Helpful books and resources

This book would make a valuable addition to any teachers' library. As always there is much in the book that isn't relevant to the Higher Course but its opening chapters on arguments and argument diagrams is the best I have seen. The style of argument diagram is slightly different to those that have appeared in SQA question papers but they are in all respects equivalent and pupils should benefit from seeing different kinds of presentation. What makes this book particularly valuable is that it then applies this method of presenting arguments to both Descartes and Hume and following through the diagrams should assist pupils in understanding these mandatory texts. There is also material on utilitarianism and Kant but not on the parts that are particularly relevant to the Higher course. One negative point is the way Harrell deals with the malicious demon. In a brief paragraph Harrell suggest that Descartes introduces the demon because it 'might be that Descartes hasn't thought of all the possible kinds of belief.' It is noteworthy that Harrell doesn't attempt to relate this to the text. This isn't surprising as there isn't anything in the text to warrant this claim. Descartes tells us why he is introducing the demon and he doesn't say anything about doing so to mop up any areas of belief that haven't yet been brought into doubt.

Some of Harrell's teaching notes on argument diagrams, which clearly formed the basis of one of the chapters to this book, are available here and various other places.