Lecture 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is an argument and a premise?
An argument is defined as a set of sentences, one of which the conclusion is claimed to follow from the others which are its premises.
An argument is used to persuade the audience of the truth of a claim by giving supportive reasons
Premises are reasons given to support or justify a conclusion.
What is the difference between a valid argument and a sound argument?
For an argument to be valid, its conclusion must logically follow from the reasons.
For an argument to be sound, it must be valid and its premises must be true and justify the conclusion
What is the standard form of an argument?
Premise one
Premise two
Therefore…
Conclusion
What examples of premise indicators?
since, for, because, as, given that, seeing that, for the reason that, is shown by the fact that
What are examples of conclusion indicators?
therefore, hence, thus, so, accordingly, consequently
What are interdependent and independent reasons?
Interdependent reasons are a combination of reasons that lead to the conclusion, they are all necessary for the conclusion to follow
Independent reasons each offer a separate line of reasoning to the conclusion
What is an assumption or presumption?
It is a claim or belief that is accepted as true even if it has not been proven or justified
A presumption is something presumed to be true without necessarily having any firm grounds
What are the two types of assumptions?
Assumptions can be implicit(unstated) or explicit(stated)
Implicit assumptions can also be seen as hidden premises as they are necessary for the soundness of the argument
What are deep rooted assumptions?
Assumptions based on strong beliefs, strict laws, political leanings or shared political cultural attitudes and loyalties.
What two rules must be satisfied for an argument to be sound?
The reasons are true or justified and the conclusion follows recognisably from the reasons
What is an unsound argument?
An unsound argument is one where one or more of the reasons is not true or where the conclusion does not follow logically from the reasons.
A flawed argument has flaws in reasoning or reasoning errors, called fallacies
In what ways can one find a flaw/fault in an argument?
Challenge the truth of one or more of the reasons or show that whether the reasons are true nor not, the conclusion does not follow logically from the reasons
Check the credibility of the claims
Identify reasoning errors
What are examples of flaws?
Generalising from the particular - conclude the argument based on a single example of success
Insufficient reasons - reasons provided are insufficient in supporting the conclusion
How does a seesaw describe conclusions and their reasons?
Conclusions should be supported by the reasons.’
If the conclusion is too strong then the reasons may not have the sufficient weight to support it.
For an argument to be sound, the reasons must outweigh the conclusion
What is meant by the fallacies appeal to history, post hoc fallacy and cause versus correlation?
+Appeal to history - assumes what has been true in the past remains true now or in the future
+Post hoc - assumes that when one thing happens and then another, that the first must be the cause of the second thing
+Cause and correlation - correlation is any observed connection between two claims or two facts, it is not the same as causation
What is meant by the fallacies restricting the options, personal attack, circular argument and slippery slope?
+Restricting the options - only a limited amount of options are presented in an argument
+Personal attack - to challenge the holder of an opinion rather than the argument itself
+Circular argument - assumers what it is going to conclude, starts and finished with more of less of the same claim
+Slippery slope - claims an initial action will trigger a series of other events to an extreme outcome
What is meant by further argument?
A critics opportunity to put their own ideas on the table and either support or challenge the presented conclusions.
The argument must be engaged with rationality and not with emotional response
What are the steps to developing a further argument?
- Identify the issue or debate that relates to the target claim
- Decide on on the side you propose to take
- Extract the supposed facts, evidence, opinions and supporting reasons from the document
- Map out the argument in note form including the main arguments, supporting arguments, counter claims, counter arguments and analogies
- Revise the argument by analysing and evaluating it
