Check out the shop and argument in situ below!

The Monty Python Clinic sketch is truly hysterical – so give it a watch!

So I’ve collated a whole selection of clips on the debate of whether cats are better than dogs.

If you’re interested in this debate, then you’ll LOVE our fun “pocket argument guide” on the subject – title “Cat or Dog?”. Check it out here (click!) – it’s super cool!

Or else you can check out the Cat or Dog debate below . . .

Cats or Dogs from Argumental!

Cats or dogs debate clip

Cats or dogs debate

Are cats better than dogs?

And remember, if you’re interested in this debate, then you’ll LOVE our fun “pocket argument guide” on the subject – title “Cat or Dog?”. Check it out here (click!) – it’s super cool!

Many commentators are now questionning the Cameron’s wisdom in goading Gordon into having a live debate, and think that the Conservatives have more to lose than Brown has to win.

And I’d agree – especially if you analyse the skills of both debaters using Aristotle’s rhetoric:

- Brown is strong on Ethos and Logos.  He carries Ethos due to the gravitas of his economic wisdom and greying hair.  His Logos comes from years of crafting arguments in the Commons debating Chamber.

- Cameron strong on Logos, and brings some Pathos, but is weak on Ethos.  His Pathos comes from a connection with a certain audience – i.e. the middle classes – however, this isn’t particularly strong.  And he’s certainly weak on Ethos.  His baby-face, and evident lack of experience doesn’t go down well at all with a large tranche of voters.

So on the face of it, when analysing the skills of each debater, I’d say Brown has the upper-hand – and is likely to win.  Unless, that is, Cameron greys up a little, and suddenly finds 20 years of life experience.

His treatise was written to counter the Sophists, like Gorgias and Isocrates, who used emotion in poetry to manipulate people’s feelings and thoughts.  Against the emotional rhetoric and poetry of the Sophists, Aristotle eschewed a rhetoric founded on philosophy and the pursuit of knowledge.

Importantly Aristotle saw rhetoric as an everyday practical tool for debate, designed to be used to persuade an audience to use probable knowledge to resolve practical issues.

The most enlightening passage of Aristotle’s rhetoric is his identification of three core facets of a good arguer.  These were:

• Pathos: appeal to the emotion of the audience

• Ethos: a sense of credibility and “more competence”

• Logos: good logical structure

As a final note, if you’re interested in Aristotle’s rhetoric and the art of argument, then you’ll be interested aMap – a fun way of arguing.  Check out the online version of aMap here.  You can also buy our series of fun aMap “pocket argument guides” here.  Have a look – I’m sure you’ll be intrigued!

What does critical thinking involve?
In 1941, Edward Glaser identified three core characteristics of critical thinking:

• A general “analytical state of mind” that means a person is disposed to questioning and analysing issues

• An understanding of how arguments are structured and how logic works

• Skills in applying these analytical / logical methods

In short, the best critical thinkers are inquisitive people who have a logical mind and analytical skills.  Most people are naturally inquisitive, however it requires a certain amount of skill and training to develop up razor sharp logic-based analytical skills.

Why is critical thinking important?
Critical thinking’s important because it allows people to analyse and evaluate thinking (arguments etc.) decreasing the chances of adopting / acting on a false belief.

Practical uses of critical thinking
From a professional perspective, critical thinking is an important skill to have for a whole range of different professions:

• Business managers: allowing them to evaluate their staff’s work

• Business sales people: enhancing the ability to persuade and convince

• Academics: ensuring their theories are rock solid

• Lawyers and Barristers: helping analyse law, and argue a good case in court

• Even a post man: allowing a post man to analyse the best and most efficient route for his post delivery round, and allowing him to argue his case to his manager effectively!

>> If you’re a teacher, check out our Critical Thinking teachers pack

>> If you’re interested in finding out “How to argue”, check out our guide to Aristotle’s Rhetoric

Shops – Huge thanks to Emma who’s spear-heading our launch of aMaps into shops.  So far we’ve hit around 5 shops in total – so we’re steadily increasing our presence.  The idea’s to be in 100+ by Christmas – which would be fab!

PR - our nice friend Sarah is helping us launch some PR activity in English press at the beginning of August.  Me and Guy spent this afternoon hunkered-down in a photography studio taking pack-shots + publicity shots of aMaps.  Big thanks to Guy for helping on this + thanks also to the nice people at the photography studio for letting us run overtime . . .

MySpace – our friends at Thoughtden are helping us to create an argument app for MySpace, so that all those hip music types that hang out there can argue about their favorite bands.  They’re also helping us redesign in the aMap widget interface to make it more intuitive to use . . .

Finally, after sorting out fixing the terrible Google Checkout system, we’ve had orders role in again for aMaps (50 today alone!)

Hosted by Danny Alexander MP, the panel is: Nick Robinson (BBC), Michael White (Guardian), Peter Kellner (YouGov), Grant Shapps MP (Shadow Minister for Housing), Paul Staines (Guido Fawkes’ blog).

Follow the debate (it’s running from 6.30pm today) and send in your questions and comments to the panel – before or during the debate – and they’ll reply (if you’re lucky!)