5.1 Philosophical Methods for Discovering Truth
1
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What is the general structure of a dialectic?
2
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What is a statement?
3
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Offer an example of a statement and its negation.
4
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How does the law of noncontradiction logically imply the law of the excluded middle?
5.2 Logical Statements
5
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Offer an example of a conditional, then identify the necessary and sufficient conditions expressed by it.
6
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What is a counterexample?
7
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Consider the following conditional: “If you walk in the rain, your shirt will get wet.” What is a possible counterexample to this statement?
8
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Consider the following universal affirmative statement: “All games involve a winner and a loser.” What is a counterexample to this statement?
5.3 Arguments
9
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What is an argument?
10
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What are the key components of an argument?
11
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Consider the following argument: “Since Jori is allergic to cats and her apartment complex does not allow dogs, it must be the case that Jori does not have a pet.” What are the premises of this argument, and what is the conclusion? What words in the argument indicate the premises and conclusion?
12
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Explain the difference between a logical analysis and a truth analysis of an argument.
5.4 Types of Inferences
13
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What makes a deductive argument valid, and how can you test for validity?
14
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Explain inductive inference, and describe how it is different from an abductive inference.
15
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How is reasoning from specific instances to generalizations similar to reasoning from the past to the future?
16
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Explain abductive inference and describe how it is similar to an inductive inference.
5.5 Informal Fallacies
17
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What are the four general categories of informal fallacies?
18
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What is the difference between fallacies of relevance and fallacies of weak induction?
19
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What is problematic with appealing to emotion in an argument, and how does this qualify it as a fallacy of relevance?
20
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Explain what a fallacy of unwarranted assumption is, and offer an example of one.