Critical Reading and Listening: Argument Mapping

Argument

A group of statements, one or more of which (the premises) are claimed to provide support for, or reason to believe, one of the others (the conclusion)

Rabbit rule

Each significant term that is part of the conclusion should also be part of one of the premises

Denotation

Extensional meaning, or Extension, consists of the members of the class that the term denotes

Holding hands rule

If a term forms part of one of the premises but not of the contention, it should also form part of the other premise

Connotation

Intensional meaning, or Intension, consists of the qualities or attributes that the term connotes

Logic

Organization of knowledge, or science, that evaluates arguments

Explanans

Statement or group of statements that purports to do the explaining

Explanadum

Statement that describes the event or phenomenon to be explained

Unsound Argument

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

Sound Argument

a deductive argument that is valid and has all true premises and has a true conclusion

Chain of reasoning

a justified contention justifying a following contention

Weak Inductive Argument

an argument in which the conclusion does not follow probably from the premises, even though it is claimed to

composite argument

an argument that includes more than one reason or objection

Deductive Argument

an argument that incorporates the claim that it is impossible for the conclusion to be false given the premises are true

Inductive Argument

an argument that incorporates the claim that it is improbable that the conclusion be false given that the premises are true

Contention

an idea that somebody claims is true

Strong Indicative Argument

an indicative argument in which it is impossible that the conclusion be false given that the üremises are true

Cogent argument

an inductive argument that is strong and has all true premises

Uncogent argument

an inductive argument that is weak has one or multiple false premises, fails to meet the total evidence requirement or any combination of these

Conjoint Conclusion

both statements together serve to support the conclusion and build up together an argument

Premises

claimed evidence

Vertical Pattern

consists of a series of arguments in which a conclusion of a logically prior argument becomes a premise of a subsequent argument

Horizontal Pattern

consists of a single argument in which two or more premises provide independent support for a single conclusion and if one of the premises were omitted, the other(s) would continue to support the conclusion in the same way

Validity

do the premises support the conclusion or not -> any deductive argument having actually true premises and an actually false conclusion is invalid

Expository Passage

kind of discourse that begins with a topic sentence followed by one or more sentences that develop the topic sentence

Multiple Conclusion

passage consists of two arguments which are treated as one

Reason/ cause

proof for the contention

Objection/ counterargument

seeks to furnish proof against the contention

Proposition

the meaning or information content of a statement (almost the same as statement)

Inference

the reasoning process expressed by an argument

convergent argument

two premises supporting a conclusion separately and independently from one another

Non Inferential Passages

unproblematic passages that lack a claim that anything is being proved

Conclusion

what is claimed to follow from the evidence; A contention supported by a reason or refuted by a counterargument