Section 1

Question 1

What is critical thinking

Answer 1

the ability to think carefully about thinking and reasoning—to criticize your own reasoning.

Question 2

What are heuristics

Answer 2

mental shortcuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently.

Question 3

What is being “honest” in critical thinking mean

Answer 3

about what we know and how we know it, what evidence we have and what questions are not yet settled

Question 4

What is being “humble” in critical thinking mean

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What is being “charitable” in critical thinking mean

Answer 5

having the disposition to attribute the best intentions and most sophisticated positions and arguments that we can imagine to our opponents in arguments.

Question 6

What are propositions

Answer 6

statements that can be true or false

Question 7

What is a sentence that can be either true or false

Answer 7

a proposition

Question 8

What are non-propositions

Answer 8

are not statements about matters of fact. They do not make a claim that can be true or false.

Question 9

What are attributes of non-propositions (different types)

Answer 9

exhort, command, plead/request, question, and perform

Question 10

Is this a proposition or non-proposition and what type? Would you please stop that? Please read me a bedtime story!

Answer 10

plead/request. non-proposition

Question 11

Is this a proposition or non-proposition and what type? Go to the store later to buy me some cheese. Don’t do that.

Answer 11

command. non-proposition

Question 12

Is this a proposition or non-proposition and what type? Let’s go get dinner! Let’s go hiking on Tuesday!

Answer 12

exhort. non-proposition

Question 13

Is this a proposition or non-proposition and what type?
What is the capital of Florida? How much do the pineapples cost?

Answer 13

question. non-proposition

Question 14

Is this a proposition or non-proposition and what type? I hereby adjourn this meeting. I pronounce you husband and wife!

Answer 14

perform. non-proposition

Question 15

What do simple propositions consist of?

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

What do complex propositions consist of?

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

What determines if a simple proposition is true or not

Answer 17

based on how the world is

Question 18

What determines if a complex proposition is true or not

Answer 18

based on whether or not the simple propositions that make them up are true or false and the logical relationships between those simple propositions.

Question 19

What is a premise

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

What are the 2 ways an argument can go wrong

Answer 20

bad inferential structure and false premise

Question 21

What is a bad inferential strucutre

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

What is a false premise

Answer 22

there is something wrong with their particular content.

Question 23

What are all arguments composed of

Answer 23

premises and conclusions, which are both types of statements.

Question 24

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.”

Answer 24

1. Anything that can help our school system is a good idea.
2. The new tax proposal will help our school system.
3. Therefore, the new tax proposal is a good idea.

Question 25

What is standard argument form

Answer 25

a way of capturing the structure of an argument by numbering the premises and conclusion

Question 26

What are conclusion indicators

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

what are some common conclusion indicators

Answer 27

Therefore So It follows that Hence Thus Entails that We may conclude that Implies that Wherefore As a result

Question 28

what are premise indicators

Answer 28

have the general sense of "from this fact I am going to infer something else."

Question 29

what are some common premise indicators

Answer 29

Because For Given that In that As Since As indicated by

Question 30

What makes something an argument

Answer 30

where you are meant to infer the truth of the conclusion based on the given premises

Question 31

What makes a non-argument

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

Why is this sentence an non-argument: Avery was at the party because you invited Avery.

Answer 32

the invitation just explains why Avery was at the party; it is not meant to support an inference that Avery was at the party.

Question 33

When is an inference inductive

Answer 33

if the support the premises intend to provide for the conclusion is less than certain—if the premises do not guarantee the conclusion.

Question 34

When is an inference deductive

Answer 34

if the premises intend to provide conclusive support for the conclusion—if they intend to guarantee the conclusion or make the conclusion certain.

Question 35

What do deductive arguments consist of

Answer 35

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.

Question 36

What do inductive arguments consist of

Answer 36

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.

Question 37

What is "truth"

Answer 37

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.

Question 38

what is an invalid argument structure

Answer 38

one where the truth of the premises is meant to guarantee the truth of the conclusion, but fails to do so.

Question 39

what is a valid argument structure

Answer 39

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

Question 40

What is a sound argument

Answer 40

a valid argument that has true premises

Question 41

what is an unsound argument

Answer 41

an argument that either is invalid or has at least one false premise.

Question 42

What is a strong inductive argument

Answer 42

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%).

Question 43

What is a weak inductive argument

Answer 43

when it fails to demonstrate that the conclusion is likely to be true, even assuming the truth of the premises.

Question 44

What do you call a "sound" or "unsound" inductive argument

Answer 44

cogent or uncogent

Question 45

What is the socratic method

Answer 45

learning through a dialectic exchange of ideas, rather than a passive transmission of information

Question 46

What is a fallacy

Answer 46

a type of argument that is an example of bad reasoning. Every fallacy is a category of real-world arguments.

Question 47

What does "formal" mean

Answer 47

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.

Question 48

What is a formal fallacy

Answer 48

it means you have made an argument with a bad structure

Question 49

What is an informal fallacy

Answer 49

means the structure of your argument is not what is at issue. Instead, someone takes exception to the content of your argument.

Question 50

What is "affirming the consequent"

Answer 50

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.

Question 51

What is an antecedent

Answer 51

the first part of the proposition, which represents the condition or premise upon which the consequence depends

Question 52

What is a consequent

Answer 52

the second part of the proposition and represents the consequence or outcome that follows if the antecedent is true.

Question 53

what is "denying the antecedent"

Answer 53

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).

Question 54

What is the red herring fallacy

Answer 54

when someone changes the subject to something irrelevant to the original topic

Question 55

What is the fallacy fallacy

Answer 55

when someone uses the fact that a fallacy was committed to justify rejecting the conclusion of the fallacious argument.

Question 56

What is "begging the question"

Answer 56

when one (either explicitly or implicitly) assumes the truth of the conclusion in one or more of the premises.