Critical Thinking Lecture Notes

Flashcards covering various key concepts discussed in the lecture notes on Critical Thinking.

Critical Thinking

A process by which we develop and support our beliefs and evaluate the strength of arguments made by others in real-life situations.

Goals and Objectives of Critical Thinking Course

To identify, evaluate, and construct inductive and deductive arguments in spoken and written forms; recognize common fallacies in everyday reasoning; distinguish the kinds and purposes of definitions; distinguish the functions of language and its capacity to express and influence meaning; and recognize and assess arguments in various forums of reasoning.

Qualities of a Critical Thinker

Self-aware, recognizing your own biases and influences; Inquisitive and curious, wanting to learn more about issues before passing judgment; Objective, basing your judgments on evidence and avoiding twisting evidence to fit your opinion; Open-minded, having the ability to say, "I don't know" or "I was wrong"; Sensitive to language, avoiding slanted language, recognizing ambiguous, vague, emotionally laden language, defining key terms; Imaginative, approaching topics and problems from various angles; Fair and intellectually honest, avoiding misrepresenting the ideas of others or misinterpreting data and research to fit your own purposes.

Argument

Putting together, in a reasonable order, facts and bits of evidence so we can reach a rational, logical conclusion.

Four Basic Purposes of an Argument

Persuasion, Decision, Explanation, Prediction

Argument (Specific Meaning in Critical Thinking)

A group of statements, one or more of which (the premises) are claimed to provide support for, or reasons to believe, one of the others (conclusion).

Statement/Proposition

A sentence that is either TRUE or FALSE

Conclusion Indicators

Indicators such as therefore, thus, consequently, we may infer, accordingly, we may conclude, it must be that, for this reason, so, entails that, hence, It follows that, implies that , as a result, then, points to, shows that.

Premise Indicators

Indicators such as since, as indicated by, because, for, in that, may be inferred from, as given that, seeing that, for the reason that, inasmuch as, owing to.

Reasoning

That special type of thinking called inference in which conclusions are drawn from premises.

Deductive Argument

An argument in which the premises are claimed to support the conclusion in such a way that it is impossible for the premises to be true and conclusion false; reasoning from the universal (general) to the particular.

Inductive Argument

An argument in which the premises are claimed to provide probable support for the conclusion; the conclusion is a matter of probability but not certainty.

General Roles of Language

To describe the world, events and ourselves; explain the connections between facts and events; express feelings or emotions; give orders and issue threats; perform tasks in special settings.

Perceptual Selectivity (PS)

A built-in screen that lets key words or pieces of information slip through while others are excluded, even ignored.

Psycholinguistics

The study of words and how they influence thinking.

Vagueness

Refers to a situation when the meaning of a word or phrase has no borderline cases such that it cannot be determined to which meaning it implies

Ambiguity

Refers to a situation where a word or a phrase has more than one possible clear meaning, but it is used in a context in which it is not clear which meaning is intended.

Definition

A group of words that assigns a meaning to a word or group of words or a statement of the meaning of a word or phrase.

Definiendum

The word or group of words which is supposed to be defined.

Definiens

The words that do the job of defining.

Classical Purposes of Definition

To increase vocabulary, to eliminate ambiguity, to reduce vagueness, to explain theoretically and to influence attitudes.

Denotation (Grammatical)

Whatever thing or object the word directly refers to -the equivalent to its lexical definition-the meaning of the term in common usage.

Connotation (Grammatical)

Any subtle nuances that might be intended by its use.

Denotation/Extension (Logical)

The list of a class of objects a word refers to directly

Connotation/Intension (Logical)

The list of attributes shared by all members of the class entailed by the word

Extensional (Denotative) Definition

Assigns a meaning to a term by indicating the members of the class that the definiendum denotes

Definition by Genus and Difference

Assigns a meaning to a term by identifying a genus term (main group) and one or more differences (species) that, when combined, convey the meaning of the term being defined.

Connotative (Intensional) Definition

tries to identify the intension (what is literally intended) of a term by providing a synonymous linguistic expression the term or an operational procedure for determining the applicability of the term.

Synonymous Definition

The definition in which the definiens is a single word that connotes the same attributes as the definiendum.

Operational Definition

Assigns a meaning to a word by specifying certain experimental procedures that determine whether the word applies to a certain thing.

Persuasive Definition

One intended by its user to influence the audience's (readers or hearers) attitude through emotive language

Lexical Definition

Reports the way a term is already used within a language community to inform learners about the accepted meaning of the term

Stipulative Definitions

Freely assign meaning to a completely new term/word for the first time, creating a usage that has never existed before.

Précising Definitions

Goes beyond what is merely lexical to clarify when we encounter vague terms.

Theoretical Definition

Provides a theoretical picture or characterization of the entity/entities denoted by the definiendum.

Obscure Language

It is to explain the unknown by the still more unknown.

Fallacy

An error in logical reasoning.

Formal Fallacies

Reasoning that deviates from the established correct forms/structures of reasoning/an argument.

Informal Fallacies

Emanates from inconsistent meanings within an argument; detected only through analysis of content of argument.

Fallacies of Relevance

Arise when there is no real connection between the premises and the conclusion of an argument.

Argument from Ignorance (Argumentum ad Ignorantiam)

Occurs whenever a conclusion or a view is claimed to be true or correct simply because its contrary has not been proved.

Appeal to People (Argumentum ad Populum)

Uses the desire to be loved, admired, valued, recognized, and accepted by others to get the reader or listener to accept a conclusion; may take the form of arousing a mob's mentality or an appeal to vanity.

Appeal to Force (Argumentum ad Baculum)

Occurs whenever an arguer presents a conclusion to another person and tells that person either implicitly or explicitly that some harm will come to him or her if he or she does not accept the conclusion.

Fallacy of Appeal to Pity (Argumentum ad Misericordiam)

Committed when one evokes pity or emotion from listeners, reader or audience by appealing to his/her pitiable or miserable condition in order for the listener, reader or audience to accept his/her claim, conclusion or view.

Appeal to Unqualified Authority (Argumentum ad Verecundiam)

Committed when appeal is made to an illegitimate or inappropriate authority in order to have a conclusion or viewpoint accepted; commonly occurs when the cited authority or witness lacks credibility.

Argument against the Person (Argumentum ad Hominem)

Occurs when instead of one addressing an argument presented, he or she addresses himself or herself to the one who presents the argument; involves attacking the character or person of the arguer.

Fallacy of Accident

Committed when a general rule is applied to a specific case which it was not intended to cover.

Straw Man

Committed when an arguer distorts an opponent’s argument for the purpose of more easily attacking it, demolishes the distorted argument, and then concludes that the opponent’s real argument has been demolished.

Ignoratio Elenchi (Missing the Point)

Occurs when the premises of an argument appear to lead to a particular conclusion, but then a completely different conclusion is drawn.

Fallacies of Presumption

The premises presume the very conclusions they are supposed to prove or justify; the arguments presume or conceal some premises.

Fallacy of Arguing in a Circle (Begging the Question)

Whenever the arguer creates the illusion that inadequate premises provide adequate support for the conclusion by leaving out a key premise, by restating the conclusion as a premise or by reasoning in a circle.

Complex Question

Committed when two (or more) questions are asked in the guise of a single question and a single answer is then given to both of them.

Fallacies of Ambiguity

Uses either ambiguous terms or phrases (expressions) which then render them defective and hence fallacious.

Equivocation

Occurs when the conclusion of an argument depends on the fact that a word or phrase is used, either explicitly or implicitly, in two different senses in the argument.

Amphiboly

Occurs when the arguer misinterprets an ambiguous statement and then draws a conclusion based on this faulty interpretation.

Sound Argument

It is not defective either factually or logically

Unsound Argument

Is either invalid or has at least a false premise

Strong Inductive Argument

It is such that, if its premises are assumed/granted to be true, then its conclusion is most likely to be true

Weak Inductive Argument

It is such that, if its premises are assumed the true, then its conclusion has little or no probability of being true.

Cogent Argument

It is an Inductive argument that is both strong and has all actually true premises.

Uncogent Argument

It is an Inductive argument that is either weak or has some actually false premises.

Categorical Proposition

A proposition that relates to classes or categories; asserts that either ALL or PART of the class denoted by the subject term is excluded or included from the class denoted by the predicate term.

Quantifiers of Categorical Propositions

The words 'all', 'no' and 'some'.

Copula of Categorical Propositions

The words 'are' and 'are not'.

Categorical Syllogism

A syllogism that is composed of categorical propositions is composed of categorical propositions; it must have exactly three categorical propositions, contain three terms, and each of the terms must appear twice in the argument.

Inductive Reasoning

From two or three or seven examples, you figure that the next one will be the same.