Phil1010 GSU - Terms

Critical thinking

the skill of correctly evaluating the arguments made by others and composing good arguments of one's own

Argument

an attempt to provide reasons for thinking that some belief is true, or that we should act in a certain way

Conclusion

the statement that the argument is intended to support

Premise

the statement(s) that are intended to support the conclusion

Statement

a sentence that makes a claim that can be either true or false

3 Steps to an Argument

1. Look for an attempt to convince.

2. Find the conclusion

3. Find the premise.

unstated conclusion

the author doesn't explicitly state the argument's conclusion

unstated premise

a premise that you add to an argument to make it clearer

Things that are NOT arguments

assertions, questions, instructions, descriptions, explanations

Explanans

claimed to shed light on

explanandum

accepted fact

Standard Form

1. Premise 1

2. Premise 2

Therefore,

3. Conclusion

Audience

the group that the person making the argument wishes to convince

Proper Form Test

If the premises were true, would they provide sufficient support for the conclusion?

True Premise Test

are the premises true?

deductive arguments

The truth of the premises shows that the conclusion MUST be true

inductive arguments

The truth of the premises shows that the conclusion is LIKELY to be true

Fallacies

bad arguments that are so common that they've been given a name

red herring

Diverting attention away from someone's argument, presuming that some conclusion has been established.

easy target

Misrepresenting someone's argument to make it easier to attack

appeal to fear

Claiming to do something bad to someone if they don't do or believe something

appeal to pity

Evokes pity to support their conclusion

appeal to popularity

Appealing to the fact that many people do something as an attempted form of validation

appeal to novelty/tradition

Supposing something is better because it is new or newer/ tradition or believed for a long time

ad hominem

Attacking your opponent's character or personal traits in an attempt to undermine their argument

appeal to ignorance

Claiming something to be true because it hasn't been shown to be false

3 kinds of premises

empirical, definitional, and statements by experts

empirical statements

report what people observe through their senses

testimonial empirical statements

the reports of what others have experienced

definitional statement

a report about how a word is used

statement by experts

people who have specialized knowledge about a particular field

CLEAR test (for experts)

Credible

Lacks Bias

Expert Consensus

Area of Expertise

Reliability

simple statement

a statement that doesn't contain any other statement

compound statement

a statement that contains two or more statements

4 types of compound statements

negations

disjunctions

conjunctions

conditionals

negations

statements that deny another statement

disjunction

contain two or more statements joined by "or"

inclusive disjunction

S1 or S2 (or both)

exclusive disjunction

S1 or S2 (but not both)

conjunctions

contain two or more statements joined by "and"

conditional

if one statement in the compound is true, then the other statement in the compound is true

antecedent

the "if" statement in a conditional

consequent

the "then" statement in the conditional

valid

deductive + passes the proper form test

invalid

deductive + fails the proper form test

false dischotomy

a premise of an argument with a disjunction is false because there are other alternatives besides the two presented in the premise