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