Transcript erickjramirez.weebly.com

Basic Terms for Arguments
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Introductions...
Claims
Issues
Premises
Conclusions
Arguments
For Wed: Ch.1 pages 17-24
Reminder
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Write down questions you have and explanations you find useful. If
you're able to answer your question, write down that answer if not
then ask it in class, office hours, or over e-mail.
Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking distinguishes between at least two kinds of thinking:
Thinking: making claims, accepting claims, providing arguments and
making decisions
Critical Thinking: a process where we evaluate the claims we make,
the claims we accept, the arguments we provide, etc.
When we think critically we want to make sure that we provide good
arguments and avoid accepting arguments because of rhetorical
tricks and cognitive biases instead of the merits of the argument
itself
Claims
Claims are the most basic components of all arguments and it's
important to get a handle on the differences between claims and
non-claims and between different kinds of claims.
Claims are propositional. That means that in order for something to
BE a claim it must be able to be TRUE or FALSE.
For our purposes all sentences with propositional structure are claims:
beliefs, statements, opinions, judgments, etc.
But is it a claim?
All critical thinking courses are easy to pass if you do all the
reading.
What do you think? Is this a claim?
But is it a claim?
“All critical thinking courses are easy to pass if you do all the
reading.”
-YES. This is a claim because it must be either true or false. What
about the following example:
“Leave me alone!”
Is that a claim or is it something else?
But is it a claim?
“Leave me alone!”
This is NOT a claim. Why not? The sentence is not a proposition, it
can be neither true nor false. This is an example of an imperative
sentence.
An imperative sentence is a command. Commands can be obeyed or
disobeyed but they cannot be true or false and hence declarative
sentences are not claims.
But is it a claim?
How about the following examples?
Are all moral judgments purely subjective?
Is getting a college degree the best way to get a good paying job?
If I want to get an A in this course how well do I have to do on the
midterms?
Which of these, if any, are claims?
But is it a claim?
None of the previous examples are claims. Questions are not
propositional sentences, they are instead interrogative sentences.
An interrogative sentence is neither true nor false. Questions demand
answers. It makes little sense to declare a question 'true' or 'false.'
Questions however are Issues. Every argument is an attempt to settle
an issue.
An answer to a question/issue therefore IS a claim. “Yes, morality is
subjective.” Is something that can be true or false.
But is it a claim?
How about this last set of examples?
-It is impossible for anything to travel faster than light in my opinion.
-I really want you to leave me alone.
-Gelato is way better than regular ice cream
-The Eurozone economy is larger than the United States economy
Types of Claims
In the book you get introduced to two different kinds of claims:
objective and subjective.
An objective claim is a claim whose truth is independent of our
thoughts or opinions.
A subjective claim is a claim whose truth is dependent on our thoughts
or opinions.
Types of Claims
Here are a few more distinctions between types of claims:
Claims of fact: claims about the way the world is
-Water boils at 212 degrees F
-Most people are subject to framing effects
Claims of value: claims about what is good or bad or better or worse
-It is better to be safe than sorry -Murder is wrong
Claims of policy: claims about how the world should be
-We really should have universalized healthcare
Types of Claims
The importance of these distinctions:
A claim of fact can be objective or subjective.
-The claim that “water boils at 212 degrees F” is independent of
our thoughts or beliefs or judgments
-The claim that “most of us fall prey to framing effects” is
dependent in a strong way on our thoughts or beliefs or
judgments
Types of Claims
Similarly, claims of value can be objective or subjective.
-The claim that “it is better to be safe than sorry” might be
dependent on your thoughts or beliefs or judgments
-Many philosophers, moral realists, argue however that the claim
that “murder is wrong” is independent of our thoughts or beliefs
or judgments.
-These philosophers argue that murder would be wrong even if you
thought that it wasn't or even if we all thought that it wasn't.
Types of Claims
Claims of policy can be a mix of objective & subjective value claims
What makes a claim of policy a claim of policy is that it is both
normative and social
A normative claim is just a claim that we ought to do something
A social claim is a claim that it meant to apply to all of us
So claims of policy tell us that we should do something about the
world:
- “We need to stop global warming” or “A Flat tax rate is the only fair
tax rate”
From Claims to Arguments
Now that we have a handle on claims we can get an easy handle on
arguments.
Arguments are not disagreements. We do tend to call disagreements
arguments but in this course we will reserve the term for something
more specific than this.
Argument: a set of claims meant to establish the truth of another
claim. This last claim addresses an issue.
Arguments
Argument: a set of claims meant to establish the truth of another
claim. This last claim addresses an issue.
Arguments therefore have two parts:
1. Premises
-The premises of an argument are the claims that are meant to
function as evidence
2. Conclusion
-The conclusion is the claim that the evidence is meant to show us
is true
Is it an Argument?
Federer is unlikely to win the U.S. Open this year. He has a nagging
leg injury, plus he just doesn't seem to have the drive he once had.*
Is this an argument? If it is then identify the premises and conclusion.
If it is not, why not?
*Moore, Brooke and Richard Parker. 2012. Critical Thinking, 10th ed. : pp. 13
Is it an Argument?
Some people argue that morality is objective and independent of our
judgments or opinions. Other people argue the opposite and claim
that morality is entirely dependent on social agreements. This latter
group are called moral subjectivists. I think that the second group of
people are right.
Is this an argument? If it is then identify the premises and conclusion.
If it is not, why not?
For Next Time
Finish reading chapter 1 pages 17-24