Defintions Flashcards
Abstract:
“The agreement develops its conclusion by ABSTRACTING a general principle from specific data.”
Develop a general principle from a concrete example.
Adduce:
“Attempting to make a particular comparison seem absurd by ADDUCING evidence that suggest that the events compared share only traits that are irrelevant to the claim the comparison is intended to support”
Offer as an example or evidence
Accede:
“Some biologists have ACCEDED to general intellectual disdain for the merely particular…
constructing their science as a set of universal laws.”
Agree, Assent, Comply
Altruistic:
“Behavior that appears ALTRUISTIC can be understood as being motivated by the desire to reinforce [the belief that one is] useful and needed.”
Unselfish, Philanthropic
Ambiguous:
“interpreting an AMBIGUOUS claim in one way in one part of the argument and another way in another part of the argument.”
Having more then one possible meaning or interpretation.
Ameliorate:
“moderate wine consumption AMELIORATES factors that contribute to premature heart disease.”
Improve, Restore, to previous superior condition.
Analogous:
“showing that a relevantly ANALOGOUS argument leads to an untenable conclusion”
Similar in Certain Respects, Comparable
Analogy:
A form of inference, reasoning that if two things are alike in one respect, they are alike in certain other ways.
Anecdotal:
“The reasoning relies on evidence that is ANECDOTAL rather than scientific.”
Subjective, Relating to a personal account of an incident or event.
Anomalous:
“The spiny anteater has been seen as ANOMALOUS in that it has a very large brain relative to the animal’s size.”
Deviating from expectation, Irregular, Abnormal
Antecedent:
Happening or existing before something else
Appropriate:
“Modern literature can damage individuals who APPROPRIATE this attitude.”
Adopt, Take upas a practice or attitude
Arbritrary:
Capricious, Based on one’s own will, Not bound by rule or law.
Ascribe:
“The passage most strongly supports this ASCRIPTION of which one of the following views to scientists who use the analytical method”
(v.t.) Credit to, Attribute
Assertion:
“The author dismisses an ASSERTION as unfounded.”
Claim, Statement, Contention
Assumption:
Unproven Premise, a Premise that is Taken for a Granted, and often unstated
Attribute:
“the initial causes of serious accidents at nuclear power plants have been ATTRIBUTED to human error.”
“the response ATTRIBUTES to Ruth a view that is more vulnerable to criticism than any she actually espouses.”
(v.t.) Credit to, Ascribe
Causality:
“The editorial undermines the conclusion of the causal arrangement by showing that there is no CAUSALITY involved.”
Causation, the relationship between a cause and its effect.
Cite:
“The failure of CITED evidence to establish a statement is taken as evidence that the statement is false.”
Name, Refer to as example or support
Claim:
“SOME RESIDENTS of Midville CLAIM that Midville is generally more expensive to live in than nearby towns are.”
(n.) An assertion of (or (v.t.) To assert) the truth of something, typically one that is disputed or in doubt
Compatible:
“[The statement] is COMPATIBLE either with accepting the conclusion or with denying it.”
“The claim is COMPATIBLE with the truth or falsity of the conclusion.”
Consistent, Non-Contradictory
Concede:
“CONCEDES that the solution advocated by Robert would be effective, but insists that the reasons for this are not those given by Robert”
Acknowledge Grudgingly, Admit, Grant
Concurrent:
“No two tasks will be demonstrated CONCURRENTLY.”
Occurring at the same time, Simultaneous
Conductive:
“Laboratory conditions are not CONDUCTIVE to the development of lathyrism.”
Tending to encourage or bring about a particular result
Consistent:
“It concludes that one thing was caused by another although the evidence given is CONSISTENT with the first thing’s having caused the second.”
Doesn’t Contradict; In Agreement With; Compatible
Construe:
“the force of Dr. Schilling’s criticism depends on CONSTRUING the key notion of ‘access’ in a particular way.”
Understand the meaning of words in a particular way
Contention:
“The second paragraph illustrates the CONTENTION that common law may support the claims of Native Americans to the contents of ancestral graves.”
Opinion or Claim stated in the course of an argument
Contingent:
“The introduction of a new drug into the marketplace should be CONTINGENT upon our having a good understanding of its social impact.”
Conditional, Dependent for Occurrence on Something Else
Counterproductive:
“This strategy lacks a COUNTERPRODUCTIVE feature of a rejected alternative.”
Producing problems instead of helping to achieve an intended goal
Countervailing:
“The paragraph describes a criticism of a theory and provides COUNTERVAILING evidence to the criticism to the the criticism.”
Offset, Counteracting, Compensating
Correlation:
“The CORRELATION between stress and all cases of high blood pressure is merely coincidental.”
Mutual or Reciprocal Relationship, But DOES NOT EQUAL Causation
Criterion:
“Alicia… rejects Concetta’s CRITERION and then disputes a specific claim.”
Standard of Judgment
Deleterious:
“It fails to rule out the possibility that a true belief can have DELETERIOUS consequences.”
Detrimental, Destrutive
Elicit:
Cause or produce something as a reaction or response
Entail:
“The absence of a particular path that the eye must follow does not ENTAIL that the eye follows no path.”
Involve or result in something inevitably, Lead to
Entity:
“There can be no obligation to an ENTITY unless that ENTITY has a corresponding right.”
Individual Being, Something that Exists
Equivocate:
“The argument EQUIVOCATES with respect to the term “evidence.””
Unfairly Exploit Ambiguity
Eschew:
“Many of Rembrandt’s contemporaries ESCHEWED the patronage system and sold their works on the open market.”
Shun, Avoid
Establish:
“Statements that absolutely ESTABLISH Dobson’s conclusion are treated as if they merely give some support to that conclusion.”
Prove, Confirm
Explicate:
“The main purpose of the passage is to EXPLICATE an interpretation and introduce a qualification.”
Explain and develop an idea or theory, showing its implications
Explicit:
“It provides information that is inconsistent with an EXPLICITLY stated premise in Tom’s argument.”
Clear, Overt
Extrinsic:
“A work of art’s… EXTRINSIC properties are irrelevant to our interactions with it.”
Non-essential, External, Originating from the outside
Feasible:
“Presumes, without providing justification, that some FEASIBLE means can be found to deter large meteorite strikes”
Capable of Being Accomplished, Viable, Realistic
Few:
“FEW serious ecological problems are the result of government mismanagement.”
Most (are) not
Grant:
“The reference functions primarily to GRANT that a reader may be guided by the text to some degree.”
Concede, Acknowledge that what somebody else has said is true.
Grounds:
“The argument fails to offer any GROUNDS for the attack it makes on the character of the person.”
Basis, Reason, Justification
Hypothesis:
“The statements above, if true, would provide the strongest support for which one of the following HYPOTHESIS?”
Suggested Explanation for an Observed Event
Implicit:
“its conclusion contradicts an IMPLICIT principle on which an earlier part of the argument is based”
Implied, Tacit, Underlying
Impute:
“R frequently IMPUTES bad faith to researchers disagreeing with him”
Ascribe, Allege, Attribute, Charge
Inadvertent:
“The claim INADVERTENTLY contradicts the conclusion.”
Unintentional, Accidental
Incompatible:
“the terms of the Factory Safety Act are INCOMPATIBLE with existing legislation.”
Conflicting, Contradictory, Irreconcilable
Inconsistent:
“It provides information that is INCONSISTENT with an explicitly stated premise in Tom’s argument.”
Conflicting, Contradictory, Incompatible
Inherent:
“makes use of the INHERENTLY vague term “self-understanding”without defining that term.”
Innate, Intrinsic
In that:
“The reasoning in the argument above is flawed IN THAT the argument…”
For the reason that, Because, Since
Infer:
“INFERS from the idea that the current geography of modern cities resulted from a particular cause that it could only have resulted from that cause”
Deduce, Conclude (Inference = Deduction, Conclusion)
Intrinsic:
“uses a term that is INTRINSICALLY evaluative as though that term was purely descriptive”
Inherent, Innate (“built-in”)
Invoke:
“supporting a conclusion about a specific case by INVOKING a relevant generalization.”
Rely on in support of an argument, cite
Maintain:
“Proponents of the electric car MAINTAIN that when [its] technical problems are solved, such cars will be widely used.”
Argue, Defend (a claim) against criticism
Many:
Some (‘Many’ means “a large but indefinite number”; MANY ≠ Most)
Mechanism:
“The argument seeks to support, by describing a suitable MECHANISM , the hypothesis that a certain phenomenon can occur”
Means of doing something, Instrument
Misconstrue:
Misinterpret, Misunderstand
Mitigate:
“Some criminals with admirable motives deserve mitigated punishments.”
Offset, Lessen
Most:
A Majority (more than 50%) (Up to and including All)
Neither X nor Y:
“Neither Jessup nor Island has a theater.”
Not X and Y
Net:
“Moral socialization has had a net effect of increasing the total amount of suffering”
Overall when positive and negative features are accounted-for
Obtain:
“The following must obtain:” = “The following must occur:”
“mistaking a condition required if a certain result is to obtain for a condition that by itself is sufficient to guarantee that result”
“describing survey results that were obtained in the pastas if that are bound to obtain in the future as well”
(v.i.) Occure, Happen
Pertinent:
“The issue is pertinent since heart disease kills more North Americans every year than any other single case.”
Relevant, Significant, Appropriate
Phenomenon:
“takes for granted that a behavior that sometimes leads to a certain phenomenon cannot also significantly reduce the overall occurrence of that phenomenon”
Occurrence, Event, Incident
Plausibility:
“relies for its plausibility on the vagueness of the term “classical””
Likelihood, Probability, Reasonableness
Posit:
“There are theories that posit completely different casual mechanisms from those posited by Ferudian psychological theory”
Put something forward for consideration
Postulate:
“When the events a theory postulates are detected, the theory is accepted even without an explanation of how those events are brought about.”
(v.t.) Hypothesize, Suggest, Propose
Precede:
“G. will be its destination in the week preceding any voyage it makes to J.”
Occur before something else in time or position
Precept:
“Modern architects, plagued by egotism, have violated this precept.”
Rule or Principle imposing a Standard of Conduct
Preclude:
“fails to recognize that the play’s not satisfying one sufficient condition does not preclude it’s satisfying a different sufficient condition for adaptation as a movie or revival at the Decade Festival.”
Rule Out, Prevent, Foreclose
Precondition:
“It has been argued that freedom of thought is a precondition for intellectual progress.”
Requirement, Something that must be done or agreed-to before something else can happen.
Prerequisite:
Good soil is a prerequisite of good farming.”
Requirement, Condition, required for something else to happen.
Prescription:
“makes a bold prescription on the bails of evidence that establishes only a high probability for a disastrous event”
Proposal, Recommendation
Presume:
“It presumes, without providing warrant, that most activity within the world’s oceans is a result of an interplay of gravitational forces.”
Take for Granted, Assume
Presuppose:
“It presupposes only one possibility where more than one exists.”
Assume, Take for Granted
Proscribed:
Forbidden, Banned, Illegal
Purport:
“The argument presupposes what it purports to establish”
Claim, Allege, Intend
Putative:
“appeals to the authoritativeness of an opinion without evaluating the merit of a putative counterexample”
Supposed, Alleged
Qualify:
“The argument states its conclusion in a heavily qualified way.”
“The main purpose of the passage is to explicate an interpretation and introduce a qualification.”
Modify or limit in some way
Rebuttal:
“Which of the following most undermines the force of Galina’s attempted rebuttal of Lydia’s argument?”
Denial of the truth of something, especially by presenting arguments to disapprove it
Refutation:
“The theory has yet to receive wither support or refutation by data gathered from a drilling project.”
Prof of falsity, denial
Rhetorical:
“Most code-switching among Puerto Rican Americans can be explained by subtle situational and rhetorical factors.”
Relating to the skill of using language effectively and persuasively
Some:
One or More (= not None) (up to and including All)
Specious:
“Since it is controversial whether astrology has a scientific basis, any argument that attempts to prove that it has will be specious.”
Attractive but incorrect, Misleading, Deceptive
Spurious:
Inauthentic, not valid or well-founded
Subsidiary Conclusion:
“It is a subsidiary conclusion that supports the argument’s main conclusion.”
Conclusion used as a premise supporting a further conclusion
Substantiate:
“The argument attempts to persuade by appealing to authority to substantiate an assertion.”
Confirm that something is true or valid
Supposition:
“Mark’s argument and Janes’s argument are based on conflicting suppositions.”
Assumption, Belief based on some evidence but lacking proof
Susceptible:
“Not all animal species are equally susceptible to lathyrism”
Vulnerable, Capable of being affected by something
Tacit:
“The argument contains the tacit assumption that residents of neighborhoods should have the right to restrict traffic through their communities.”
Unspoken, Implicit, Implied, Understood
Temporal:
“The argument mistakes and temporal relationship for a casual relationship.”
Relating to measured time, Chronological
Unfounded:
“The author dismisses an assertion as unfounded.”
Unjustified, Unsupported, Unwarrented
Unqualified:
“Unqualified disapproval”
Total, Complete, Utter
Unrepresentative:
“generalizes from a sample that is likely to be unrepresentative”
Misleading, Unrelaible, Deceptive
Untenable:
“showing that relevantly analogous argument leads to an untenable conclusion”
Unsound, Invalid
Unwarranted:
“makes an unwarranted assumption that a characteristic that is shared by two classes of things is their only common feature”
Unsupported
Validate:
“Reader-response theory can encourage and even validate fragmented reviews of work.”
Confirm or establish the truth or soundness of something
Warrant:
“assumes without warrant that age is the main determinant of personal income and saving levels”
“It presumes, without providing warrant, that most activity within the world’s oceans is a result of an interplay of gravitational forces”
(n. ) Justification, Good Reason, Support;
(v. tr.) Justify, Give Reason For
