Expert: Austin Cline - 12/1/2004

Question
Sometimes a paralell is drawn by capital punishment defenders between wrongful executions and the innocent civilians killed by bombs in wars. Is this a good analogy?
Along other lines, what are the best three or four books on critical thinking, if these are any that you feel you can reccommend?
Thanks again for your invaluable help.

Jose Cabo

Answer
"Sometimes a paralell is drawn by capital punishment defenders between wrongful executions and the innocent civilians killed by bombs in wars. Is this a good analogy?"

It could be, if done with enough detail.

What makes the killing of civilians in war just?

1. The goal of the war must be just.
2. There can be no better means than war to achieve it.
3. The specific actions (bombing an area with innocent civilians, thus risking their deaths) must have a just goal that can't be achieved by safer means.

Those are just the most basic requirements. How does capital punishment fare as an analogy?

1. The goal of punishment, justice, is itself just. OK.
2. There is no better means than capital punishment. Debatable.
3. Specific sentences of death achieve goals that can't be acheived by safer means. Very debatable.

I doubt that the analogy will really work in the end.

"Along other lines, what are the best three or four books on critical thinking, if these are any that you feel you can reccommend?"

Books I have used on my site are listed here:

http://atheism.about.com/od/logicalfallacies/a/overview_2.htm

Once you have learned the basics of how to construct an argument and what certain fallacies are, the best route is simply practice. Arguing, logic, skepticism, and critical thinking aren't things you can memorize like in a list - they are more analogous to music, language, and similar endeavors. Skill is ultimately a product of practice and habit once you get the basics down.