November Exam Cards Flashcards
(64 cards)
1
Q
Statement
A
- claim or assertion
- proposition+ assertion
- made/ advanced by a speaker that commits to the truth of that statement
2
Q
Premise
A
- statements given as reasons for believing conclusion
- assumed/ taken for granted
- supports the conclusion—
3
Q
Conclusion
A
- statement that’s is advanced/defended in argument
- supported by premises
- not taken for granted
4
Q
Argument
A
- group of two or more statements one of which is the conclusion
- premises support conclusion if the assumption that the premises are all true increases the probability that the conclusion is true
- can be valid and have fallacies
- being deductively valid or non-deductively strong a necessary but not sufficient condition for being a good argument
5
Q
Compound argument
A
- two or more arguments
- linked by common statements
- include intermediate conclusions
6
Q
Rational argument
A
- premises support the conclusion
* premises are true/ there is good reason to believe they are true
7
Q
Intermediate conclusion
A
- supported by premises
- therefore is a conclusion
- but acts as a premise in the overall argument
8
Q
Proposition
A
- an expressed thought/ idea that is “truth conditional”
* can be true or false
9
Q
Conditional statement
A
- links to or more propositions
- through if…then
- one proposition is a condition for another proposition
- may be asserted without any of the individual propositions being asserted
- if antecedent is true, consequent is true
- consequent may be true even if antecedent is not true
10
Q
Antecedent
A
- governed by if
* truth of antecedent is sufficient but not necessary for truth of the consequent
11
Q
Consequent
A
- conditioned by/ flows from antecedent
- truth of consequent is necessary but not sufficient for the truth of antecedent
- truth of consequent is possible without the truth of the antecedent
12
Q
Explanations
A
- consists of two propositions
- not intended to support truth of its propositions
- intended to establish an explanatory relation between the propositions
13
Q
Explanandum
A
- a proposition describing the event/state of affairs
* taken for granted
14
Q
Explanans
A
- one or more propositions
* describes the causal or other factors thought to explain the state of affairs
15
Q
Implication
A
• one proposition logically implies another if the argument from the first to the second is valid
16
Q
Cognitive biss
A
- natural pattern of reasoning that impedes the process of reaching rational or logical conclusions
- confirmation bias
- availability heuristic
17
Q
Confirmation bias
A
- skews non-deductive reasoning
- people tend to be biased in favor of beliefs or hypotheses that they like
- people tend to be biased in favor of confirming evidence rather than disconfirming evidence even when they are personally indifferent toward the hypothesis or belief in question
18
Q
Ad hominem fallacy
A
- undermine a claim by appealing to negative or prejudicial features of the character, views, interest, circumstance of one or more persons who support that claim
- criticisms/ suggestions irrelevant to the question of whether the conclusion is true
19
Q
Irrelevant appeal to authority fallacy
A
• conclusion advanced or strength of claim that X accepts proposition
• X doesn’t have real authority on the subject matter
• a non expert is entitled to trust an experts opinion 1) there is consensus
2) reasonable to believe that the field is rationally grounded
20
Q
Irrelevant appeal to popular opinion fallacy
A
• irrelevant to its truth or falsity
21
Q
Irrelevant emotional appeal fallacy
A
Emotions not relevant to truth not falsity of conclusion
22
Q
Argument from ignorance fallacy
A
- based on the claim that is opposite
- has not been proved/ established
- to make a claim one must show evidence, cannot claim: there is no evidence that it doesn’t therefore it does
- if p not p
23
Q
Straw man Fallacy
A
- attack position- misrepresentation or misinterpretation- easier to criticize
- attacking something weaker than the actual argument
24
Q
False dilemma fallacy
A
- fails to cover all the relevant alternatives
* presupposes too few alternative possibilities
25
Fallacy of ambiguity
• strength/validity disappears when the argument is re-expressed without the use of ambiguous words or expressions
26
Circular argument fallacy
* conclusion is presupposed
* would not accept the premises without accepting the conclusion independently
* claimed itself already assumed in the premises
27
Hasty generalization fallacy
• inductive generalization based on a sample that is too unrepresentative or too small to make the conclusion probable
28
Gamblers fallacy
• belief that statistical imbalances in random events will occur in the future
29
Ecological Fallacy
• correlations that hold for a population are assumed to hold for individuals within that population
30
Regression fallacy
* thinking that the effect of a deviation is a cause of regression to the mean
* deviation from the mean is usually followed by a regression to the mean
31
False cause fallacy
* argument for a causal relationship on the basis of a correlation between the relevant factors that is too limited or might be accidental
* inference based on an accidental correlation
* argument from the premise that one event preceded another to the conclusion that it caused it
32
Only explanation fallacy
* to suppose that an explanation is supported just because it is the only available explanation
* argument to the effect that a proposition is true because it gives the only available explanation of one or more states of affairs specified by its premises
33
Deductively valid
* truth of premises guarantee conclusion is true
* conclusions follow with certainty
* all premises true—> conclusion is true( not always true)
* premises false—> conclusion false
* premises false—> conclusion true
* intend to guarantee truth of their conclusion
34
Deductively sound
* valid: all premises are true
* premises certify the conclusion
* guarantee the truth if the conclusion
35
Inductive
* projection intact is not deductively guaranteed by the evidence
* generally based in frequency in the sample
* sample must accurately represent the entire group about which the conclusion is reached
36
Inductive generalization
Projection of statistical regularities onto new cases
37
Deductive strength
* measured on: premises of argument support its conclusion significantly more than they would support the opposite conclusion
* it is possible for conclusion to be false even if all premises are true
38
Non-deductively strong
* premises still provide good support for conclusion
* if premises are true= COGENT
* if premises true significantly increase the likelihood that the conclusion is true
39
Formal inductive arguments
• number is assigned to the degree of probability
40
Informal inductive arguments
• do not assign numbers to probability
41
Availability heuristic
• people tend to judge the probability of an event by the ease at which they can bring to mind instances or examples of that event
42
Cogent arguments
* guarantee the truth of their conclusions
| * strong argument with true premises
43
Abductive arguments
* arguments to the best explanation
* argument from supposed facts- to a proposed causal explanation of those facts
* explanations that are advanced involve concepts that are not involved in the description of the facts that they are meant to explain.
* used to generate hypotheses about particular facts given general laws and theories
* intended to be strong
* conclusion goes beyond the available evidence
* apply criteria of adequacy for explanations
44
Abductively strong
* situation described by the conclusion would provide a good explanation of the circumstance described by the premises
* yields predictions that could turn out false
* do real work in relation to the supposed explananda mentioned in the premises
* can be supported by one observed phenomenon
45
Explanations
* must be internally consistent: free of contradiction
| * must be externally consistent
46
Criteria for adequacy
* testability
* fruitfulness
* scope
* simplicity
* conservatism
47
Valid arguments
* all premises true—> conclusion true
* one/ more premises false—> conclusion false
* one/more premises false—> conclusion true
* no possible argument with this form in which all premises are true and the conclusion is false
48
Formally valid
• depends on the logical form or logical structure
49
Materially valid
* depends on the meanings of non-logical words
| * can be formally invalid
50
Modus ponens
* ALWAYS VALID
* P—>Q
* P therefore Q
51
Affirming the consequent
* ALWAYS INVALID
* P—> Q
* Q therefore P
52
Denying the antecedent
* ALWAYS INVALID
* P—> Q
* ~P therefore ~ Q
53
Modus Tollens
* ALWAYS VALID
* P—> Q
* ~Q therefore ~P
54
Sound argument s
* guarantee the truth of their conclusion
| * valid argument with true premises
55
Strong arguments
* make conclusion probable ONLY if they have true premises
* don’t need to have true premises
* may have conclusions that are not probably true
56
Argument is rationally convincing
* the truth if it’s premises would either guarantee or significantly increase the probability that the conclusion is true
* the argument has true premises
* good reason to believe that its premises are true
57
Deductive argument
* intended to guarantee the truth if its conclusion
* if argument is sound/ valid good reason to believe conclusion
* intended to be strong
58
Deductively valid argument
• it is not logically possible for all its premise to be true and its conclusion false
59
Sounds argument
• a deductively valid argument that has true premises
60
Inductive arguments
* intended to support their conclusion on the basis of considerations about frequencies
* determining the quality of the arguments sample
* rationally convincing if argument is cogent
* truth of premises increase probability that conclusion is true
61
Confirmation bias
• a cognitive bias towards favoriting confirming evidence over disconfirming evidence
62
Inductive sample
• is either too small or fails to represent
63
Abductive argument
• rationally convincing if the argument significantly raises the probability that its conclusion is true
64
Conservative explanation
• an explanations that fits with established beliefs
