CriticalThinking Tutorial 5

1 Concepts to be Clear On1.1 ‘New’ Concepts• Clustering Illusion• Statistical Regression1.2 Problems with Individual Assignment # 1• Too narrow and too broad definitions• Inference Indicators• Logical Strength and Soundness• Synthetic vs. analytic statements• Confirmation bias• Use/Mention distinction• Necessary and sufficent conditions• Valid arguments2 Chapter 4: Reconstructing Arguments (§4.4)2.1 Near ArgumentsThis section is concerned with making the distinction between speech and text that look verymuch like arguments but actually are not. These are so-called near arguments. There are twotypes of such arguments: reports of arguments; and explanations.2.1.1 Reports of ArgumentsA report of an argument is a statement that says that someone argued in a certain way (i.e. astatement that reports an argument) and so the statement (or set of statements) is not itself anargument. For example:John says that you shouldn’t vote in elections because all politicians are dishonest.This statement tells us that John thinks that we should not vote in elections and that his reasonfor thinking this is that politicians are dishonest. The statement itself is not an argument,however, since it is only telling us how John argues. As Hughes says, “a report of an argumentis no more an argument than a photograph of an accident is itself an accident.” Now, since it isa statement it is capable of being true or false, according to whether it is a faithful account ofJohn’s ...