BBI 3420 Critical Reading and Thinking

1
BBI 3420 Critical Reading and Thinking

• Critical Reading Strategies Identifying Arguments

2

• Critical thinking is primarily about the
  evaluation of arguments.
• Definition of an argument
• a set of statements of which it is claimed that
  one of those statements (the conclusion) is
  supported by the others (the premises).
• a reason or reasons offered for or against
  something

3

• ARGUMENT CONCLUSION (assertion)
• PREMISES
• THESIS STATEMENTS
• SUPPORTING DETAILS

4
Deductive Reasoning

• Deductive reasoning starts with a principle or
  accepted fact i.e. all dogs are mammals, and
  then tries to apply this principle to other
  specific pieces of information or cases.
• Example
• All dogs are mammals.
• Fido is a dog.
• Therefore, it is true that Fido is a
  mammal

5

• A deductive reasoning is an argument in which it
  is thought that the premises provide a guarantee
  of the truth of the conclusion.
• In a deductive argument, the premises are
  supposed to be a definitive proof of the truth of
  the claim (conclusion) i.e. if the premises are
  true, it would be impossible for the conclusion
  to be false.
• 1. All men are mortal. (premise)2. Socrates was
  a man. (premise)3. Socrates was mortal.
  (conclusion)

6

• Deductive reasoning leads to non-negotiable
  conclusion.
• The goal is not to generate new information.
• Some dictionaries define "deduction" as reasoning
  from the general to specific

7
Inductive Reasoning

• An inductive argument is one in which the
  premises are supposed to support the conclusion
  in such a way that if the premises are true, it
  is improbable that the conclusion would be false.
  Thus, the conclusion follows probably from the
  premises and inferences. Here is an example
• 1. Socrates was Greek. (premise)2. Most Greeks
  eat fish. (premise)3. Socrates ate fish.
  (conclusion)

8

• Inductive reasoning begins with several pieces
  information, several observations, or examples
  and tries to arrive at a general pattern,
  tendency, or trend (hypothesis).
• There is always the hope that by discovering what
  is true for some members of a group, you will
  discover what is true for all members, but there
  is no guarantee.

9

• Inductive reasoning is often perceived as
  discovery learning.
• Examples
• The members of the Williams family are
  Susan, Nathan and Alexander. Susan wears
  glasses. Nathan wears glasses. Alexander wears
  glasses. Therefore, all members of the Williams
  family wear glasses.

10
Identifying the conclusion

• An argument's conclusion is what the person
  making the argument is ultimately trying to
  convince you of, i.e., the person's point.
• To try to identify the conclusion of an argument
  ask yourself 'what does the person making the
  argument want me to walk away thinking?' (Note if
  the answer is 'nothing', them you're not dealing
  with an argument.)

11
Some Conclusion Indicator Words

• To identify conclusion, it often easiest to look
  for conclusion indicator words, such as
• therefore, consequently, as a result, thus, it
  follows that, so

12
Identifying the Premises

• Every argument must also consist of at least one
  premise.
• A premise is a statement that is meant to support
  the conclusion. Ideally, a premise provides a
  good reason for believing the conclusion.

13
Some Premise Indicator Words

• To identify premises, it often easiest to look
  for premise indicator words, words that are often
  used to introduce a claim as a premise such as
  because, since, as, for, given that

14
Missing Premises and Conclusions

• When trying to figure out what the premises and
  conclusion of an argument are, we need to ask
  ourselves what the person's point is.
• But remember that people don't always come out
  and say what their point is. Similarly people may
  not always explicitly mention all the premises
  they are working with.
• As a result, we must be prepared to identify both
  missing premises and missing conclusions (i.e.,
  conclusions or premises that are not explicitly
  stated by the arguer, but that are implicit in
  what the arguer does say).

15
Another way to identify components of arguments

• Every conclusion must be a proposition. Every
  premise must be a proposition. As such, every
  argument must contain 2 or more propositions.
• My cat has fleas.
• Obama will win the next election.

16

• Propositions are the building blocks of
  arguments. A proposition is any phrase that can
  be true or false. The first step in analyzing the
  components of an argument is to identify the
  propositions.

17
Finding Propositions

• Every proposition will contain a predicate (a
  verb phrase). As such, the best way to identify a
  passages propositions is to look for the verbs.
• For example
• Athletes are not good role models. They often
  behave poorly and many do not complete their
  education. Therefore they should not be paid as
  much as they are.

18

• The propositions of the previous passage
• 1. Athletes are not good role models
• 2. They often behave poorly
• 3. The do not complete their education
• 4. They should not be paid as much

19

• To determine whether or not two or more of the
  propositions on your list are related as premise
  to conclusion (and thus form an argument) plug
  the propositions into the blanks on the following
  test
• Conclusion/Premise tester
• ___________________because ___________
• The first place is the conclusion slot and the
  second place is the premise slot

20

• Conclusion because Premise
• Example
• They should not be paid as much because athletes
  are not good role models