L03 - Language Non-Language and Argument

Question 1

Burden of Proof

Answer 1

The duty to provide evidence.

Question 2

Enthymeme

Answer 2

An argument that is technically invalid because it has at least one premise that is not explicitly stated.

Question 3

False Presupposition

Answer 3

A proposition that must be assumed to be true for a claim or utterance to be intelligible, but which is in fact false.

Question 4

Lexical (or semantic) ambiguity

Answer 4

A word or expression is lexically or semantically ambiguous when it can be taken to have more than one meaning.

Question 5

Misquote

Answer 5

Saying that someone said something when they didn’t.

Question 6

Naturalistic Fallacy

Answer 6

The attempt to derive conclusions about what is right or wrong on the basis of facts about what is natural (which are specified in non-moral language).

Question 7

Paradox

Answer 7

An argument with an evidently false conclusion that seems valid and whose premises seem to be true.

Question 8

Principle of Charity

Answer 8

The principle according to which we ought to engage with the best version of the argument to which we are responding.

Question 9

Rhetoric

Answer 9

The study and use of effective communication, which focuses on the use of words to achieve a calculated emotional effect and, more generally, to persuade in non-rational ways.

Question 10

Syntactic Ambiguity

Answer 10

A sentence is syntactically ambiguous when it can be taken to have more than one structure.

Question 11

Weasel Word

Answer 11

A vague word that can be inserted into a claim to make it easier to escape from if it is challenged; words such as “quite”, “some” and “perhaps.”