PHIL 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Deductive Reasoning
Document Summary
Logic handout: an argument consists of a set of premises that given to support a conclusion, premises and conclusions are propositions that can be true of false. Arguments themselves are neither true nor false: truth is a relation between a proposition and the world. A proposition is true if and only if it accurately describes some part of the world. A true statement corresponds to the facts: a good argument is rationally persuasive. In other words, a good argument gives you good reasons to believe its conclusion. This can be a matter of degree: there are two basic types of arguments: deductive and inductive, a deductive is valid just in case the truth of the premises guarantees the truth of the conclusion. A sound argument always has a true conclusion: non-deductive arguments never prove their conclusions. Rather, they are said to be stronger or weaker.
