Exam 2

Question 1

Ad hominem (personal attack)

Answer 1

when we reject someone argu- ment or claim by attacking the person rather than the person’ argument or claim

Question 2

Attacking the motive

Answer 2

criticizing a person’s motivation for offering a particular argument or claim, rather than examining the worth of the argument or claim itself

Question 3

Look who’s talking (Tu quoque)

Answer 3

when an arguer rejects an- other person’s argument or claim because that person fails to practice what he preaches

Question 4

Two wrongs make a right

Answer 4

when arguer attempts to justify a wrongful act by claiming that some other act is just as bad or worse

Question 5

Appeal to pity

Answer 5

arguer inappropriately attempts to evoke feelings of pity or compassion from his listeners or readers

Question 6

Bandwagon argument

Answer 6

ones desire to be popular, accepted, or valued rather than appealing logically to relevant reasons or evidence

Question 7

Straw man fallacy

Answer 7

when an arguer distorts an opponents argument or claim to make it easier to attack.

Question 8

Red herring

Answer 8

an arguer tries to sidetrack his audience by raising an irrelevant issue and then claims that the original issue has effectively been settled by the irrelevant diversion

Question 9

equivocation

Answer 9

when a key word is used in two or more senses in the same argument and the apparent success of the argument depends on the shift in meaning

Question 10

Begging the question

Answer 10

when an arguer states or assumes as a premise the very thing he or she is trying to prove as a conclusion.

Question 11

inappropriate appeal to authority

Answer 11

Arguer cites an unreliable authority or witness.

Question 12

appeal to ignorance

Answer 12

Arguer claims that some- thing is true because no one has proven it false or vice versa.

Question 13

false alternatives

Answer 13

Arguer poses a false either/ or choice.

Question 14

loaded question

Answer 14

Arguer asks a question that contains an unfair or unwarranted assumption.

Question 15

questionable cause

Answer 15

Arguer claims, without adequate evidence, that one thing is the cause of something else.

Question 16

Hasty generalization

Answer 16

Arguer draws a general conclusion from a sample that is biased or too small.

Question 17

slippery slope

Answer 17

Arguer claims, without adequate evidence, that a seemingly harmless action will lead to a very bad outcome.

Question 18

weak analogy

Answer 18

Arguer compares things that aren’t truly comparable.

Question 19

Inconsistency

Answer 19

Arguer asserts inconsistent claims.

Question 20

Vagueness

Answer 20

A word (or group of words) is vague when its meaning is fuzzy and inexact.

Question 21

Over-generality

Answer 21

if the information they provide is too broad and unspecific in a given context.

Question 22

Ambiguity

Answer 22

Refers to a doubtful sense of a word or phrase

Question 23

Verbal dispute

Answer 23

occurs when people appear to disagree on an issue but in actuality have simply not resolved the ambiguity of a key term

Question 24

Factual dispute

Answer 24

occurs when opponents disagree not over the meanings of words but over the relevant facts.

Question 25

Lexical defintion

Answer 25

to state the conventional, dictionary meaning of a word.

Question 26

Stimulative definition

Answer 26

when you tell your readers or listeners what it is you mean by the term .

Question 27

Persuasive defintion

Answer 27

A definition given to a term in an effort to persuade the reader or listener to agree with the writer’s or speaker’s point of view

Question 28

Precising definition

Answer 28

A definition in which the writer or speaker assigns a precise meaning to a vague term so that the word’s meaning is not left for interpretation

Question 29

Ostensive definition

Answer 29

Provide a concrete example of the term .

Question 30

Enumerative defintion

Answer 30

List members of the class to which the term refers.

Question 31

Definition by subclass

Answer 31

Indicate what sub- classes the word contains

Question 32

Etymological definition

Answer 32

Show the history of the term.

Question 33

synonymous defintion

Answer 33

Use a word that has the same meaning or nearly the same mean- ing as the term being defined

Question 34

Definition by genus and difference

Answer 34

Place the term in a class that helps narrow its meaning and then provide characteristics that distin- guish the term from other terms in the same class.

Question 35

Emotive language

Answer 35

when certain word choices are made to evoke an emotional response in the reader

Question 36

Euphemisms

Answer 36

mild, comforting, or evasive words that take the place of harsh, blunt, or taboo words

Question 37

Denying the antecedent

Answer 37

If A then B, Not A, Therefore not B

Question 38

Affirming the consequent

Answer 38

If a then B, B, therefore A

Question 39

Convergent arguments

Answer 39

When reasons each offer independent support

for a conclusion

Question 40

Linked arguments

Answer 40

The premises the reasons given in support of the

conclusion are linked together like a chain. If one breaks, the entire argument fails.

Question 41

Paraphrasing

Answer 41

A paraphrase is a detailed restatement of a passage using different words and phrases

Question 42

Enthymeme

Answer 42

an argument with a missing premise or conclusion

Question 43

Standard logical form

Answer 43

way of presenting the argument which makes clear which statements are premises, how many premises there are, and which statements is the conclusion

Question 44

Critical thinking standards

Answer 44

clarity
precision
accuracy
relevance
consistency
logical correctness
completeness: depth and breadth
fairness

Question 45

Egocentrism

Answer 45

self centered thinking

Question 46

sociocentrism

Answer 46

group centered thinking

Question 47

unwarranted assumption and stereotypes

Answer 47

something taken for granted without good reason, they are unreasonable like stereotypes.

Question 48

relativist thinking

Answer 48

is thinking that is based on the idea that there is no “objective” or “ absolute” truth because truth is simply a matter of
opinion

Question 49

wishful thinking

Answer 49

believing something not
because you had good evidence for it but simply because you wished it were
true

Question 50

structure of an argument

Answer 50

1-Find the main conclusion first
2-Pay close attention to premise and conclusion indicators.
3- Remember that sentences containing the word and often contain two or more
separate statement
4. Treat conditional statements (if-then statements) and disjunctive statements
(either-or statements) as single statement

Question 51

argument

Answer 51

(1) it is a group of two or more statements and (2) one of those statements
(the conclusion) is claimed or intended to be supported by the others (the
premises)

Question 52

Non argument

Answer 52

-reports
• unsupported assertions
• conditional statements
• illustrations
• explanations