Chapter 3: Clarity Flashcards

1
Q

Logic

A

the study of the connection between the premises and conclusions

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2
Q

Suppositional Strength

A

the strength of the connection between premises and conclusions

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3
Q

Good Arguments Need:

A

i) true premises

ii) suppositional strength

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4
Q

Implicit Premises

A

claims that are left unstated and taken for granted

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5
Q

Deduction

A

The process of drawing conclusions from premises that entail them

e.g. All dogs have ears; golden retrievers are dogs, therefore they have ears.

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6
Q

Induction

A

When premises support conclusion but do not entail them

e.g. Nala is an orange cat and she purrs loudly; every orange cat I’ve met purrs loudly. All orange cats purr loudly.

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7
Q

Common Tradeoff

A

Deductive arguments: Maximal suppositional strength but harder to establish premises

Inductive arguments: weaker suppositional strength but more plausible premises

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8
Q

Ground Floor Beliefs

A

supports that do not require further support

i) directly perceptual beliefs

ii) self-evident beliefs

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9
Q

Directly Perceptual Beliefs

A

beliefs supported directly by perception

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10
Q

Self-Evident Beliefs

A

beliefs that are so obviously true, that finding support for them seems absurd

e.g. 1 + 1 = 2, green is a colour

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11
Q

Standard Form

A

a particular way to express arguments

Two Key Features:

1) premises and conclusions are labelled

2) conclusions are labelled to indicate which premises support them, and whether that support is inductive or deductive

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12
Q

Example of Standard Form

A

P1. If it’s morning, then the direction of the sun is east.

P2. It’s morning.

C1. The direction of the sun is east. (from P1 and P2 by deduction)

P3. We should be going east.

C2. We should be going in the direction of the sun. (from C1 and P3 by deduction)

(C1. is an “interim conclusion”)

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13
Q

Principle of Charity

A

find the best version of the argument the speaker could plausibly have intended

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14
Q

Ambiguity

A

when two sentences with different meanings share the same written and spoken form

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15
Q

The Forms of Ambiguity

A

1) Lexical ambiguity

2) Bare plurals

3) Syntactic ambiguity

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16
Q

Lexical Ambiguity

A

the presence of two or more possible meanings for a single word

e.g., I still miss my ex-husband, but my aim is improving

17
Q

Bare plurals

A

when noun phrases lack determiners; they can be misleading and manipulative as they make a specific statements into a general one

e.g., “Cats are mean.” instead of “Some cats are mean.”

18
Q

Syntactic Ambiguity

A

the presence of two or more possible meanings within a sentence or sequence of words

e.g., Complaints about NBA referees growing ugly

19
Q

Vaguness

A

words and concepts that have borderline cases

20
Q

Generality

A

how many entities the word applies to

21
Q

Sharp Borders Fallacy

A

assuming that real and useful distinctions cannot have borderline cases

e.g., “friend” is an unavoidably vague word/concept. But that vagueness doesn’t make friendship unreal