1. Groundwork Flashcards
A statement
A self-contained sentence that is either true or false
Non-statement
Questions, commands, greetings, sentences which refer to other sentences
Argument
A group of statements some of which (premises), are offered to support another statement (conclusion)
Premise
A premise is a statement that provides support for a conclusion in an argument
A conclusion
A statement that is at the endpoint of an argument
A conclusion indicator
A word or a phrase used to indicate that the following statement is a conclusion
Eg. ‘Therefore’
Examples of conclusion indicators
Therefore
Thus
Hence
Consequently
Examples of premise indicators
Because
Since
Supposing that
Given that
An explanation
Is a statement or collection of statements describing why something happens
A vague sentence
A sentence or word which has a range of possible meanings blurred together
A generalisation
A statement that applies to a class of objects or events of some kind, rather to just an individual
A universal generalisation
A generalisation applies to all members of a class, without exception
An empirical generalisation
A generalisation applies to most members of a class, but can have exceptions
An ideal definition
Definitions which set strict criteria
They require necessary and sufficient conditions
A cluster definitions
Definitions which have sufficent conditions, and near necessary conditions that allow for exceptions
Institutional definitions
Definitions that are explicit sociological constructs based on the evaluation experts affirmed by relevant institutions
Psychological bias
A bias where there is a tendency to think in certain ways that can lead to systematic deviations from a standard of rationality or good judgement.
Also known as cognitive bias
A confirmation bias
A psychological bias towards only seeking supporting evidence
A worldview
A personal set of assumptions and defaults that constrains and constructs everyones critical thinking
The veil of ignorance
[Incomplete]
A disposition
An underlying tendency to have an attitude
True or False: Conclusions occur at the end of the argument
Not always
What does a conclusion indicator show?
That the author is giving reasons to think some statement is a conclusion
True or False: Advice and Instructions are Arguments
False
Lexical ambiguity
Ambigious or polysemous words
‘We saw her duck’
Did you see her duck (bird) or (verb)
Prosodic ambiguity
Where sentences change meaning when we emphasise different words
“Shes not the main problem” (she emphasis) vs “Shes not the main problem” (main emphasis”
Syntatic ambiguity
When a sentence has multiple possible grammatical structures
What type of reasoning is used for universal generalisations
Deductive
What type of reasoning is used for empirical generalisations
Non deductive
Where can we often find cluster definitions be found?
Common in science
Where can institutional definitions be found?
Found in communities of niches mostly
