Critical Thinking

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Universal Generalization

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Sentences that say that all or no member of one class are members of another class
Ex.) "No student with an unpaid bill can graduate"

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Statistical Generalization

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Generalizations that state that some proportion of members of one class are members of another class
ex.) "Most families that drive new Cadillacs are wealthy"

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Argument

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A set of sentences related in such a way that some of the sentences presented as evidence for another sentence in the set

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Conclusion

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The sentence in an argument that is supposedly supported by the evidence

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Declarative sentence

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assert that something is the case (opposite of question, commands, requests and exclamations)

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evidence

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info that is offered in support of some assertion. Could be physical (damaged goods) it could be verbal (sentence that is offered to support truth of another sentence)

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fallacy

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A mistake in reasoning, in particular, of supposing, or pretending, evidence has been presented in support of an assertion, when some form of non evidential persuasion has been used instead.

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Begging the question

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A mistake in reasoning that occurs when some assumption is taken to be true without justification. ex.) to say that a particular herb cannot be harmful because it is found in nature begs the question of whether all natural things are harmless

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Black-and-white thinking

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A mistake in reasoning that occurs when it is supposed that only who alternatives are available although in face other are possible ex.) "it cannot be white, therefore it is black" ignoring all shades of gray in between.

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Ambiguity

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the capacity of being understood in two or more ways
ex.) Kid, because kid can mean a child or a young goat

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fallacy of equivocation

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occurs when the force of an argument depends on shifts of meaning, even when there is no intent to deceive.

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Amphiboly

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can occur when commas or modifiers are omitted or misplaced

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relative terms

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such as small or large

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vague

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ex.) bald, young, old, happy...

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deductive argument

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its premisses and conclusion are related in such a way that the truth of the premisses guarantees the truth of the conclusion
ex.)

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inductive argument

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the premisses provide a different kind of support for the conclusion. If the premisses are all true, the probably the conclusion is true but it might be false

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fallacious argument

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the alleged evidence offers only very weak support or is irrelevant to the conclusion.

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Sound argument

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arguments that provide the proper kind of support for their conclusions and also have all true premisses

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inductive arguments

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can have false conclusions even when all the premisses are true and support the conclusion in the sense of contributing to or upholding its probability.

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fallacies

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appear to support their conclusion, but appearances can deceive

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appeal to force

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an argument that substitutes a threat of force for evidence

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appeal to pity

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occurs when we confuse feeling sorry for someone with evidence for the truth of an assertion that is made by or about the person who is to be pitied.

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valid argument

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a valid argument is a correct, successful, or genuine deductive argument--that is, an argument in which the premisses, if true, guarantee the truth of the conclusion.