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Lecture notes, Exam Review

Critical Thinking (Concordia University)

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PHIL 210 Final Exam Review

FORMS

Important Notes from Chapter 1

Soundness When all premises are true, as well as all of them are valid.

Validity When an argument meets the structural requirements that the conclusion is absolutely
certain to be true provided all the premises are true.

Inference the thinking process through which premises lead us to conclusions.

Assertions to undertake the obligation to defend or retract the assertion in the face of
questioning/evidence to contrary.

Arguments the exchange of assertions/questioning then becomes the argument.

Explanation if the assertion is known by the audience, it is considered an explanation (to make
better sense of something that is already believed).
- Causal explanation; describing the prior conditions that caused some event
- Pseudo explanation; labeling an answer that will require further information and cause
more questioning.

Truth Conditions

Contingent Truth Example There is no such thing as a purple elephant. (Could be sufficiently
true if there is a stuffed purple elephant).

Necessary Truth Example Number 4 is not higher than Number 5. (True in every situation).

Valid Forms of Argument

Modus Ponens If P then Q, P, Therefore Q.

Modus Tollens If P then Q, Not Q, Therefore not P.

Disjunctive Syllogism Either P, or Q. Not P, Therefore Q.

Hypothetical Syllogism If P then Q, If Q then R, Therefore if P then R.

Invalid Forms of Argument

Denying the antecedent If P then Q, Not P, Therefore, Not Q.

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Affirming the consequent If P then Q, Q, Therefore P.

Factual & Non-factual Statements

Value theoretic statements involving moral concepts like right and wrong, good and evil
(subjective).

Important Notes from Chapter 2

Ampliative argument an argument in which the conclusion goes beyond what is expressed in
the premises. This type of argument may be cogent if it is unsound.

Analogy finding relevant similarities between a familiar, undisputed case and another case that
is being argued; drawing useful parallels between the two cases.
- Disanalogies; relevant differences between two things, situations compared.

Cogency This is a quality of arguments that is less technical than validity and soundness, but
which entails that the reasoning put forth makes sense and seems to support the conclusions.

Defeasibility The quality of ampliative reasoning that leaves it open to amendment. Even if
inductive arguments are cogent (solid), they are still defeasible, meaning they may have to be
revised or rejected if new information comes to light that doesnt support the
premises/conclusions.

Types of Arguments

Deductive
- Satisfy, or aim to satisfy the definition of validity.
- Do not strictly become more valid or more sound by degrees.
- If sound, remains sound no matter what other premises might be added.

Inductive
- Are strictly deductively invalid, being ampliative.
- Lend only a degree of support to their conclusion; can vary.
- Are sensitive to subsequent information that may be added.

Inductive Argument drawing upon what is known about observed cases to make conjectures
about unobserved cases, when similar premises seem to apply; taking what is known about
specific cases in order to come up with general conclusions.

Mills Method; five methods developed by John Stuart Mill to explore various levels of
causation + correlation:
o Method of Agreement
o Method of Difference
o Joint Method of Agreement and Difference

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o Method of Concomitant Variations

o Method of Residues

Logical Fallacies these are arguments that are presented as valid, the success of which
would require their validity, but have invalid forms.

Enthymemes arguments with unstated premises.

(Both arguments with enthymemes and ampliative reasoning are invalid/unsound because: if the
conclusion expresses some information not included in the premises, then there is a way for the
premises to be true and the conclusion false)

Evidential Reasoning based on the preponderance of evidence rather than strict

validity.

Empirical Reasoning Based on experience

o Enumerative argument based on counting off specific observed cases, then drawing
an inference about one or more unobserved cases (100 red roses example).
o Causal reasoning a type of empirical reasoning that relates to causes and effects.

Inductive base stock of evidence; a guideline for deciding what is the case in areas (or
times) we havent directly examined.
o The bigger the base, the stronger the argument for conclusion.

Abductive Argument this hypothesis (about underlying causes) is the best available
explanation for these particular significant facts, so given those facts, this hypothesis is
reasonable to believe or to act upon, at least.

Context of Discovery accidental, sheer dumb luck.

Context of Justification in which we cite the evidence that makes it reasonable to regard
the abductive judgement as one of the successes.

Neutral State of Information labeling an object/idea as something other than what it is

explicitly being. Ex. A UFO is an unidentified flying object, not always considered to be an alien
spacecraft.

Proving a negative very difficult to do, unless in sure situations such as mathematics.
- Almost all claims about the empirical world are defeasible.

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FALLACIES

Important Notes from Chapter 3

Lexical Ambiguity when a word or expression has more than one meaning or interpretation.
- Polysemy related meanings of an expression
- Homonymy unrelated meanings of an expression

Ex. A bug; could be a secret listening device, an insect or the act of bothering someone
(Homonymies).
Syntactic Ambiguity when a sentence can be understood in more ways than one.
Ex. A pilot says I feel like I can fly!
- Could mean he feels like he will have a good flight, or he feels genuinely good today.

Performative purposes result in the accomplishment of some act rather than describing it.
- Commanding, questioning & asserting are different types of speech-acts.

Imperative give orders

Interrogative ask questions
Indicative assert sentences

Rhetorical question meant as a statement, not a question.

- Sarcasm employs this affect.
- Generally uses an utterance to convey a meaning beyond its literal meaning.

but, otherwise known as similar; or indistinguishable to and in formal logic, is very

different rhetorically.
- The statement after the but is usually emphasized more than the previous part of the
statement.

Vagueness locally arbitrary but globally principled; ex. maturity & responsibility.

Equivocation enhance clarity of our own communication by avoiding the use of syntactically
ambiguous statements as much as possible.

Charity the idea that one should always engage, not necessarily the argument exactly as
spoken or written, but the best version of the argument that is roughly consistent with the
speakers words & recognizable intent.

False Dichotomy a mistake in reasoning to assume that there are only two reasons/options
where other options exist.
- Ex. Blaming video games either on game manufacturers, or parents for violence among
children.

Tu Quoque Fallacy You too! When a person issues moral criticism by pointing out that
someone else (especially the person issuing the criticism) is also open to moral criticism.

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(if it is relevant, then it can be considered a comparative claim)

Naturalistic Fallacy not always fallacious, i.e. growing a wheat plant for a homeless person is
more efficient than one sandwich.
- Means what is normal in nature should be applied to other situations.
Cannot invoke naturalistic approaches in moral conduct, i.e. lions who kill cubs that arent his
own; not a natural thing for humans to do.

Accountability someones irresponsible or negligent actions are judged by their consequent,

not intention.

Decision Theory the formal study of how to weigh competing choices in the most rational
way, i.e. voting Comparative Reasoning.

Individual Reasoning; wanting to vote for a candidate who is not currently running for
candidacy.

Important Notes from Chapter 4

Conditional Fallacies

Affirming the Consequent

Denying the Antecedent

Scope Fallacies

Quantifier Scope Fallacy an argument that infers a specific statement from an unspecific
version.
- Disordering a universal quantifier (all, every, each) and an existential quantifier (some, a,
the, one) resulting in an invalid reference.
i.e. 1. Every person shops for clothing at a store in town.
2. There is one store in town that everyone shops at for clothing.

2 specifies 1, but not the other way around.

Evidential Fallacies

Argument from Ignorance We have no evidence that P, Therefore, It is not the case that P
- Evidential fallacies fail because they lack evidence to back up their conclusions.

Equivocation; to equivocate a word is to unilaterally generalize it.

i.e. war on drugs cannot be compared to war between countries. The word war is being
equivocated by the argument.

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Standards for Evaluating Expert Opinion

- Relevant experience
- Recent experience
- Reason to believe that the opinion flows from the expert knowledge rather than from
commitments or motives
- Degree of consistency with broader expert opinion

Overgeneralizations

Hasty Generalizations Ted said something stupid on two occasions Ted is always saying
something stupid.

Sweeping Generalizations Seeing ten news reports on corrupt third world countries and saying
All third world countries are corrupt.

Conspiracy Theories says that conspiracy in question is so powerful, so widespread, that all
evidence for it is carefully shielded or erased.
i.e. There is no evidence that P,
No evidence is exactly what we should expect, if P is true.
Therefore,
P.

Genetic Fallacy irrelevant facts on origins instead of evidence.

- Argument from Authority; overvaluing the authority of the famous.
i.e. a police officer does not have the authority to measure legalization of marijuana (predict
broad socio-political effects) of changes in laws or politics.

Appeal to popular opinion It is widely believed that P, Therefore P.

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc; after therefore because.

i.e. A black cat crossed my path, and then I got hit by a bus.
Therefore,
I got hit by a bus because a black cat crossed my path.
- Magical Thinking

Law of Similarity i.e. thinking a rhinos horn can cure erectile dysfunction.
- Because a horn is erect (similarity)
- Common in pre-technological societies.

Multiple Endpoints Fallacy Sharp Shooter most objects and events have enough traits that
as a matter of chance alone, there will be unusual relations between objects in a collection.
- Can make the similarities seem very coincidental and interesting; provided that it is not
specified what is interesting.

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Procedural & Pragmatic Fallacies argumentative or conversational moves that undermine

good reasoning by distracting the discussants from the real issues or otherwise damaging the
procedure for exchanging ideas or evidence.

Red Herring; distractor. Statements or objections that lead the discussion away from the
key point.

Straw Man Fallacy; distractor. Sets up a much less defensible argument than the one
originally presented and attacks it instead.

Ad Hominem; distractor. argument against the Man; another species of genetic fallacy.
o Dismisses an argument on the basis of personal facts about the arguer.
o If a person presents themselves as an expert, but lacks expertise, it is not fallacious to
point out that person lacks expertise.

Poisoning the Well undermines the conversation by inferring that theyve surpassed their
cognitive level.
i.e. Oh, I used to think that when I was your age.

Mrs. Lincoln Fallacy ignoring clearly relevant factors and then treating subsequent inferences
as significant.
- other than your husband being assassinated, how was the play?.

Confusion Fallacies

Begging the Question after a fashion the argument works after a second round of
explaining; it is thus circular.
o Fails to provide a reason to believe its conclusion, irrespective of validity or
soundness.

False presuppositions propositions that one must grant or assume in order for a statement
to make sense.
o Getting the audience to assume things can be an instrument of misleading argument.
o Presupposition may be false, therefore addressing the statement will start by
addressing the presupposition rather than its explicit content.

Fallacies of Definition and Connotation

Slanting Language; persuasive.

i.e. using the word baby to argue against abortion, instead of a 2-128 celled organism.

Persuasive definition; not simply describing something in question begging terms, but
attempting to define something in such a way that persuades its audience.
i.e. Freedom Fighters Terrorists

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No True Scots Fallacy a claim that at first seems like an empirical truth (All scots eat
oatmeal) is saved from a falsifying counter-example by being converted into a stipulated
definition (True scots eat oatmeal).
o This strategic redefining can be used to save the initial claim.
Earl doesnt eat oatmeal
Well then hes not a true Scot.

Argument by Dictionary using the dictionary to back up a claim.

o Dictionaries are biased themselves, and should not be the final word.

Fallacies of the Complex Question

Loaded Question when a presupposition is insinuated in the question whether or not the
reply is negative or positive.
i.e. Have you stopped beating your wife?
- Yes or No wound admit beating your wife; commits the False Dilemma Fallacy by
limiting the answer down to 2 options.

Fallacies of Composition and Division

Both fallacies are a matter of relation between a whole and its parts.
i.e. The whole has X, therefore its parts also have X
or The wholes parts have X, therefore The whole also has X

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NUMERACY

Important Notes from Chapter 5

Mean All numbers added together divided by the amount of numbers. X + X + X / 3 = X

Median the middle number.

Mode the most frequent number occurring in a sequence.

Ordinal Numbers first, second, third.

Cardinal Numbers One, two, three.

Important Notes from Chapter 6

Selection Bias Choosing a sample that would be in the favor of your research.

Trimmed sample a sample range or time period that isnt a conventional round number.

Standard deviation the measure of spread in the sample data.

- The smaller the standard deviation, the more tightly grouped the data is around the mean.
- Statistical reasoning may involve leaving out a fluke variable (one that strays far from the
standard dev.) so that it can produce more representable results.
- A smaller standard deviation means a narrower bell curve, while a larger one means a wider
curve.

Correlation two variables that move together, they co-vary in predictable ways across
different circumstances.
i.e. in regards to team match-ups, being placed on the same team more often than not is a positive
correlation while being placed on different teams is a negative correlation.

Null hypothesis the assumption that any correlation observed between the phenomena is
purely random.
- For the null hypothesis to win; to say that a correlation is random depends on P-Value.
o P-Value is used to denote how probable it is.
o 5% or 1% are usual p-values
- Null hypothesis fails when the correlations we observe are highly likely not to be random.

Confounds alternative explanations for the observed data.

Common cause variables X and Y are correlated because they share Z.

Statistical significance a measure of the confidence we are entitled to have in our probabilistic
conclusions.

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Confidence Interval the range of values within which we can be statistically confident that the
true value falls.
- Margin of error is half that range, expressed relative to the midpoint of the confidence
interval.
- A set of data typically permits you to be confident, to a degree, in some statistical conclusion
that is precise.

Errors in Rejecting the Null Hypothesis

Type 1 Error Not rejecting the null hypothesis when it is indeed incorrect.
i.e. going to the doctor healthy, but being pronounced sick (False positives).

Type 2 Error Rejecting the null hypothesis when it is indeed correct.

i.e. going to the doctor sick, but being pronounced healthy (False negatives).

Type 1 / False Alarm = bad judgement

Type 2 / Absence of alarm = no judgement at all

Heuristics; rough and ready rules of thumb

i.e. if one heard about an event more often makes the event more probable or a more serious risk.

Categorical Probability
- Lightning strikes in Canada divided by the number of lightning strikes on people divided by
the # of people in Canada.
- Needs conditional probability: the odds are conditional to being outside during a
thunderstorm.

A base-rate error Is made when we neglect broader statistical or probabilistic information.

The Gamblers Fallacy to think that in a series of events that has the conjoint probability P,
the probability that any single event in the series is somehow dependent on the probability of the
series as a whole.
i.e. Ive been losing all night, so I must be due to win now.
- it is just an independent event with independent probabilities (coin flipping = probability).
Regression Fallacy when one confuses a pattern in random events by overlooking such
regression effects.
i.e. a child on his best behavior is bound to regress naturally (regress toward the mean = the
normal behavior of a child).

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BIASES

Important Notes from Chapter 7

Heuristics; problem solving methods that trade some accuracy for simplicity & speed and are
usually reliable for a limited range or situations.
- Brain processes patterns; can sometimes be misleading.

Repetition Effect the tendency of people to judge claims they hear more often as likelier to be
true.

Argumentum Ad Baculum Believe that P, or suffer the consequences.

Bias a disposition to reach a particular kind of endpoint in reasoning or judgement, being

skewed toward a specific sort of interpretation.
- Are inevitable; helps our ability to make fast judgements.
- Some biases are built into our perception of beliefs, expectations & emotions.

Hollow Face Illusion Perceiving the inside of a mask as protruding outward instead of inward.

McGurk Effect Video recording a speaker uttering a sound, (i.e. Gah), the video being
played back with an alternate sound (i.e. Bah). The subject instead hears a different sound
entirely like Dah.
- It is multi-modal; includes more than one sensory system.

Cutaneous Rabbit being tapped on the wrist multiple times then being tapped on the elbow,
one usually feels a series of evenly spaced hops from wrist to elbow.

Inattentional blindness when even calm, normally sighted people are concentrating on one
task, it is possible for grossly irregular events to occur right in front of them and not be noticed.

Confirmation bias a blanket expression for a family of biases, a side variety of ways in which
beliefs, expectations, or emotional commitments regarding a hypothesis can lead to its seemingly
more confirmed than the evidence really warrants. Look at who the top scientists are.
- Disconfirmation bias overstating the evidence towards a claim.

Three broad divisions of Confirmation Biases

Situational/Structural bias systematically affect the availability of evidence and

remember for or against a hypothesis.

Attentional biases affecting the degree to which we examine and remember evidence
even if available.

Interpretive biases affecting the significance we assign to evidence that we do

examine and remember.

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Counterfactually events that could have happened but didnt.

Double standard; in which one holds the opposing position to higher evidential standards than
ones own beliefs.

Self-fulfilling prophecies predictions that come true not because the predictor foresees how
events will unfold, but because the prediction itself has an effect on how things unfold.

Egocentric Biases Thinking that they are lucky beyond a random pick, that God has a plan
for them.

Self-Serving Attributions

Attribution theory an approach to studying how people ascribe psychological states

and explain behavior including their own.

Self-serving bias explaining oneself in the best light possible even if explaining
something negative.

Optimistic self-assessment

The Lake Wobegon Effect; egocentric bias. Thinking one is above average; example of
optimistic self-assessment.

Hindsight bias (Historians Fallacy) thinking one should have foreseen an event
occurring. i.e. Should have known that was going to happen.

Biases of Language & Communication

Continued Influence Effect a term denoting the way that information continues to
influence our judgements even after we know enough to conclude it was misinformed.

Framing effects describing the same sentence in different ways (highlighting positives
or negatives) to those who are to make a decision. i.e. letting 400 die, letting 200 live.

Biases of Memory

Flashbulb Memories Memories of traumatic or famous events.

Manufacturing Broken Glass in a car accident, the particular wording, (i.e. smashed,
bumped, hit), of a question about a past event can have a powerful effect on what gets
remembered.

False memories entirely fake or misplaced memories.

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Important Notes from Chapter 8

Social Stereotype a cluster of associated characteristics attributed to people of a particular sort.

The Fundamental Attribution Error a bias in favor of explaining someones situation or

behavior in terms of their personality, character, or dispositions while overlooking explanations
in terms of context, accidents, or the environment more generally.

False Polarization Effects tendency to overestimate two things: the extent to which the views
of others resemble the strongest or most stereotypical positions of those sorts, and the difference
between ones own view and the view of someone who disagrees.

Bandwagon Effect the tendency of our beliefs to shift toward the beliefs we take to be widely
held by those around us.

The False Consensus Effect is the common tendency to overestimate the extent to which
others share our beliefs and attitudes.

Interpersonal strategy a gap between what someone effortlessly reasons about others to
reason about themselves in precisely similar circumstances. i.e. Dad who combs hair over his
bald head is not fooled when he sees another mans hair raked over his bald head. But believes
that anyone else is oblivious to his baldness. His want to appear non-bald affects his reasoning
about his own case, but not his reasoning about other non-bald wannabes.

Self-handicapping claiming that there are barriers to ones success, typically as a way of
excusing failure or magnifying success. i.e. claiming not to have studied for an exam before the
exam takes place, (to avoid being seen an stupid, or to gain acknowledgement for passing).

Urban legends a common but somewhat misleading choice, therefore, since it suggests that all
such stories are false. What might be fairer to say is that they spread irrespective of their truth or
falsity. They spread by appealing to one or more widespread preferences for the stories we tell.

Anecdotal evidence the unmoderated story-telling sort of evidence that informal socializing
largely provides. i.e. the trend of Echinacea curing colds.

Mechanisms of Mutating Information

Levelling leaving out information perceived as minor, unimportant when retelling a

story.

Sharpening emphasizing information perceived as more important when retelling a

story.

Pseudo-independent confirmation apparently independent assertions of the same original

claim, which are actually dependent on a single (or at least very limited) information source.
Important Notes from Chapter 9

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