Logic and Argumentation Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering deductive, inductive, and abductive reasoning, syllogisms, validity, and soundness based on lecture notes.

Premise

A statement or an idea that serves as the basis of an argument.

Argument

A collection of statements (premises) intended to support or infer a claim (conclusion), where each statement has a truth value of either true or false.

Deductive Argument

An argument intended to guarantee a true conclusion whenever the premises are true, where the conclusion necessarily or certainly follows.

Inductive Argument

An argument intended to make a true conclusion probable whenever the premises are true.

Abductive Argument

An argument in which the conclusion is a best guess or the most plausible explanation given that the premises are true.

Validity

A test of the logical structure of an argument; a deductive argument is valid if and only if, when every premise is true, the conclusion must also be true.

Soundness

A test of both the structure and truth of an argument; a deductive argument is sound if and only if it is valid and all of its premises are true.

Syllogism

Another name for a deductive argument that can be evaluated in terms of validity and soundness.

Categorical Syllogism

A deductive argument involving three statements, each of which makes a claim about the relationship between two categories or groups of things.

Hypothetical Syllogism

A deductive argument involving two conditional statements (statements that say if… then…) and a conclusion based on them.

Disjunctive Syllogism

A deductive argument dealing with either-or statements that uses one premise to eliminate one possibility, leading to a conclusion about the other.

Enthymeme

An argument in which premises are not explicitly stated but are implied, relying on background knowledge assumed by the author.

Cogent Argument

An inductive argument that is strong and has all true premises.

Unsound Deductive Argument

A deductive argument that is either invalid or contains one or more false premises.

Uncogent Inductive Argument

An inductive argument that is weak or contains at least one false premise.

Hypothetical Deductive Argument

A deductive argument featuring an if…then statement structure.

Validity vs. Soundness Principle

The logical rule stating that validity is eternal, but soundness can be circumstantial.

Conditional Statement

A statement that expresses a condition, typically formatted as an if… then… proposition.

Strong Inductive Argument

An inductive argument in which the conclusion follows from the premises with high probability.

Weak Inductive Argument

An inductive argument in which the premises do not support the conclusion with sufficient probability.