arguments in action

Question 1

what is a statement?

Answer 1

a statement is a sentence that has truth value. this means it can be proved true or false

Question 2

what is a deductive argument?

Answer 2

a deductive argument aims to prove its conclusion. a good deductive argument uses logical inferences. if the premise is true the conclusion must be true.

p1= all healthy cats have 4 legs
p2=sam is a healthy cat
c=sam has four legs

Question 3

what is an inductive argument ?

Answer 3

inductive arguments are based on evidence and attempt to reach a conclusion by generalising from this evidence

Question 4

what is an analogically argument?

Answer 4

they argue that because two things are similar, what is true of one thing is true of the other

jim and bob are similar because they have ginger hair
jim also has fair skin
it is therefore reasonable to assume bob has fair skin

Question 5

what is confirmation bias ?

Answer 5

the tendency to give more weight to evidence that confirms your beliefs. it means that we don’t properly consider evidence that would cause us to question or viewpoints

Question 6

what is a sound argument ?

Answer 6

both valid structure and true premises. most reliable form of argument

Question 7

what is a linked argument?

Answer 7

when all premises are necessary (and linked to each other) to establish the conclusion. without one of the premises the argument would be a lot weaker or not make sense

p1=edinburgh is in scotland
p2=scotland is in the uk
c= edinburgh is in the uk

Question 8

what is a convergent argument ?

Answer 8

when all premises independently support the conclusion. without one of the premises the argument would still stand but just make it weaker

p1= dogs are loyal and friendly pets
p2=there is evidence that shows dog owners live longer
c=dogs are great pets

Question 9

what is a serial argument?

Answer 9

when all the premises are needed to support the conclusion but one of them follows on from the other and without the previous premise the conclusion becomes more irrelevant

p1=you are allergic to most nuts
p2=probably walnuts
c=don’t eat the walnut cake

Question 10

what is a complex argument?

Answer 10

when they contain all convergent , linked and serial arguments

p1=today is either thursday or friday 
p2=it can’t be friday 
p3=we don’t get philosophy on friday 
p4=we have philosophy today
c=it must be thursday

Question 11

what is a valid argument ?

Answer 11

where there is no logical possibly situation where all the premises are true and the conclusion is false at the same time

p1=all monkeys are mammals
p2=charlie is a monkey
c=charlie is a mammal

Question 12

what is a cogent argument ?

Answer 12

a cogent argument is one that has truth of its premise makes the conclusion more likely to be true than false

p1=most birds can fly
p2=tweety is a bird
c=tweety can probably fly

Question 13

what is the fallacy of equivocation ?

lexical ambiguity

Answer 13

an error in reasoning that occurs when the meaning of an ambiguous term is switched during the process of reasoning

Question 14

what is the fallacy of amphiboly?

syntactic ambiguity

Answer 14

occurs when a sentence because of its grammar , structure or punctuation can be interpreted in multiple ways.

p1=elephants stay in your car
p2=we are elephants
c=we better not get out here

Question 15

what is slippery slope?

Answer 15

when an argument is given that suggest one thing will inevitably lead to another with insufficient evidence.

“i’m not giving you candidates any more exam tips or the next thing i know , you’ll be asking me to sit the exam for you!”

Question 16

what is an ad hominems ?

Answer 16

informal fallacies , also known as attacking the person. when someone rejects a particular claim on the bias of something about the person instead of the claim itself

Question 17

what is ad hominem circumstantial?

Answer 17

pointing towards something but confirming it
when one attacks a claim by asserting the the person making the claim is making it out of self- interest . could be an attack on the persons circumstances

Question 18

what is tu quoque

Answer 18

appeal to hypocrisy
a type of ad hominem which attacks a person by focusing on their past words or acts ions instead of truth of their current claims

Question 19

fallacious appeals to emotion

Answer 19

uses emotion in a place of reason in order to attempt to win an argument. it is a type of manipulation used in place of reasoning

Question 20

sufficiency

Answer 20

an argument where the premises are sufficient is one where the premises are enough to engender a well founded confidence in the conclusion

Question 21

denying the antecedent

Answer 21

they are identified by their structure alone and are both invalid forms of arguments.
(if P then Q)
example : “if it’s saturday night then the voice will be on tv”
P is the antecedent, whilst Q is the consequent

Question 22

affirming the consequent

Answer 22

(if P then Q) Q therefore Q.
when the second premise states that the consequent of premise 1 is true.
P1= if i get a flat tyre i will be late for work
p2= i was late
p3=i got a flat tyre