Critical Thinking Terms

Hyperbole

Extravagant overstatement

Random Selection

Method of drawing a sample from a population so that each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected.

Perfectionist Fallacy

Saying that a policy or proposal should not be accepted unless it accomplishes its goal perfectly.

Connotative Definition

Specification of the features a thing must possess in otder for the term being defined to apply to it.

False Dilemma

This pattern of fallacious reasoning: "X has to be true because either X is true or Y is true, and Y is false." -> both might be false.

Two Wrongs Make A Right

This pattern of fallacious reasoning: It is ok for A to do X to B, because B would do X to A.

Fallacy of Division

To think that what holds true of a group of things taken collectively necessarily holds true of the same things taken individually.

Fallacy of Composition

To think that what holds true of a group of things taken individually necessarily holds true of the same things taken collectively.

Poisoning the Well

Trying to discredit what someone will say by saying something unfavorable about the person.

Scare Tactics

Trying to scare someone into accepting or rejecting a claim.

Contradictory Claim

Two claims that are exact opposites -that is, they could not both be true at the same time and could not both be false at the same time.

Subcontrary Claims

Two claims that can both be true at the same time but cannot both be false at the same time.

Contrary Claims

Two claims that could not both be true at the same time but could not both be false at the same time.

Inductive Syllogism

A syllogism having this form: Such-and-such proportions of Xs are Ys. This is an X. Therefore, this is a Y.

Square of Opposition

A table of the logical relationships between two categorical claims that have the same subject and predicate terms.

Categorical Syllogism

A two-premise deductive argument in which every claim is categorical and each of three terms appears in two of the claims - for example, all soldiers are martinets and no martinets are diplomats, so no soldiers are diplomats.

Sound Argument

A valid argument whose premises are true.

Anecdotal Evidence

A version of a hasty generalization where the small sample that the argument is based on is a story.

Wishful Thinking

Accepting a claim because you want it to be true or rejecting a claim because you don't want it to be true.

Semantic Ambiguity

An ambiguous claim whose ambiguity is due to the ambiguity of a word or phrase in the claim.

Syntactic Ambiguity

An ambiguous claim whose ambiguity is due to the structure of the claim.

Ad Populum

An appeal to the public - do this because everyone else does it.

Modus Ponens

An argument consisting of a conditional claim as one premise, a claim that affirms the antecedent of the conditional as a second premise, and a claim that affirms the consequent of the conditional as the conclusion.

Affirming the Consequent

An argument consisting of a conditional claim as one premise, a claim that affirms the consequent of the conditional as a second premise, and a claim that affirms the antecedent of the conditional as the conclusion.

Denying the Antecedent

An argument consisting of a conditional claim as one premise, a claim that denies the antecedent of the conditional as a second premise, and a claim that denies the consequent of the conditional as the conclusion.

Modus Tollens

An argument consisting of a conditional claim as one premise, a claim that denies the consequent of the conditional as a second premise, and a claim that denies the antecedent of the conditional as the conclusion.

Chain Argument

An argument consisting of three conditional claims, in which the antecedents of one premise and the conclusion are the same, the consequents of the other premise and the conclusion are the same, and the consequent of the first premise and the antecedent of the second premise are the same.

Valid Argument

An argument for which it is not possible for the premise to be true and the conclusion to be false.

Inductive Argument

An argument intended to merely support, not prove or demonstrate, a conclusion.

Deductive Argument

An argument intended to prove or demonstrate, rather than merely support, a conclusion.

Ad Hominem

An argument that uses a person's personal qualities to say something about the argument.

Begging The Question

An argument where the conclusion restates a point made in the premises or clearly assumed by the premises.

Argument

An attempt to support or prove a contention by providing a reason for accepting it. The contention itself is called the conclusion, the statement offered as the reason for accepting the conclusion is referred to as the premise.

Controlled Experiment

An experiment designed to test whether something is a causal factor for a given effect.

Proof Surrogate

An expression that makes it look like there's evidence for a claim without actually giving any.

Weasler

An expression used to protect a claim from criticism by weakening it.

Analogical Argument

An inductive argument in which an attribute of one or more things is concluded to be a probably attribute of a similar thing.

Questionable Premise/Non Sequitur/Hasty Conclusion

An irrelevant conclusion; an inference that doesn't follow from the premises.

Claim

When a belief (judgment, opinion) is asserted in a declarative sentence, the result is a claim or statement.

Small/Biased Sample

When a disproportionate number of things lack a variable.

Subjectivism

When a person doesn't have a response to an argument and instead says, "Your way is right for you, but mine is right for me."

Straw Man Argument

When a person ignores an opponent's actual position and represents it in a distorted and misrepresented way.

Dysphemism

(loaded term) a word used to evoke a negative reaction to something and minimize positive associations with that thing.

Rhetorical Definition

A pseudo-definition given to express our feelings or influence someone else's.

Conjunctive Statement

A compound claim made from two simpler claims. A conjunction is true if and only if both of the simpler claims that compose it are true.

Disjunctive Statement

A compound claim made up of two simpler claims. A disjunction is only false if both of the simpler claims that make it up are false.

Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE)

A form of inductive reasoning in which the best explanation for a phenomenon is concluded to be the proper explanation of the phenomenon.

Issue

A point that is or might be disputed, debated, or wondered about. Essentially, a question.

Loaded Question

A question based on one or more unjustified assumptions.

Common Practice

Attempts to justify or defend an action or practice because "everyone does it" - when you've been accused of something, you use this to justify what you did.

Inductive Generalization

Deriving a conclusion about a population from a consideration of a sample.

Operational Definition

Defining something by describing how it works.

Parameter

General class term to relate class terms to each other.

Synonym

Giving another word or phrase that means the same thing as the term being defined.

Best Diagnosis Method

Identifying the cause of multiple effects as the condition that best explains the effects, everything considered.

Relevant Difference Reasoning

If an effect occurs in one situation and doesn't occur in similar situations, look for something else that is different as a possibly cause.

Illicit Major

If the major term is distributed in the conclusion, it must be distributed in a premise.

Illicit Minor

If the minor term is distributed in the conclusion, it must be distributed in a premise.

Conclusion

In an argument, the claim for which a premise is supposed to give a reason.

Argument From Outrage

Inflammatory words followed by some sort of conclusion.

Line-drawing Fallacy

Insisting that a line must be drawn at a certain point when it does not really have to be drawn.

Smokescreen

Introducing an irrelevant topic to distract from the original issue.

Hasty Generalization

Overestimating the strength of an argument based on a small sample.

Denotative Definition

Pointing to, naming, or otherwise identifying one or more examples of the term being defined; also called ostensive definition.

Genetic Fallacy

Rejecting a claim based on its origins or history.

Gambler's Fallacy

The belief that recent past events in a series can influence the next event in the series.

Premises

The claim or claims in an argument that provide the reasons for believing the conclusion.

Contraposition

The claim that results from switching the places of the subject and predicate terms in a categorical claim and replacing both terms with complementary terms.

Conversion

The converse of a categorical claim is the claim that results from switching the places of the subject and predicate terms.

Strong/Weak Argument

The more likely the premise of an inductive argument makes the conclusion, the stronger the argument and the less likely it makes the conclusion, the weaker the argument.

Obversion

The obverse of a categorical claim is that claim that is directly across from it in the square of opposition, with the predicate term changed to its complementary term.

Argument From Ignorance

The view that an absence of evidence against a claim counts as evidence for that claim.

Common-Thread Reasoning

When an effect is present on multiple occasions, look for some other shared feature (common thread) as a possible cause.

Appeal to Pity

When feeling sorry for someone causes us to take a position on an unrelated matter

Groupthink

When identification with a group clouds reason when trying to decide about an issue.

Slippery Slope

When it is assumed that some event must inevitably follow from some other event, but no argument is made for the inevitability.

Undistributed Middle

When the middle term is not distributed at least once in the two premises.

Neglect of Common Cause

Where a person says P-->Q, but in reality there is an underlying cause for both.

Burden of Proof

Where the burden of proving a point is on the wrong side.

Post Hoc Fallacy

X caused Y for no other reason than Y occurred after and around the same time as X.

Euphemism

a nice thing to say in place of an offensive thing.