PHL100Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Anaximander, Rationality
Document Summary
Rationality will consist in achieving in the best way of whatever the goal may be (true belief and knowledge) If deductive: if premises are true, it"s impossible for the conclusion to be false, sound = valid and true premises (validity, if premises are true, sound argument. Non-deductive: intend to provide good reason for a set of good reasons for believing something, most arguments non-deductive (even if true, they don"t prove conclusion is true) Statements/propositions can be true or false, but cannot be valid or invalid. An argument is never true or false; they can be persuasive, good, bad, valid, invalid, sound, fallacious, etc. Premises can entail conclusion: ex. humans are mortal, socrates is a human, therefore socrates is mortal. If you start with false premises your argument can be valid, but still have no idea about the conclusion. Pre-scientific explanations tell stories: stories don"t explain anything, stories are intelligible because they assume we know how people behave in general.
