Section 1 Flashcards
What is critical thinking
the ability to think carefully about thinking and reasoning—to criticize your own reasoning.
What are heuristics
mental shortcuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently.
What is being “honest” in critical thinking mean
about what we know and how we know it, what evidence we have and what questions are not yet settled
What is being “humble” in critical thinking mean
recognizing the vast number of things we don’t yet know or understand and in recognizing how very difficult it is to truly know anything at all and so recognizing that the standards are high and we, most of the time, don’t meet them
What is being “charitable” in critical thinking mean
having the disposition to attribute the best intentions and most sophisticated positions and arguments that we can imagine to our opponents in arguments.
What are propositions
statements that can be true or false
What is a sentence that can be either true or false
a proposition
What are non-propositions
are not statements about matters of fact. They do not make a claim that can be true or false.
What are attributes of non-propositions (different types)
exhort, command, plead/request, question, and perform
Is this a proposition or non-proposition and what type? Would you please stop that? Please read me a bedtime story!
plead/request. non-proposition
Is this a proposition or non-proposition and what type? Go to the store later to buy me some cheese. Don’t do that.
command. non-proposition
Is this a proposition or non-proposition and what type? Let’s go get dinner! Let’s go hiking on Tuesday!
exhort. non-proposition
Is this a proposition or non-proposition and what type?
What is the capital of Florida? How much do the pineapples cost?
question. non-proposition
Is this a proposition or non-proposition and what type? I hereby adjourn this meeting. I pronounce you husband and wife!
perform. non-proposition
What do simple propositions consist of?
has no internal logical structure, meaning whether they are true or false does not depend on whether a part of them is true or false. They are simply true or false on their own.
What do complex propositions consist of?
has internal logical structure, meaning they are composed of simple propositions. Whether complex propositions are true or false depends on whether their parts are true or false and how those parts are connected.
What determines if a simple proposition is true or not
based on how the world is
What determines if a complex proposition is true or not
based on whether or not the simple propositions that make them up are true or false and the logical relationships between those simple propositions.
What is a premise
a proposition lending support to the conclusion. Premises are supposed to be statements that, if you accept they are true, give you reason to believe that the conclusion is also true.
What are the 2 ways an argument can go wrong
bad inferential structure and false premise
What is a bad inferential strucutre
the premises do not, in fact, demonstrate or maybe even support the conclusion. In other words, we can accept the premises as true without being logically compelled to accept the conclusion.
What is a false premise
there is something wrong with their particular content.
What are all arguments composed of
premises and conclusions, which are both types of statements.
break this argument down into standard argument form:
“The new tax proposal is a good idea because it will help our school system, and anything that can help our school system is a good idea.”
- Anything that can help our school system is a good idea.
- The new tax proposal will help our school system.
- Therefore, the new tax proposal is a good idea.
What is standard argument form
a way of capturing the structure of an argument by numbering the premises and conclusion
What are conclusion indicators
have the general sense of “I have told you some things or I am about to tell you some things, now here is what I want you to believe.” They feel conclusive.
what are some common conclusion indicators
Therefore
So
It follows that
Hence
Thus
Entails that
We may conclude that
Implies that
Wherefore
As a result
what are premise indicators
have the general sense of “from this fact I am going to infer something else.”
what are some common premise indicators
Because
For
Given that
In that
As
Since
As indicated by
What makes something an argument
where you are meant to infer the truth of the conclusion based on the given premises
What makes a non-argument
An explanation is not an argument. Neither is a story, a series of disconnected statements, nor any set of statements that does not contain an inferential connection.
Why is this sentence an non-argument:
Avery was at the party because you invited Avery.
the invitation just explains why Avery was at the party; it is not meant to support an inference that Avery was at the party.
When is an inference inductive
if the support the premises intend to provide for the conclusion is less than certain—if the premises do not guarantee the conclusion.
When is an inference deductive
if the premises intend to provide conclusive support for the conclusion—if they intend to guarantee the conclusion or make the conclusion certain.
What do deductive arguments consist of
include mathematical arguments like proofs, logical arguments, arguments from definition, and so forth. If the premises are true and the argumentative structure is good, then the conclusion must be true.
What do inductive arguments consist of
include arguments from analogy, arguments from qualified authority, causal inferences, scientific hypothetical reasoning, extrapolations from samples, and so on. Even if the argumentative structure is great, the truth of the premises only makes the conclusion probably true at best.
What is “truth”
A proposition makes a statement about the world and the world either is or is not the way the proposition describes it to be. If the world is as the proposition claims it is, then the proposition is true.
what is an invalid argument structure
one where the truth of the premises is meant to guarantee the truth of the conclusion, but fails to do so.
what is a valid argument structure
an argument structure where the truth of the premises would guarantee the truth of the conclusion: if the premises are true (please note the word “if”), the conclusion follows necessarily
What is a sound argument
a valid argument that has true premises
what is an unsound argument
an argument that either is invalid or has at least one false premise.
What is a strong inductive argument
when the premises, if true, would demonstrate that the conclusion is likely to be true (“likely” here means that the probability is greater than 50% but less than 100%).
What is a weak inductive argument
when it fails to demonstrate that the conclusion is likely to be true, even assuming the truth of the premises.
What do you call a “sound” or “unsound” inductive argument
cogent or uncogent
What is the socratic method
learning through a dialectic exchange of ideas, rather than a passive transmission of information
What is a fallacy
a type of argument that is an example of bad reasoning. Every fallacy is a category of real-world arguments.
What does “formal” mean
refers to the structure of things. A highly formal dinner is a highly structured dinner. Diners must start eating with the salad fork and work their way in toward the main course utensils before finally using the special utensils set out for dessert at the top of the place setting. Wine must be drunk from wine glasses, port from port glasses, and water from a water glass. And so on. The point is, formality is associated with structure.
What is a formal fallacy
it means you have made an argument with a bad structure
What is an informal fallacy
means the structure of your argument is not what is at issue. Instead, someone takes exception to the content of your argument.
What is “affirming the consequent”
a formal fallacy when someone assumes that a particular condition is true solely because its consequence is true. It follows the basic logical form:
If A, then B. B is true. Therefore, A is true.
What is an antecedent
the first part of the proposition, which represents the condition or premise upon which the consequence depends
What is a consequent
the second part of the proposition and represents the consequence or outcome that follows if the antecedent is true.
what is “denying the antecedent”
a formal fallacy that occurs when someone incorrectly assumes that if the antecedent of a conditional statement is false, then the consequent must also be false.
If A, then B. Not A (denial of the antecedent). Therefore, not B (conclusion that the consequent is false).
What is the red herring fallacy
when someone changes the subject to something irrelevant to the original topic
What is the fallacy fallacy
when someone uses the fact that a fallacy was committed to justify rejecting the conclusion of the fallacious argument.
What is “begging the question”
when one (either explicitly or implicitly) assumes the truth of the conclusion in one or more of the premises.
