Chapter 3: Clarity

Question 1

Logic

Answer 1

the study of the connection between the premises and conclusions

Question 2

Suppositional Strength

Answer 2

the strength of the connection between premises and conclusions

Question 3

Good Arguments Need:

Answer 3

i) true premises

ii) suppositional strength

Question 4

Implicit Premises

Answer 4

claims that are left unstated and taken for granted

Question 5

Deduction

Answer 5

The process of drawing conclusions from premises that entail them

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

Question 6

Induction

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Common Tradeoff

Answer 7

Deductive arguments: Maximal suppositional strength but harder to establish premises

Inductive arguments: weaker suppositional strength but more plausible premises

Question 8

Ground Floor Beliefs

Answer 8

supports that do not require further support

i) directly perceptual beliefs

ii) self-evident beliefs

Question 9

Directly Perceptual Beliefs

Answer 9

beliefs supported directly by perception

Question 10

Self-Evident Beliefs

Answer 10

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

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

Question 11

Standard Form

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Example of Standard Form

Answer 12

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”)

Question 13

Principle of Charity

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Ambiguity

Answer 14

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

Question 15

The Forms of Ambiguity

Answer 15

1) Lexical ambiguity

2) Bare plurals

3) Syntactic ambiguity

Question 16

Lexical Ambiguity

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Bare plurals

Answer 17

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.”

Question 18

Syntactic Ambiguity

Answer 18

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

e.g., Complaints about NBA referees growing ugly

Question 19

Vaguness

Answer 19

words and concepts that have borderline cases

Question 20

Generality

Answer 20

how many entities the word applies to

Question 21

Sharp Borders Fallacy

Answer 21

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