PHIL 105 - Critical Thinking Exam CSUF Gary Jason

what is a world view?

a set of beliefs about the world or part of it

what is critical thinking as a reasoning process?

the development of ever more accurate world view, and using it in decision-making

what is critical thinking as an academic discipline?

a new hybrid discipline that studies the process of how people can and do develop more accurate world views

what is a sentence?

a string of words in a language

what is a statement?

a speech act that is true or false

what is a simple statement?

one that has no component statements in it

what is a compound statement?

contains one or more components

what is a question?

a speech act that seeks information

what is an interrogative sentence?

a string of words ending with a question mark

what is a direct answer?

statements that provide the information requested, no more, no less

what is a corrective answer?

a statement that denies one or more presuppositions

what is a presupposition to a question?

any statement that must be true for the question to possibly have a true direct answer

what is a loaded question?

a question with a false or debatable presupposition

what is an argument?

set of one or more statements, called premises, taken as evidence for another statement, called the conclusion

define: deductive validity

an argument is valid if and only if it is impossible for all premises to be true while the conclusion is false

define: inductive strength

an argument is strong if and only if it is unlikely but not impossible for the premises to true while the conclusion is false

define: fallacy

an argument neither valid nor strong

define: sound

a valid argument with true premises

define ambiguous

a word or phrase that has more than one meaning

what is lexical ambiguity?

a sentence that is ambiguous because it contains one or more ambiguous words in it

what is grammatical ambiguity?

grammatical ambiguity is when a sentence is ambiguous due to poor word order

define: amphiboly

a grammatically ambiguous sentence

define: erotetic concept

a concept related to the logic of questions

define: directly relevant

a responsive answer to a question

define: indirectly relevant

evidence for a responsive answer to a question

Define relevant

a statement is relevant to a question if and only if it is either directly or indirectly relevant to that question

what are the three key elements of the theory of cognitive dissonance?

we are aware of inconsistancies in ourselves and others, awareness of cognitive inconsistences causes an uncomfortable feeling of idssonance, there are 2 ways people relieve it.

what are the two strategies people employ to relieve or lessen cognitive dissonance? give some examples of each

one is to decrease the number of inconsistent cognitions (for example, dropping beliefs from your worldview); the other is to increase the number of consistent cognitions (for example, seeking confirming opinions on the internet)

identify the 5 factors or criteria for assessing the reliability of observation

how good the physical conditions; how good the sensory acuity; how normal the perceptual situation; how adequate the cultural and education backgound; and how adequate the vocabulary

identify the 7 factors or criteria for assessing the reliability of memory

how recent the event; how consistent the memory; how suggestible the person; how plausible is the memory; how continuous the memory; how much corroboration; how much prompting of the person

identify the 5 factors or criteria for evaluating eyewitness testimony

how consistent the report; how well-positioned the reporter; how credible the reporter; how plausible the report; how corroborated the report

C^3P^2 (credible, consistent, corroborated, positioned, plausible story)

what is the difference between an epistemic authority (i.e., an expert) and a deontic authority?

deontic authority is based on power; epistemic authority is based on knowledge

identify the 10 factors for evaluating expert testimony

the person cited should be: identified; qualified; personally credible; speaking in his/her field of expertise; base his/her testimony on open evidence; base his/her on theories and practices generally accepted in the field; current; quoted accurately; and the more numerous and varied the experts the better

identify the 4 criteria for judging a generalization

how large the sample; how random the sample; how well matched the sample is to the general population; how large the margin of error

what does it mean for a property to be relevant to a generalization?

it means that individuals with R are either more likely or less likely than average for the population to have the projected property

define "sample"

the group of individuals you observe

define "population"

all the individuals of a certain sort

define "projected property"

a property which you notice holds in the sample you have observed

what does it mean for a sample to be stratified (or matched to the general population)?

that the sample shares all the relevant properties in the same percentages as the population

what does it mean for a sample to be randomly selected?

that every individual in the population has exactly the same chance of being in the sample

what is a time-lapse sample?

sampling done precisely the same way at set time intervals

what is exclusion bias?

a case in which some subgroup of the population is systematically under-represented in the sample

what is self-selection bias?

a case in which people can choose whether to be excluded or included in the sample

what is push-polling?

a propaganda device in which someone pretends to conduct a poll, but instead asks questions loaded with negative ideas about the target

what does it mean to say that laws are defeasible?

that it can be rendered null and void by exceptional circumstances

what are the three rules for judging instantiation?

the closer x is to 100, more likely the conclusion; the individual or sample instantiated should be representative or typical; the larger the margin of error in the conclusion, the stronger the inference, but less informative the conclusion

what is the key factor or criterion for assessing the application of a general rule to a new case (i.e., inductive instantiation)?

that the new case be typical

what are the 4 uses of analogy?

Descriptive definitional, heuristic, argumentative

identify the 5 factors or criteria for assessing analogical arguments

how numerous the cases compared; how numerous the relevant similarities; how numerous the relevant differences; how varied the cases in other respects; how large the margin of error

what is the most important rule for assessing the strength of an analogical argument?

there should be no major, relevant differences between the subject and the analogs