UCI Critical Reasoning Midterm

What is an Argument?

An argument is a set of determinately true or false sentences with three elements:

1. One or more premises, which provide evidence or support.

2. One conclusion, which follows from or is supported by the premises.

3. A claim about the connection between the premises and the conclusion.

What does it mean for a sentence to be Vague?

A sentence is vague if it has absolute borderline cases.

What is a Deductive Argument?

A deductive argument is an argument in which the premise(s) are claimed to lend absolute support to the conclusion.

What is an Inductive Argument?

An inductive argument is an argument in which the premise(s) are not claimed to lend absolute support to the conclusion, but rather make the conclusion probable or likely.

When is an argument Deductively Valid?

An argument is deductively valid if it has no counterexamples.

What does it mean for an argument to have High Inductive Probability?

It has high inductive probability if the truth of the conclusion is very likely given the truth of the premises.

What is a Counterexample to an argument?

A counterexample is a possible situation (or possible world) in which all premises are true and the conclusion is false.

What does it mean for an argument to be Sound?

An argument is sound if its premises are true and it is deductively valid.

What is Monotonic Reasoning?

A kind of reasoning is monotonic if adding new premises will not make an argument that succeeds in providing the claimed support for its conclusion fail to do so.

What is Non-Monotonic Reasoning?

A kind of reasoning is non-monotonic if adding new premises could make an argument that succeeds in providing the claimed support for its conclusion fail to do so.

What is a Fallacy?

A fallacy is a faulty argument or a faulty kind of argument.

What is a Fallacy of Relevance?

A person commits a fallacy of relevance if she supports her conclusion with premises that are not relevant to the truth of the conclusion.

What is a Semantic Fallacy?

A person commits a semantic fallacy if her argument relies on words or phrases with ambiguous or vague meanings.

What is a Deductive Fallacy?

A person commits a deductive fallacy if she claims that the truth of her premises would provide absolute support for the conclusion when in fact it would not.

What is an Inductive Fallacy?

A person commits an inductive fallacy if she claims that the truth of her premises would provide a certain degree of support for the conclusion when in fact they would provide only a significantly weaker degree of support.