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Recognizing Arguments
Conclusion indicator
A word or phrase (such as therefore or thus)
appearing in an argument and usually indicating
that what follows it is the conclusion of that
argument.
Premise indicator
In an argument, a word or phrase (like
because and since) that normally signals that
what follows it are statements serving as
premises.
Rhetorical question
An utterance used to make a statement, but
which, because it is in interrogative form and is
therefore neither true nor false, does not
literally assert anything.
Enthymeme
An argument that is stated incompletely, the
unstated part of it being taken for granted.
Deductive and Inductive Arguments
Validity
A characteristic of any deductive argument
whose premises, if they were all true, would
provide conclusive grounds for the truth of its
conclusion. Such an argument is said to be valid.
Validity is a formal characteristic; it applies only
to arguments, as distinguished from truth, which
applies to propositions.
Deductive argument
One of the two major types of argument
traditionally distinguished, the other being the
inductive argument. A deductive argument
claims to provide conclusive grounds for its
conclusion. If it does provide such grounds, it is
valid; if it does not, it is invalid.
Inductive argument
One of the two major types of argument
traditionally distinguished, the other being the
deductive argument. An inductive argument
claims that its premises give only some degree of
probability, but not certainty, to its conclusion.
Fallacy
A type of argument that seems to be correct, but
contains a mistake in reasoning.
Fallacy of relevance
Ignorance (ad
P1. Accident
An informal fallacy in which a generalization is
applied to individual cases that it does not
govern.
P2.
Complex
Interrogationum)
Question
(Plurium