YOU ARE DOWNLOADING DOCUMENT

Please tick the box to continue:

Transcript
Page 1: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

Critical Reasoning

Week 5: Class 1

Page 2: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

Chapter 1: Introduction to

Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking Standards

Barriers to Critical Thinking

Characteristics of Critical Thinkers

Page 3: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

Chapter 2: Recognizing Arguments

Argument: A claim (conclusion) defended with reasons (premises).

Identifying Premises and Conclusion

What is Not an Argument

Page 4: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

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

Page 5: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

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.

Page 6: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

Chapter 3 continued…

Common Patterns of Deductive Reasoning.

Common Patterns of Inductive Reasoning

Page 7: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

Chapter 4: Language

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

Page 8: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

“If a lion could speak, we could not understand him.”(Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations,

p.223)

Page 9: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

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)

Page 10: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

Word Choice Matters!

Where is this from?

Page 11: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

On Paper Writing Bassham is pretty harsh on students! He asks,

whose fault is it that your professor didn’t “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 week—DON’T LEAVE IT TO ME TO GUESS WHETHER YOU UNDERSTAND THE TEXT!

Page 12: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

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?

Page 13: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

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. When’s later? –after the party…

This is overgeneral because it is actually an answer, just not at all meaningful or helpful!

Page 14: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

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.

Page 15: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

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.

Page 16: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

One more…

Page 17: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

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.

Page 18: Critical Reasoning Week 5: Class 1. Chapter 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking  Critical Thinking Standards  Barriers to Critical Thinking  Characteristics.

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.


Related Documents