PHIL105 Test 1

what is a worldview

• set of beliefs about the world or part of it

• not static -- can make inferences, adding to model

• not passive – applied to irl

what is critical thinking as a reasoning process

developing a better worldview and using it

what is critical thinking as an academic discipline

new hybrid subject that studies human judgment with an eye to improving it.

what is a sentence

grammatical string of words in a language

what is a statement

what which is t of f

what is a simple statement

statement that does not contain any other statement as part or component;

• ‘sue is rich’

what is a compound statement

does contain one or more statement as components;

• negation, unary

what is a question

request for info

what is an interrogative sentence

ends in a question, rhetorical Q’s to make a statement

what is a direct answer

statement that completely answers the question but gives no more info than is needed

• who’s the president? Joe Biden

what is a corrective answer

statement that denies one or more presupposition; negation

• ‘have you stopped cheating on your wife?’ —> I’m not married

what is a presupposition to a question

• questions often but not always presuppose

• any statement that has to be true if that question is to have any true direct answer

what is a loaded question

false or debatable presupposition

• why do you Dems want to eliminate the military

what is an argument

a set of one or more statements called premises taken as potential evidence for another statement called conclusion

• your claim with reasons, evidence, or justification

deductive validity

argument is VALID if and only if

• is completely mathematically impossible for all the premises to be true while the conclusion is false

inductive strength.

argument is STRONG if and only if

• it is not impossible but it is unlikely that all the premises would be true while the conclusion is false

fallacy

argument that is neither valid nor strong

sound

valid + true premises

ambiguous

has more than one meaning

lexical ambiguity

ambiguity due to ambiguity of a word in a sentence

• police discover crack in in Australia —> “crack” = fissure; coke

grammatical ambiguity

ambiguous to bad grammar

• tuna biting off coast of San Clemente —> tuna biting off fishermen hooks off cost

erotetic concept

related to the concept of questions

directly relevant

statement is responsive answer:

• direct, corrective, an admission of ignorance, or an explanation of why the question is impertinent.

indirectly relevant

if it is evidence for a responsive answer

• can dogs really dance? ‘Fefe the poodle is a member of a ballet troupe”

conditional

if a first component is true, then a second one will be true too

amphiboly

grammatical ambiguity; ambiguous to bad grammar

begging the question

Assuming during your argument the very thing you are supposed to prove.

equivocation

• shifting from one meaning of an ambiguous word to another during an argument

• using an ambiguous sentence to mislead

accent

Changing the meaning of a sentence by stressing or omitting words

composition

• arguing that what is true of a part must be true of the whole

• using a general term distributively in the premises and collectively in the conclusion

division

• what is true of the whole must be true of the parts

• using a general term collectively in the premises and distributively in the conclusion

pooh-poohing

Dismissing, rather than arguing against a legitimate point

• ‘shut up’

Shifting the Burden of proof / appeal to ignorance

‘prove me wrong’

Irrelevant appeal to antipathy (hate)

discredit an opinion or view by associating it irrelevantly with something people view as negative/evil

Irrelevant appeal to fear

use force or scare tactics to get point across

Irrelevant appeal to sympathy (pity)

use pity instead of evidence to get point accepted

• little kids, cute animals

Irrelevant appeal to identity

use emotional belonging or desire to belong instead of evidence to get point across (most common form in ads)

Ignoring the Issue

you (unemotionally and responsively) talk about something different