Logic and Critical Thinking Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, reasoning types, indicator words, and logical fallacies from the lecture notes on Ancient Philosophy and Logic.

Aristotle

Greek philosopher known as 'the father of western logic' who was the first to develop a system for reasoning.

Logic

The science that evaluates the effectiveness of arguments.

Statement

A sentence that is either true or false, typically expressed as a declarative sentence.

Argument

A set of statements where one or more premises are offered as reasons to support a single conclusion.

Premise

Statements within an argument that act as reasons or evidence.

Conclusion

The statement within an argument that the evidence supports or implies to support.

Conclusion

Words or phrases (such as 'therefore,' 'hence,' 'thus,' 'consequently,' and 'it follows that') indicating that the statement following

Premise Indicators

Words or phrases (such as 'since,' 'because,' 'given that,' 'owing to,' and 'as indicated by')

Deductive Reasoning

A type of reasoning used in math, formal logic, computer science, and philosophy that aims to be definitive, where it should be impossible for the conclusion to be false if the premises are true.

Logical Validity

An evaluation of a deductive argument's logic, where assuming both premises are true, the conclusion necessarily follows from them.

Undistributed Middle

A logical error in deductive reasoning occurring when a false inference is made based on a characteristic that two items share.

Fallacy of the Converse

A deductive error that occurs when one concludes that if a portion of a conditional statement is true, the other part must also be true.

Sound Argument

A deductive argument that is both logically valid and composed of true premises.

Inductive Reasoning

Reasoning based on probability rather than definitive outcomes, commonly used for patterns, predictions, cause/effect, analogies, and generalizations.

Cogent Argument

An inductive argument that is both logically valid (strong) and likely to be true.

Ad Hominem

Meaning 'against the person,' a fallacy that attacks the character of an individual rather than the reasoning of their argument.

Bandwagon fallacy

'going along with the crowd,' a logical error concluding that something is true, correct, or good simply because it is popular.

Appeal to False Authority

A fallacy that occurs when a claim is asserted as true based on an assumed authority who is not a genuine expert in the relevant area.

Appeal to Incredulity

Rejecting an argument simply because it appears difficult to believe or contradicts personal beliefs, prior experience, or ideology.

Ad Misericordiam

Also known as Appeal to Pity, a fallacy that exploits human compassion to win an argument using irrelevant emotional information instead of evidence.

False cause

' an error where wrong cause is assigned to a conclusion because correlation was confused with causation.

Slippery Slope

A fallacy assuming that if an initial event happens, a series of small steps will inevitably lead to something catastrophic or absurd.

Hasty Generalization

A fallacy that occurs when assumptions are made about a whole based on evidence applied only to a part.

Fallacy of Sunk Costs

A fallacy occurring when someone defends continuing a chosen path because they have already invested non-recoverable time, effort, or money.

Gambler's Fallacy

A fallacy occurring when past independent random events or statistics are used as evidence to predict future outcomes.

Red Herring

A logical error consisting of diverting attention from the real issue by focusing on an issue with only surface relevance.

Straw Man

A fallacy that oversimplifies or distorts an opponent's viewpoint and then attacks that hollow argument.

Either/Or Fallacy

Also known as False Dilemma, a conclusion that oversimplifies an argument by reducing it to only two choices when other options exist.

Begging the Question

A circular reasoning fallacy where an argument restates its claim in new words to appear as evidence instead of providing actual proof.

False Equivalence

A fallacy occurring when an argument compares two objects, ideas, or situations that are not truly alike in character or scale.