Critical Thinking Final Exam Review - IRSC

AWFULIZING

Exaggerating just how bad a situation is by rating it as the worst or nearly the worst thing possible Ex: Sal says "If my wife divorces me then it would be horrible"

SLIPPERY SLOPE- AWFULIZING-I-CAN'T-STAND-IT-ITIS SYNDROME

First, exaggerating the negative (bad) effects of an action or event; second, thinking these effects to be awful; and third, thinking them too awful to stand. Ex: Jim tells himself that, because he made a mistake at work today, he is going to lose his job. Then he tells himself how awful, horrible and terrible this will be. Jim may go one step further and conclude that, because losing his job is so awful, he just cannot stand to lose his job.

The Post Hoc Fallacy

For example, you walk under a ladder, have bad luck, and straightaway conclude that walking under the ladder is what caused your bad luck. You eat in a restaurant, come down with the flu, and straightaway conclude that eating in the restaurant caused the illness. Soon after having boasted about not having gotten into an automobile accident for quite some time, a car backs into yours, so you straightaway conclude that your boasting caused the accident.

scientific method

Formulating, testing, and evaluating hypotheses make up the core ingredients

Invalid: Non-Sequitur

If p the q, P Therefore r

Valid: Affirming the antecedent

If p then q, p Therefore q

Invalid: Fallacy of Uncertain Relations between Premises

If p then q, r Therefore not q

Invalid: Fallacy of Denying the Antecedent

If p then q, Not p Therefore not q

Valid: Fallacy of denying consequent

If p then q, Not q Therefore not p

Invalid: Fallacy of Affirming the Antecedent

If p then q, q Therefore p

DEMANDING PERFECTION

Insisting upon or requiring that the world or some part of it exist without any defects or flaws Ex: Donald falls into this mistake when he thinks that everyone must always like and approve of him. Since it is unrealistic for anyone to expect approval from everybody all of the time, such a demand is unreasonable.

DAMNATION

Negatively rating your entire self (self-damnation) or that of another person Ex: Jenny says "If my husband lied to me then he's no damn good"; Lester says "If my father is an alcoholic then he's nothing but a worthless bum"

Prejudicial attacks

Some personal attacks attempt to destroy a person's credibility in a particular area by pointing to a personal trait that is unrelated

Abusive Personal Attacks

The name-calling version Ex: "idiot," "moron," "crazy,"

Tu Quque

This fallacy tries to disprove a statement by trying to show that the person who made it is a hypocrite, that is, that the person doesn't practice what he preaches. Ex: an alcoholic parent who warns his children about the dangers of taking drugs and alcoholic can still speak the truth

PERSONAL ATTACK

Trying to disprove something someone says or does merely by criticizing this person, even though the criticism has little or nothing to do with what the person is saying or doing Ex: Jake says "If my father is an alcoholic then I don't have to listen to him when he tells me not to drink"

CHANGING THE SUBJECT

Trying to divert attention from the subject at hand by introducing some irrelevant line into the discussion Ex: when Harry's teenage son asks Harry for the keys to the car, Harry asks his son how he has been doing in his Algebra class

THE "I JUST CAN'T HELP THIS FEELING" FALLACY

What upsets you are the things that you tell yourself about those events and not those events alone Ex: Trisha commits this fallacy when she tells herself that her husband's failure to remember her birthday was what made her so upset and that she just couldn't help feeling deeply hurt by this. However, Trisha has actually made herself upset over her husband's forgetfulness by telling herself how terrible, awful and horrible this was

Multiplying Wrongs

When you add one wrong (W) to a second wrong, you get two wrongs, not one right (R). That is, (1W + 1W) = 2W, but not (1W + 1W) = 1R.

convergent fact

a fact that confirms a hypothesis

hypothesis

a statement or group of statements used to explain a fact or facts perceived as needing explanation

PARROTING

believing or saying something simply because others are believing or saying it Ex: Stan says "If people say that my girlfriend is a slut, then my girlfriend must really be one."

HAIRSPLITTING

emphasize relatively insignificant details of an issue while failing to adequately address major or significant ones Ex: when Seymour's son asks him for advice on dating, Seymour concentrates on the need for his son to have "clean white healthy teeth" and the "need to use a gel with fluoride"

sufficient condition

for the occurrence of an event is an event, state, or condition in the presence of which the event must occur Being exposed to the HIV virus is not a sufficient condition for getting AIDS because it is possible to be exposed to the virus and still not get AIDS. For example, not all exposure contains enough of the virus to infect one with the HIV virus.

necessary condition

he occurrence of an event is an event, state, or condition without which the event cannot occur For example, in this sense, a certain virus, say the HIV virus, causes AIDS. Exposure to the HIV virus is a necessary condition of getting AIDS because one cannot get AIDS without being exposed to this virus

SWEEPING GENERALIZATION

rying to apply a general rule to some situation that the rule is not really supposed to be applied to in the first place Ex: Jessica, a minor, argues that she doesn't have to attend school if she doesn't want to because "America is a free country."

THE "TERRIFIC" FALLACY

to exaggerate the virtues of something or somebody Ex: Mindy says that "If my mother and father get back together then everything would be perfect"; Kathy says "If you knew my husband then you would see that he is the nicest guy in the world."

JUMPING ON THE BANDWAGON

when you think that because others are doing something, that it is alright for you to do it also Ex: Mary, a teenager, says "If my friends are drinking booze, then it's alright for me to drink booze."

THE "THOU SHALT UPSET YOURSELF" FALLACY

when you think that you have some sort of duty to constantly make yourself miserable, de- pressed, or anxious whenever you perceive some actual or possible event in your life as threatening Ex: Jane thinks she must remain in a state of anxiety until she brings her failing grades up to passing ones.

MISUSE OF AUTHORITY

when you think that, because a person is an authority in one area, he or she must be an authority in some other different area Ex: Lloyd says, "Since my physician tells me that I don't have any psychological problems then I don't need to see any counselor."

APPEAL TO TRADITION

when you think that, because something has been a tradition, it must always be done and must never be questioned Ex: Larry says "If my mother and my grandmother and my great grandmother stayed at home and raised children, then my wife must do the same."

THE WORLD REVOLVES AROUND ME

when you think that, just because you believe, accept or want something, then that is the true reality, and everybody else must believe, accept or want it also Ex: Ignatz says "If I believe that premarital sex is wrong then my daughter should think so too"

I CAN'T-STAND-IT-ITIS

when you use strong emotional language to exaggerate your ability to stand up to some problem in your life Ex: Todd claims that "If my girlfriend broke up with me then I couldn't stand it" \\ some levels of physical pain with no reasonable chance of relief may be justly called "unbearable"; but the same is not likely to be true in cases of a failed romance or a lost job.

POISONING THE WELL

when you use strong negative emotional language in order to make something sound undesirable Ex: "If my husband wastes our vacation visiting his mother then my husband is nothing but a momma's boy tied to his mother's apron strings."

7 steps of scientific method

(1) defining the problem (2) formulating preliminary hypotheses (3) gathering further evidence (4) formulating a leading hypothesis (5) testing the leading hypothesis and its competitors (6) evaluating hypotheses and (7) choosing and acting on a hypothesis

divergent fact

A fact that disconfirms a hypothesis

Genetic Attacks

An attack on a person need not be a fallacious personal attack if it can be shown to be relevant to disproving the statement in question

MISUSE OF PITY

Being emotionally manipulated by others into feeling sorry for them even though you know that there are good reasons for not giving in to their requests.