Flashcards on Understanding Arguments in Critical Thinking
Understanding Arguments in Critical Thinking: A Guide
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Critical Thinking and Arguments
14 cards
Card 1
Question: What is an argument in the context of critical thinking?
Answer: An argument is a set of statements in which some statements (premises) are offered as reasons or evidence to support another statement (the conclusion
Card 2
Question: How do you distinguish a sentence, a statement, and an argument?
Answer: A sentence is a linguistic unit; a statement is a sentence that asserts something that can be true or false; an argument is a group of statements wher
Card 3
Question: What are premises and what is a conclusion?
Answer: Premises are statements that set forth reasons or evidence; the conclusion is the statement that the premises are claimed to support or imply.
Card 4
Question: Give an example from the content that shows premises supporting a conclusion.
Answer: All film stars are celebrities. Majid Michel is a film star. Therefore, Majid Michel is a celebrity. (First two are premises; the third is the conclus
Card 5
Question: Provide an example of a bad argument from the content and explain why it is bad.
Answer: Some film stars are men. Jackie Appiah is a film star. Therefore, Jackie Appiah is a man. It's bad because the premises do not support the conclusion
Card 6
Question: What is an inferential claim?
Answer: An inferential claim is the claim that a passage expresses a reasoning process—that something supports, implies, or follows from something else; it is
Card 7
Question: How can inferential claims be explicit or implicit?
Answer: Explicit inferential claims use indicator words like "thus," "since," "because," "hence," "therefore" to show that something is being inferred; implic
Card 8
Question: Give an example from the content that uses an explicit inferential indicator.
Answer: "Mad cow disease is spread... This practice has yet to be completely eradicated. Thus, mad cow disease continues to pose a threat to people who eat be
Card 9
Question: What is a conditional statement and is it an argument?
Answer: A conditional statement is an if-then (antecedent-consequent) statement (e.g., "If it rains, then the picnic will be canceled"). Conditional statement
Card 10
Question: What is an unsupported assertion? Give the example provided.
Answer: An unsupported assertion is a statement expressing a speaker's or writer's belief without providing supporting reasons. Example: "I believe that it is