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Flashcards in Critical Thinking Deck (26)
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1
Q

Deductive validity

A

An argument is deductively valid when if its premises are all true then its conclusion would have to be true

2
Q

Deductive invalidity

A

An argument is deductively invalid when if all the premises were true the conclusion could still be false

3
Q

Deductive soundness

A

An argument is deductively sound if it is valid and all of its premises are true

4
Q

Deductive unsoundness

A

An unsound argument is a deductive argument that is invalid, has one or more false premises, or both.

5
Q

Lexical ambiguity

A

Words or phrases in the sentence which have more than one meaning

6
Q

Syntactic ambiguity

A

To do with whole sentences which are so arranged to have more than one meaning

7
Q

Appeal to emotions

A

Rhetorical ploys which try to influence us by appealing to certain emotions

8
Q

Trading on implication

A

Implying a statement without asserting it

9
Q

Trading on equivocation

A

Exploiting the ambiguity or vagueness of a word or phrase

10
Q

Affirming the…

A

Consequent

11
Q

Denying the…

A

Antecedent

12
Q

Deriving an ‘ought’ from ‘is’

A

When a prescriptive conclusion is drawn from a descriptive premise

13
Q

Substantive fallacy

A

An argument which has as one of its premises a very general unjustified or false assumption

14
Q

Ad hominem

A

Responding to an argument by attacking the person, or rejecting a particular claim because of dislike or disapproval for the person who made it

15
Q

Ad hominem circumstantial

A

Rejecting or discounting someone’s arguments in favour of something on the grounds that they would benefit from our doing/believing it

16
Q

To quoqe

A

Rejecting or discounting someone’s argument in favour of acting/not acting in a certain way on the grounds that they themselves do not act/ do act this way

17
Q

Majority belief

A

The fallacy of concluding of concluding on the basis that most people believe something, P, then P must be true

18
Q

Conflating morality and legality

A

This involves assuming that anything legal must be moral or vice versa

19
Q

Illegitimate appeal to authority

A

Involves making an unjustified appeal to an alleged authority in order to support a claim

20
Q

Perfectionist fallacy

A

Reject someone’s arguments in favour of a proposal to address a problem on the grounds that it won’t completely solve that problem

21
Q

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

A

Mistakenly inferring that because Y occurred after X that X caused Y

22
Q

Correlation for cause

A

Mistakenly taking that fact that one type of event usually or always happens in conjunction with another event to be sufficient to establish that one event causes the other

23
Q

Weak analogy

A

Involves assuming that because one thing is similar to another in one respect, it similar to it in all relevant respects

24
Q

False dilemma

A

Technique of limiting options on a particular issue to just two when in fact there are more options

25
Q

Slippery slope

A

When an arguer wrongly assumes that to permit or forbid a certain course of action will inevitably lead to the occurrence of further related and undesirable events, without good reasons to suppose that the these events will follow

26
Q

Begging the question

A

The truth of the conclusion is assumed by one or more of its premises and the truth of premises depend on the truth of the conclusion for their justification