Flashcards: Critical Thinking Foundations — 24 cards

Argument — definition?

A set of premises supporting a conclusion.

Premise — role?

Provides support or reasons for the conclusion.

Conclusion — purpose?

Main claim that premises aim to establish.

Structure of argument — function?

Organizes premises leading to a conclusion.

Argumentation — activity?

Exchanging reasons to support or challenge claims.

Indicator words — examples?

Therefore, thus, hence, consequently, as a result.

Proposition — true or false?

A statement that can be evaluated for truth.

Claim — type of proposition?

An assertion that can be true or false.

Premise vs claim — difference?

Premise supports a claim; claim is an assertion.

Conclusion — in arguments?

The main point supported by premises.

Propositions — expressed as?

Declarative sentences with truth value.

Deductive reasoning — mechanism?

Derives conclusions that necessarily follow from premises.

Guarantee of truth — in deduction?

Conclusion must be true if premises are true and argument valid.

Validity — in deduction?

Structural correctness ensuring conclusion follows from premises.

Inductive reasoning — mechanism?

Infers broad conclusions from specific evidence.

Probabilistic support — in induction?

Conclusions are likely but not certain.

Hume’s problem of induction — challenge?

Justifying belief that future resembles past is unjustified.

Necessary condition — example?

Oxygen is necessary for combustion.

Sufficient condition — example?

Hitting a target is sufficient for a shot.

Propositional logic — symbols?

¬, ∧, ∨, →, ↔ represent logical connectives.

Evaluating evidence — focus?

Source reliability, content, context, methodology.

Formal fallacy — definition?

Invalid logical structure regardless of content.

Valid argument form — guarantee?

Conclusion necessarily follows if premises are true.

Formal fallacies — examples?

Affirming the consequent, denying the antecedent.