Flashcards

CRITICAL THINKING - DEFINITIONS

Nerdy McNerdpants Philosophy English 15 cards

Cards in this deck (15)

1ARGUMENTA set of premises and a conclusion where the former are intended to support the latter
2LEXICAL AMBIGUITYIntroduced by an ambigious word e.g. "we passed the port at midnight" or "the rabbi married my sister"
3SYNTACTIC AMBIGUITYIntroduced by structure of language
4INDEXICALSDifferent sentences that mean the same thing
5DEMONSTRATIVESUsing words that "point" at something
6PROPOSITIONThe meaning of a declarative sentence
7HARD QUANTIFIERSQuantifies over everything, e.g. "every"
8SOFT QUANTIFIERSQuantifies over less, e.g. "a"
9DEDUCTIVE VALIDITYThe truth of the premises guarantees the truth of the conclusion
10SOUNDNESSAn argument has soundness if it is valid with true premise(s) - and therefore a true conclusion
11INDUCTIVE FORCEThe extent to which premises give us reason to believe in the truth of the conclusion
12RHETORICAL PLOYSAppealing mostly to emotion rather than reason
13CONDITIONAL DEGREE OF RATIONAL EXPECTATIONThe extent to which we are justified in believing something given the truth of the premises
14INDUCTIVE SOUNDNESSAn argument is inductively sound if it is inductively forceful and has true premises.
15FALLACYA rhetorical device which has the structure of an argument but is either formally invalid or substantively deficient.