Conditions for Good Reasoning Cabrillo College好的推理国立大学条件.pptVIP

2. Expectation 3. Innumeracy Resisting Contrary Evidence: Galileo’s crystal mountains valleys Fallacy: Argument from Ignorance/Appeal to Ignorance 5. Looking for Confirming Evidence 6. Preferring Available Evidence * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Truth It can’t give us truth but it serves a function in our search for truth. Knowledge: our lives as knowers/believers. On what are we grounding what we claim to know or believe? Does it stand up? What do these have in common? No one was present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any statement about life’s origins should be considered as theory, not fact. Every law is an evil, for every law is an infraction of liberty. Since it turns out that all humans are descended from a small number of African ancestors in our recent evolutionary past, believing in profound differences between the races is as ridiculous as believing in a flat earth. The Food and Drug Administration should stop all cigarette sales. After all, cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death. The reason we start a war is to fight a war, win a war, thereby causing no more war! ArgumentsThe Bread Butter The Ingredients ? Propositions ? Inferences Propositions Proposition (Statement): an assertion that something is or is not the case (true or false) A sentence is neither true or false Proposition: the cat is on the mat ? English: The cat is on the mat ? Spanish: El gato está en la estera ? French: Le chat est sur le tapis ? Italian: Il gatto è sulla stuoia ? Symbolic: ?x (xC ? xM) Inferences Inference: affirming one proposition on the basis of another (or others) Conclusion: inference But not every inference is a conclusion Premise(s) Conclusion Argument: consists of at least one premise and at most one conclusion Premise: a reason for maintaining the conclusion, support for the conclusion Conclusion: the inference made from the premise(s) *Note: there can be more than one inference bu