Critical Reasoning

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Critical Reasoning

• Week 5 Class 1

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Chapter 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

• Critical Thinking Standards
• Barriers to Critical Thinking
• Characteristics of Critical Thinkers

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Chapter 2 Recognizing Arguments

• Argument A claim (conclusion) defended with
  reasons (premises).
• Identifying Premises and Conclusion
• What is Not an Argument

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Chapter 3 Basic Logical Concepts

• In evaluating any argument, one should always
  ask two key questions (1) Are the premises true?
  and (2) Do the premises provide good reasons to
  accept the conclusion? (Bassham 53)
• Deduction
• Induction

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Chapter 3 continued. . .

• How to Tell whether an Argument is Deductive or
  Inductive
• Deductive arguments try to prove that their
  conclusions are true given the premises.
• Inductive arguments try to show that their
  conclusions are likely given the premises.

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Chapter 3 continued

• Common Patterns of Deductive Reasoning.
• Common Patterns of Inductive Reasoning

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Chapter 4 Language

• Many philosophers mark language as what sets us
  apart from the animals.

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If a lion could speak, we could not understand
him.(Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical
Investigations, p.223)
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Chapter 4 Language

• In this chapter we focus on the skills of
  choosing the right word, defining words, and
  identifying the emotive and slanted messages some
  words carry (Bassham 86)

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Word Choice Matters!

• Where is this from?

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On Paper Writing

• Bassham is pretty harsh on students! He asks,
  whose fault is it that your professor didnt
  get your paper?
• His answer yours!
• It is not up to your professor (or boss, or
  client, etc.) to get you. It is very important
  to be as clear as possible! Practice this in your
  HW for this weekDONT LEAVE IT TO ME TO GUESS
  WHETHER YOU UNDERSTAND THE TEXT!

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Imprecise Language Vagueness

• A word (or group of words) is vague when its
  meaning is fuzzy and inexact.
• Again, words are vague if they have fuzzy or
  inexact boundaries and hence give rise to unclear
  borderline cases.

• The mother of the young mountain climber wants
  him to give it up.
• Give what up? Mountain climbing? Heroin? Who is
  him?
• American Dad is inappropriate.
• What does inappropriate signify?

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Imprecise Language Overgenerality

• Words are overgeneral if the information they
  provide is too broad and unspecific in a given
  context.
• When are you going to study for the midterm?
  Later. Whens later? after the party
• This is overgeneral because it is actually an
  answer, just not at all meaningful or helpful!

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Imprecise Language Ambiguity

• Ambiguity refers to a doubtful sense of a word or
  phrase. Many words have more than one meaning.
• A word or expression is ambiguous if it has two
  or more distinct meanings and the context does
  not make clear which meaning is intended.
• Ambiguity is what makes puns and many jokes
  funny, but used unintentionally it can destroy
  the effectiveness of an argument.

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An ambiguous word is imprecise because it is
unclear which of two or more distinct meanings
(each of which may be quite precise) is the one
intended by the author.
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One more
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Ambiguities, continued

• Ambiguities that result from uncertainty about
  the meaning of an individual word or phrase are
  called semantic ambiguities.
• Ambiguities that result from faulty grammar or
  word order are called syntactical ambiguities.

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Ambiguities, continued

• What is a verbal dispute?
• A dispute that occurs when people appear to
  disagree on an issue but in actuality have simply
  not resolved the ambiguity of a key term.
• What is a factual dispute?
• A dispute that occurs when opponents disagree not
  over the meanings of words but over the relevant
  facts.