PHIL 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Deductive Reasoning, Propositional Calculus, First-Order Logic

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 105
• Professor: Tim Christie

Document Summary

Review and test: supply the missing generalizatio(cid:374) i(cid:374) the follo(cid:449)i(cid:374)g argu(cid:373)e(cid:374)t: (cid:862)he"s (cid:1005)(cid:1004)(cid:1004)% for sure goi(cid:374)g to (cid:272)ourt to testify. Be sure to provide a specific example and give an instance of the specific example you mention. (cid:863) A fallacy is an error in reasoning that humans often fail to notice. The reason why critical thinkers care about and study fallacies is because critical thinkers care about rational persuasion and truth: good arguments must use proper reasoning and, hence, avoid fallacies. We critical thinkers avoid fallacies in two ways: 1) we try to spot them and not get tricked by them; and 2) we try to not make them ourselves in our own arguments. An example of a fallacy is the black and white fallacy. A parti(cid:272)ular i(cid:374)sta(cid:374)(cid:272)e of this falla(cid:272)y is the follo(cid:449)i(cid:374)g: (cid:862)ti(cid:373) is the (cid:271)est tea(cid:272)her or the (cid:449)orst tea(cid:272)her i(cid:374) the (cid:449)orld. He is (cid:374)ot the (cid:271)est so he is the (cid:449)orst. (cid:863)