PHL105Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Blackboard, Thesis Statement, Reductio Ad Absurdum
Document Summary
Arguments are supposed to convince you of a conclusion. Deductive arguments try to give you logically conclusive grounds for the conclusion. Inductive arguments try to show that a conclusion is highly likely. If (smaller target) then (larger target): the antecedent guarantees the consequent. Saying yes to the antecedent, or no to the consequence. In real life, we always have two ways to resist the conclusion of an argument. 1 we can challenge one or more of the premises. 2 we can object the logical form of the argument. In evaluating validity, we only use technique #2 (we assume One key argument form: reductio ad absurdam ( reductio for short) In a reductio argument, we assume the opposite of our desire conclusion, and then show that a contradiction (or absurdity) follows from this assumption. We can then conclude that our assumption is false, and our desired conclusion is true: arguments: rational and irrational.
