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PP201
Reasoning and Argumentation
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Explanations | to offer the reasons for it or the causes of it eg. I broke my arm because I fell off my bicycle |
| Statements | to claim or assert something is to hold it true eg. The train is late |
| Arguments | gives you reasons why you ought to believe something is true(author trying to persuade you) |
| Evidence | any facts that confirm |
| Ways to come to beliefs irrationally | 1. Conformity 2. False Impressions 3. Consistency 4. Ignore Evidence 5. Make Wrong connections |
| Worldview | a set of fundamental ideas that help us make sense of a wide range of important issues in life. Defines for us what exists, what should be, and what we can know. |
| Prejudices | unjustified assumptions (whatever a person hold true, is true) -truth is relative to the believer |
| Social Relativism | idea that what is true is determined by the beliefs commonly held within some society (a statement isn’t true because someone believes in it, no matter how many people) |
| Subjective Relativism | the view that truth depends solely on what someone believes, a notion that may make critical thinking look superfluous(has a logical problem, it's self-defeating. Its truth implies its falsity. There are no good reasons to accept this form of relativism) |
| Skepticism | none of our beliefs are justifiably true, we cannot know if something is true or not, everything can always be doubted |
| Sound Argument | argument with true premises (strong argument with true premises is cogent) |
| Deductive Argument | intended to provide logically conclusive support for a conclusion (is valid if the conclusion does follow necessarily from the premises) eg. All Men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal. |
| Deductive Inference | conclusion always follows the stated premises. If the premises are true, then the conclusion is valid. |
| Inductive Inference | We cannot be sure that our conclusion is a logical result of the premises, but we may be able to assign a likelihood to each conclusion. |
| Inductive Argument | intended to provide probably support for a conclusion (strong or weak) eg. Every Emerald that has ever been observed is green. Therefore, all emeralds are green. |
| Inferences | made when a person goes beyond available evidence to form a conclusion |
| Strict Inference | we accept the two premises as true we are rationally obligated to accept the conclusion as true |
| Antecedent | first part of a conditional statement (If P, then Q), the component that begins with the word if |
| Modus Ponens (Affirming the Antecedent) | If P, then Q. P. Therefore, Q. valid: if premises true then conclusion must be true invalid: conclusion does not have to follow when all premises are true |
| Modus Tollens (Denying the Consequent) | If P, then Q. Not Q. Therefore, P. |
| Types of Evidence | Empirical Evidence (from observations) 1. Personal Experiences (what we have observed in everyday) 2. Controlled Observation (scientific tests) Appeal to Authority (seek affirmation or denial from authority) |
| Authority is legitimate when... | 1. Authority must be identified 2. Authority must be respectable 3. Subject must be in authority's field 4. Should be consensus among the experts |
| Expert | someone who is more knowledgeable in a particular subject area or field then most others |
| Experts measured by... | 1. Amount of education and training 2. Experience in making reliable judgments 3. Reputation among peers 4. Professional accomplishment |
| Noam Chomsky | corporate media, as profit-driven institutions, tend to serve and further the agendas of the interests of dominant, elite groups in the society |
| Propaganda Model | overriding agenda of those who own our society is to control what we think about it terms of political and economic issues. Therefore, the ruling elite feed to us a worldview through the news media that fits with their interests |
| Advertising | aim to increase the sales of some product or service (contradictory to the truth) |
| Branding | producer does not sell the product directly but rather either sells the consumer a lifestyle which fits with their product or presents the company in a favourable light (Benetton Group) |
| Bullshit | (Frankfurt) bullshitter has no interest in the trust (liar at least acknowledges the truth just doesn’t admit it) |
| Fallacy | mistaken forms of reasoning (types of bad arguments) |
| Genetic Fallacy | arguing that a claim is true or false solely because of its origin (source of idea is irrelevant to its truth) eg. Fact that Einstein was German is irrelevant to the strength of his theory of relativity |
| Ad Hominem | (attack person rather than argument) Abusive Ad Hominem: attacking the personality of the person Circumstantial Ad Hominem: person only holds the position in question because of certain circumstances |
| Tu Quoque (you as well) | committed by those who point to the irrelevant fact that the person of an argument they oppose does not herself act on its conclusion |
| Division | arguing what is true of the whole must be true of the parts eg. This machine is heavy. Therefore, all the parts of this machine are heavy. |
| Composition | what is true of the parts must be true of the whole eg. The atoms that make up the human body are invisible. Therefore, the human body is invisible. |
| Equivocation | a single term that appears in an argument has more than one meaning |
| Appeal to Popularity | a claim must be true merely because a substantial number of people believe it eg. The vast majority of Canadians believe that the monarchy is a good thing |
| Appeal to Tradition | must be true because it’s part of a tradition (always been believed) eg. Acupuncture has been used for a thousand years in China. It must work. |
| Appeal to Ignorance | lack of evidence proves something (must be true because haven’t shown false) eg. It’s clear that God exists because science hasn’t proved that he doesn’t exist |
| Appeal to Emotion | trying to persuade someone solely by arousing their feelings rather than presenting relevant reasons |
| Red Herring | deliberate raising of an irrelevant issue during an argument (distract an opponent) |
| Straw Man | distorting, weakening or oversimplifying of someone’s position so it can be more easily attacked or refuted (reinterpret claim X so that it becomes the weak or absurd claim Y. Attack claim Y. Conclude that X is unfounded) |
| Begging the Question | (arguing in a circle): use conclusion as premise in different words |
| False Dilemma | asserting only two alternatives to consider when there are more than two or presume alternatives given are mutually exclusive (either-or / if-then) |
| Sweeping Generalization | general rule is applied to a specific case and it is not applicable (eg. Golden rule) |
| Hasty Generalization | draw a conclusion about a whole group based on an inadequate sample of the group eg. The only male professor I’ve had this year was a chauvinist pig. All the male professors at this school must be chauvinist pigs. |
| Slippery Slope | presumes that some action which is harmless will inevitably lead to harm in the end (doing action A will lead to action B, which will lead to action C, which will result in horrendous action D. Therefore you shouldn’t do action A) |
| False Analogy | because two or more things are similar in several respects they must be similar in some further respect (comparison of two or more things) |
| False Cause | in course of argument one thing is presumed to be the cause of another when in fact it is not (after this, therefore because of this) |
| Complex Question | (leading question): in answering a question a false assumption it makes it overlooked eg. Why is a ton of lead heavier than a ton of feathers? |
| Special Pleading | a person applies standards, principles, rules, etc. to others while taking herself to be exempt, without providing adequate justification for the exemption |
| Logical Connectives | symbol or word used to connect two or more sentences in a valid way 1. Conjunction (and) P+Q 2. Disjunction (or) PvQ 3. Negation (not) ~P 4. Conditional (if then) P->Q |
| Disjunctive Syllogism | A valid argument form: Either p or q. Not p. Therefore, q. In the second premise, either disjunct can be denied. eg. It is either red or blue. It is not blue. Therefore, it is red. |
| Universal Generalization | claiming that some relevant property is shared universally by members of a group or class of objects of people (eg. All Chileans speak Spanish) |
| Argument from Experience | involves supporting one or more premises of an argument by appeal to experiences (observations) (make stronger) 1. Sample size (generalized a property of sample population) 2. Representative sample (must resemble target group in all ways that matter) |
| Statistical Generalizations | universal in scope but rather are claims about a specific proportion of a population critical to determine whether generalisation is accurate 1. sample size (# people polled?) 2. population (sample of what?) 3.relevant property |
| Causal Arguments | every time A is observed B follows, therefore A causes B |
| John Snow | physician investigating cholera outbreak in London, the theory was that foul air caused people to have disease therefore the cause was airborne, Snow sceptical, made observations between buildings people sick in and the location of a water pump |
| Method of Agreement (Evaluating Causal Claims) | positive correlation, if 2 or more occurrences of some phenomenon have only one relevant factor in common, that factor must be the cause eg. Spanish cucumbers |
| Method of Difference (Evaluating Casual Claims) | relevant factor that is present when the phenomenon occurs and absent when it doesn’t occur, is likely the cause |
| Categorical Statement | A statement, or claim, that makes a simple assertion about categories, or classes, of things. |
| Categorical Syllogism | an argument consisting of three categorical statements (two premises and a conclusion) that are interlinked in s structured way. The syllogism consists of a major term, minor term, and middle term. The middle term appears once in each premise. |
| Venn Diagram | diagrams consisting of overlapping circles that graphically represent the relationships between subject and predicate terms in categorical statements. |
| Post Hoc Ergo Hoc Fallacy | : “after this, therefore because of this” since that even followed this one, that event must have been caused by this one (just because B followed A, A must have caused B.) |
| Necessary Condition | statement must be satisfied for the statement to be true. In formal terms, a statement N is a necessary condition of a statement S if S implies N (S -> N) |
| Sufficient Condition | one that, if satisfied, assures the statement's truth. In formal terms, a statement S is a sufficient condition of a statement N if S implies N (S -> N). |
| Principle of Sufficient Reason | states that anything that happens does so for a reason: no state of affairs can obtain, and no statement can be true unless there is sufficient reason why it should not be otherwise. (G. W. Leibniz) |
| Inference to the Best Explanation | idea is that when we have a best explanation of some phenomenon, we are entitled to repose confidence in it simply on that account E1, E2, E3, E4, and must choose which is the best. |
| Scientific Method | (1) identifying the problem, (2) devising a hypothesis, (3) deriving a test implication, (4) performing the test, and (5) accepting or rejecting the hypothesis |
| Criteria of Theoretical Adequacy | 1. Testability (whether or not they can be tested) 2. Fecundity (fruitfulness: predict unexpected things) 3. Scope (more things theory explains, the greater its scope) 4. Simplicity (simple theory makes relatively few assumptions) 5. Conservatism |
| Scientism | a belief in the universal applicability of the systematic methods and approach of science, especially the view that empirical science constitutes the most authoritative worldview or most valuable part of human learning to the exclusion of other viewpoints |
| Natural Sciences | the sciences which aim to explain and predict natural phenomena, the things we observe in nature (eg. How planets orbit the sun) |
| Internal Consistency | theory must be consistent with itself (free of contradictions) [self-contradictory, such a theory must be false] |
| External Consistency | must be consistent with the data it’s supposed to explain [evidence contradicted assumption] |
| Paradigm Shift (Kuhn) | change from one way of thinking to another, revolution or transformation (driven by agents of change) [greatest paradigm shift: naturalist revolution] |
| Naturalism | view that every natural phenomenon can be explained wholly in terms of other natural phenomena (no need to evoke supernatural causation to explain anything found in nature) |
| Creationism | the religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god |
| Occam's Razor | principle that generally recommends from among competing hypotheses selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions (simpler explanations are, other things being equal, generally better than more complex ones) |
| Darwin's Theory of Evolution | widely held notion that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor: the birds and the bananas, the fishes and the flowers all related. Darwin's general theory presumes the development of life from non-life and stresses a purely natural |
Created by:
langille
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