Reasoning, Argument & Logic
3 examples of a formal fallacy
Affirming the consequent Denying the antecedent Equivocation
post hoc ergo propter hoc
After this, therefore because of this X preceeded Y - X caused Y
Numerical identity
Are the same
Predication
Assert something has an attribute
Identity
Assert that two things are the same
Appeals to authority
Assume reliability of, e.g. President, to support argument without substantial evidence
Correlation / causation confusion
Assume that sicne X often preceeds Y - X causes Y
False equivalence
Assume two cases are the same
Argument
At least one premise and one conclusion
Ad Hominem abusive
Attack appearance or character
Ad Hominem
Attack person rather than dealing with the real issue in dispute e.g. ridicule character
Tu Quoque
Avoid having to engage with criticism by turning it back on the accuser - answering criticism with criticism.
Consistent
Can both be true
Sub-contrary
Can both be true but can't both be false
Contrary
Can't both be true but can both be false
Hypothetical Syllogism
Chained conditionals
Prescribe meaning
Common use of term
Contingent
Could be otherwise
Necessary
Couldn't be otherwise, what soemthing must have
False dilema
Disjunction isn't exhaustive
Too strong
Doesn't include enough things
Rhetorical force
Emotive window dressing
Five examples of material failures
Epistemic fallacy Appeals to authority False dilema False equivalence Slippery slope
Jointly exhaustive
Every object in domain falls under at least one term used
Denying the Antecedent
If P then Q Not P Therefore, not Q
Modus Tollens
If P then Q Not Q Therefore, not P
Modus Ponens
If P then Q P Therefore, Q
Affirming the consequent
If P then Q Q Therefore, P
Inductive force
If premises are true conclusion is likely to be true
Circular
Includes part of itself
Too weak
Includes too many things
Record meaning
Lexical defintion
Mutually exclusive
No object in domain falls under more than one term used
Ambiguity
Open to multiple interpretations
Rhetoric
Persuassive language
Straw man
Pick deliberately distorted / oversimplified example of opponent's positio to refute an idea.
Use
Picks out a thing in the world
Mention
Picks out a word in a language
Conclusion
Proposition supported by at least one premise
Premise
Proposition which supports a conclusion
Charitable reconstruction
Reconstruct in best way possible without changing argument
Ad Hominem Circumstantial
Reject based on the circumstances of the person's life e.g. motive
A priori
S knows P via way independent of own experience
Loose qualitative identity
Share all same intrinsic properties
Strict qualitative identity
Share all same properties
Counter example for defintions
Show claims are individually necessary or jointly sufficient
Thesis
Single central claim of essay
Bullshit
Speaker doesn't care about truth or falsity
Lie
Speaker knows falsity
Equivocation
Term shifts meaning
Counter examples for arguments
Use same form but substitute true premises and a false conclusion
Sufficient
What is enough for something to have
Lexical ambiguity
a single word can have multiple meanings
Counter examples
an example used to show that a given statement is not always true
Conjunction
and
Material fallacy
at least one premise (often suppressed) is unjustfied & very general
Contradiction
cannot both be true
Slippery Slope
conditions are only vaguely plausible not proven true
Predicate
describes the subject is something affirmed or denied
Disjunctions
either / or
Stipulate meaning
establish what a term will mean
Inferential reasoning
getting new information out of old information
Theoretical reasoning
how we form beliefs
Practical reasoning
how we get what we want
Biconditional
if and only if
Deductive Validity
if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true
Conditionals
if-then
Question begging
include the conclusion in a premise such that they assume the conclusion
Quantifiers
indicate how many
A posteriori
knows from observation
Synthetic Distinction
meaning of proposition's predicate isn't contrained withint meaning of its subject
Analytic Distinction
point out circularity / question-begging
Epistemic failure
put into opaque context- one which isn't transparent / interchangeable
Syntactic ambiguity
sentence structure creates more than one meaning
Fallacy
study of how an argument can be bad / go wrong
Formal fallacy
taken together the premises fail to validly or inductively support the conclusion
Soundness
the argument is valid and premises are true
Conversational implicature
unstated meaning which is understood given the context
Subject
what the sentence is about thing in the world