quiz 2 Flashcards
dont fail
The premise to an argument is acceptable on the basis of testimony if:
You learn the premise from a trustworthy person who is in a position to know whether the premise is true
A defect in an argument that consists in something other than merely false premises:
A Fallacy
Aristotle’s belief that “A statement cannot be, at the same time and in the same regard, both true and false” is called
The law of non-contradiction
W. K. Clifford’s assertion that “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to believe anything on insufficient evidence,” is associated with what idea?
Epistemic responsibility
Why did Clifford maintain that, “There is no such thing as a private belief”?
Because beliefs determine actions
An argument that proceeds from our knowledge of the past to a claim about the future:
A prediction
An argument which proceeds from the knowledge of a selected sample to some claim about an entire group:
Generalization
An argument that proceeds from knowledge of a cause to a claim about its supposed effects:
A causal inference
Words which carry strong emotive value or associative power:
Dysphemisms (loaded terms)
The discipline or practice frequently referred to as “the art of persuasion”:
Rhetoric
The fallacy of sliding from one meaning of a term to another in the middle of an argument. In other words, using an ambiguous term in more than one sense, thus making an argument misleading:
Equivocation
A person who stands to gain something from our belief in a claim is known as:
An interested party
A person who stands to gain nothing from our belief in a claim is known as:
A disinterested party
Tools of persuasion used to influence an audience’s or individual’s perception of certain
information:
Rhetorical devices (“spin”)
When a mild or indirect word or expression is substituted for a term considered too direct, blunt,
harsh, unpleasant, embarrassing, or negative, the speaker is using:
A euphemism
The reduction of a group of people to some essentializing category, usually negative:
A stereotype
A subtle way of getting a point across without explicitly saying the thing you wish to convey:
Innuendo (paralipsis)
An attempt to make something seem less important than it is:
Downplaying
The attempt to delegitimize or downplay an individual or argument through mockery:
Ridicule
The exaggeration of something for dramatic or rhetorical effect:
Hyperbole
When a new or old term is designated to mean something distinct within a specific context, it is
said to have:
A stipulative definition
When the emotions of anger, hatred, or rage are substituted for evidence in an argument, the
argument is said to suffer from which logical fallacy?
Appeal to Anger (or “Outrage”)
When a threat is issued by an arguer towards their audience, either explicitly or implicitly, if they
fail to agree with the arguer’s conclusion, the argument is said to suffer from which logical
fallacy?
Argumentum ad Baculum (“Appeal to Force”)
When substituting pride of membership in a group for reason and deliberation in arriving at a
position on an issue, the argument is said to suffer from which logical fallacy?
The “groupthink” fallacy
When an arguer attacks the person with whom they are arguing, rather than that person’s
argument, the argument is said to suffer from which logical fallacy?
Argumentum ad Hominem (“Argument against the Person”)
A form of ad hominem fallacy that occurs when it is assumed that an argument is wrong if the
source making the claim has itself spoken or acted in a way inconsistent with it. The fallacy
focuses on the perceived hypocrisy of the opponent rather than the merits of their argument:
Tu quoque (“You also”)
The fallacy of arguing that a claim must be true merely because a substantial number of people
believe it:
Argumentum ad Populum (“Appeal to Popularity”)
The fallacy of distorting, weakening, or oversimplifying someone’s position so that it can be
more easily attacked or refuted:
The Strawman Fallacy
The fallacy of Arguing that a claim is true just because it has not been shown to be false:
Argumentum ad Ignorantiam (“Appeal to Ignorance”)
The fallacy of deliberately raising an irrelevant issue during an argument as a diversion or
distraction from the main topic:
The Red Herring Fallacy
The error of thinking that previous events can affect the probabilities in the random event under
consideration:
The Gambler’s Fallacy
The fallacy of drawing a conclusion about a target group based upon an inadequate sample size:
Hasty Generalization
The fallacy that the soundness of an argument stands or falls on the identity of the arguer:
Appeal to Identity
The fallacy of pre-providing information which will create a bias against the speaker before they
have a chance to offer their argument:
Poisoning the Well
The fallacy of arguing that a claim must be true just because it is part of a tradition:
Argumentum ad Antiquitatem (“Appeal to Common Practice”)
The fallacy of citing a source whose credibility is in question:
Argumentum ad Verecundiam (“Appeal to Unqualified Authority”)
The fallacy of claiming that a moderate or sensible action will inevitably lead to an extreme
action, therefore the moderate action should not be taken:
The Fallacy of the Slippery Slope
The fallacy of presenting an argument which relies upon a questionable or insufficiently similar
comparison between two things or situations:
The Fallacy of Weak Analogy
A fallacy involving circular reasoning wherein the conclusion to the argument is assumed or
stated in one or more of the premises:
Petitio Principii (“Begging the Question”)
The fallacy of presenting two scenarios—one desirable and one undesirable—as if they are the
only alternatives available:
False Dichotomy (or “False Dilemma”)
The whole collection of individuals under a study:
Target Group (Target Population)
The observed members of a target group in an observational study:
A Sample (Sample Member)
A sample that is selected randomly from a target group in such a way as to ensure that the sample
is representative:
Random Sample
A sample that resembles the target group in all relevant ways:
Representative Sample
A condition for the occurrence of an event without which the event cannot occur:
Necessary Condition
A condition for the occurrence of an event that guarantees that the event occurs:
Sufficient Condition
The fallacy that states that, “Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by
event X”:
Post hoc ergo propter hoc (or “Post Hoc Fallacy”)
The fallacy wherein someone applies standards, principles, and/or rules to others, while making
oneself or certain circumstances exempt from the same critical criteria, without providing
adequate justification. This is sometimes described as applying a “double standard” or “moving
the goalpost”:
Special Pleading
The tendency for individuals to seek out or favor information that supports their established
beliefs or opinions, while correspondingly disregarding or avoiding information that does not
support their belief-structure:
Confirmation bias
The fallacy that states that if I cannot imagine how this could be true, it must therefore be false:
Argument from Incredulity (or “Appeals to Common Sense”)
When someone maintains a hasty generalization by simply excluding a counterexample from that
generalization:
The No True Scotsman Fallacy
The fallacy of dismissing an argument or complaint due to the existence of more important
problems in the world, regardless of whether those problems bear relevance to the initial
argument. For example, X is not as bad as Y, therefore X is not a problem:
The Fallacy of Relative Privation
A form of argument which attempts either to disprove a statement by showing it inevitably leads
to a ridiculous, absurd, or impractical conclusion, or to prove one by showing that if it were not
true, the result would be absurd or impossible:
Reductio ad Absurdum (“Reduction to Absurdity”)
Any ideologically driven messaging can technically be described as being:
Propaganda
In their book, Manufacturing Consent, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky maintain that in a
democracy, physical force is typically removed as a means of coercion. Therefore, control in
society must rely upon what?
Propaganda
Within a sentence, the properties of being “right,” “wrong,” or “indifferent” are said to reflect the
statement’s:
Truth-function
According to Harry Frankfurt, what is it that “bullshit” essentially misrepresents?
The intentions of the speaker
A diversionary tactic whereby someone shifts criticism from themselves or their allies onto others
by bringing up the shortcomings of the interlocutor or their allies, by saying “What about…”
followed by some unrelated event, action, or position:
Whataboutism (Whataboutery)
A form of persistent manipulation that causes the victim to doubt her or himself, and ultimately
lose their own sense of perception, identity, and self-worth:
Gaslighting
What should happen to a margin of error as a sample-size increases?
It should decrease
This type of causal explanation describes the general conditions under which a specific event
occurred.
A physical causal explanation
This type of causal explanation describes classes of human action as it relates to their
psychological, sociological, economic, or historical conditions:
Behavioral causal explanations
A causal explanation offered for further investigation or testing. This is a form of inference to the
best explanation:
A hypothesis
Harry Frankfurt believes that naïve cynicism is dangerous because it disincentivizes us from
seeking to overcome our cognitive biases, thereby replacing verifiability
with as the measure of truth.
Sincerity
What are the two grounds of suspicion in cases where credibility is at issue?
The source of the claim and the claim itself
The methodologies and theories of interpretation, especially those related in understanding
literary works, are collectively referred to as the science or discipline of:
Hermeneutics
Generally associated with the work of Jacques Derrida, this is the method of critical analysis of
language that emphasizes its internal workings and conceptual systems, the relational quality of
meaning, and the assumptions implicit in forms of expression:
Deconstruction
If something happens that has not happened before in similar situations, this is the process of
evaluating the differences which might account for this particular outcome:
The Method of Difference
The method of determining correlations or causes by evaluating the events or outcomes of similar
circumstances:
The Method of Agreement
An interface between a cause and an effect—an apparatus—that has the property of making the
effect happen, given the cause. This separates mere correlation from causation:
A Causal Mechanism
