1–4), and Part Two, Critical Writing (Chapters 5–7), together offer a short course in methods of thinking about and writing arguments. By “thinking” we mean serious analytic thought, including analysis of one’s own assumptions (Chapter 1); by “writing” we mean the use of effective, PREFACE v respectable techniques, not gimmicks (such as the notorious note a politician scribbled in the margin of the text of his speech: “Argument weak; shout here”). For a delightfully wry account of the use of gim- micks, we recommend that you consult “The Art of Controversy” in The Will to Live by the nineteenth-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer reminds readers that a Greek or Latin quotation (however irrelevant) can be impressive to the uninformed and that one can knock down almost any proposition by loftily saying, “That’s all very well in theory, but it won’t do in practice.” We offer lots of advice about how to set forth an argument, but we do not offer instruction in one-upmanship. Rather, we discuss respon- sible ways of arguing persuasively. We know, however, that before one can write a persuasive argument, one must clarify one’s own ideas—a process that includes arguing with oneself—to find out what one really thinks about a problem. Therefore, we devote Chapter 1 to critical think- ing, Chapters 2, 3, and 4 to critical reading (Chapter 4 is about reading images), and Chapters 5, 6, and 7 to critical writing. Parts One and Two together containthirty-six readings (seven are stu- dent papers) for analysis and discussion. Some of these essays originated as op-ed newspaper pieces, and we reprint some of the letters to the editor that they generated, so students can easily see several sides to a given issue and in their own responses they can, so to speak, join the conversation. (We have found, by the way, that the format of a letter helps students to frame their ideas, and therefore in later chapters we occasionally suggest writing assignments in the form of a letter to the editor. In Chapter 10 we reprint three letters written by Randy Cohen of the New York Times Magazine, and we invite students to write their own responses.) All of the essays in the book are accompanied by Topics for Critical Thinking and Writing.1 This is not surprising, given the emphasis we place on asking questions in order to come up with ideas for writing. Among the chief questions that writers should ask, we suggest, are “What is X?” and “What is the value of X?” (pp. 230–34). By asking such questions—for instance (to look only at these two types of questions), “Is the fetus a per- son?” or “Is Arthur Miller a better playwright than Tennessee Williams?”— a writer probably will find ideas coming, at least after a few moments of head scratching. The device of developing an argument by identifying issues is, of course, nothing new. Indeed, it goes back to an ancient method of argument used by classical rhetoricians, who identified a stasis(an issue) and then asked questions about it: Did Xdo such-and-such? If so, was the action bad? If bad, how bad? (Finding an issue or stasis—a position where one stands—by asking questions is discussed in Chapter 6.) In keeping with our emphasis on writing as well as reading, we raise issues not only of what can roughly be called the “content” of the essays but 1With a few exceptions, the paragraphs in the essays are, for ease of reference, numbered in increments of five (5, 10, 15, and so on). The exceptions involve essays in which para- graphs are uncommonly long: In such cases, every paragraph is numbered. vi PREFACE also of what can (equally roughly) be called the “style”—that is, the waysin which the arguments are set forth. Content and style, of course, cannot finally be kept apart. As Cardinal Newman said, “Thought and meaning are inseparable from each other....Style is thinking out into language.” In our Topics for Critical Thinking and Writing we sometimes ask the student • to evaluate the effectiveness of an essay’s opening paragraph, • to explain a shift in tone from one paragraph to the next, or • to characterize the persona of the author as revealed in the whole essay. In short, the book is not designed as an introduction to some powerful ideas (though in fact it is that, too); it is designed as an aid to writing thoughtful, effective arguments on important political, social, scientific, ethical, legal, and religious issues. The essays reprinted in this book also illustrate different styles of argu- ment that arise, at least in part, from the different disciplinary backgrounds of the various authors. Essays by journalists, lawyers, judges, social scien- tists, policy analysts, philosophers, critics, activists, and other writers— including first-year undergraduates—will be found in these pages. The authors develop and present their views in arguments that have distinctive features reflecting their special training and concerns. The differences in argumentative styles found in these essays foreshadow the differences stu- dents will encounter in the readings assigned in many of their other courses. Part Three, which offers a philosopher’s view, a logician’s view, a moralist’s view, a lawyer’s view, a psychologist’s view, a literary critic’s view, and a forensic view, also reveals differences in argumentative styles. Parts One and Two, then, are a preliminary (but we hope substan- tial) discussion of such topics as • identifying assumptions • getting ideas by means of invention strategies • finding, evaluating, and citing printed and electronic sources • interpreting visual sources • evaluating kinds of evidence, and • organizing material as well as an introduction to some ways of thinking. Part Three Part Three, Further Views on Argument, consists of Chapters 8 through 14. • Chapter 8, A Philosopher’s View: The Toulmin Model, is a summary of the philosopher Stephen Toulmin’s method for analyzing argu- ments. This summary will assist those who wish to apply Toulmin’s methods to the readings in our book. PREFACE vii • Chapter 9, A Logician’s View: Deduction, Induction, Fallacies, offers a more rigorous analysis of these topics than is usually found in composition courses and reexamines from a logician’s point of view material already treated briefly in Chapter 3. • Chapter 10, A Moralist’s View: Ways of Thinking Ethically, consists of a discussion of amoral, immoral, and moral reasoning, A Checklist for Moral Reasoning, three challenging essays, and two short responses to highly specific moral questions. • Chapter 11, A Lawyer’s View: Steps toward Civic Literacy, intro- duces students to some basic legal concepts such as the distinction between civil and criminal cases, and then gives majority and minority opinions in two cases covering current topics: burning the flag, searching students for drugs and establishing the right to an abortion. We accompany these judicial opinions with ques- tions that invite the student to participate in these exercises in democracy. • Chapter 12, A Psychologist’s View: Rogerian Argument, with an essay by psychotherapist Carl R. Rogers and an essay by a student, complements the discussion of audience, organization, and tone in Chapter 6. • Chapter 13, A Literary Critic’s View: Arguing about Literature, should help students to see the things literary critics argue about and howthey argue. Students can apply what they learn not only to the literary readings that appear in the chapter (poems by Robert Frost and Andrew Marvell and a story by Kate Chopin) but also to the readings that appear in Part Four, A Casebook on the State and the Individual. Finally, Part Three concludes with • Chapter 14, A Debater’s View: Oral Presentations and Debate, which introduces students to standard debate format and presentation. Part Four Finally, Part Four is a casebook on the state and the indi- vidual, with Chapter 15 on the question, What is the Ideal Society? The voices here include Thomas More, Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Jeferson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ursula K. Le Guin. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES The Companion Web Site The student center Web site at bedfordstmartins.com/barnetbedau offers students and instructors an extensive set of annotated links on argument and on the controversial topics in the book. Brainteasers allow students to test their understanding of logic and analysis. viii PREFACE Instructor’s Edition The Instructor’s Edition includes an appendix, Resources for Teaching, with detailed suggestions about ways to approach the essays and with many additional suggestions for writing. A CourseSmart e-book Version Our e-books let students do more and pay less. For about half the price of a print book, the e-book for Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing offers the complete text of the print book combined with convenient digital tools such as highlighting, note-taking, and search. Both online and downloadable options are available. WHAT’S NEW IN THE SEVENTH EDITION Fresh and timely new readings. One third of the 35 readings are new, as are many topics of current interest, such as Internet bullying, veganism, the voting age, parental spying, going green, and our moral obligation to endangered species. Expanded and up-to-date coverage of research including a new section on synthesis. Chapter 7, Using Sources, features new annotated images of database and Web pages that show students where to find the information they need to confidently evaluate and cite elec- tronic sources. In addition, a new section on synthesis demonstrates important strategies students can use to frame arguments in their own voices as they join the conversation with the sources they use. Idea Prompts model academic writing strategies. Spanning such topics as definition, cartoon analysis, making transitions, and visu- alizing pros and cons, this new recurring feature helps students choose among different sentence-level rhetorical strategies as they construct arguments by giving them model sentences that show these strategies in action. More coverage of oral presentations. Chapter 14, A Debater’s View: Individual Oral Presentations and Debate, has been expanded to include more guidance for students preparing oral arguments, including a brand new checklist for preparing and critiquing oral presentations. TWO OTHER VERSIONS For instructors who do not require a text with a substantial number of essays, a very brief version is also available: From Critical Thinking to Argument, Third Edition, contains Parts One and Two, plus three Further Views on Argument: A Philosopher’s View (on Toulmin argument); A