2. Logic and critical thinking are intertwined
intellectual disciplines that shape how individuals
reason, solve problems and make decisions. They
provide frameworks for evaluating arguments,
understanding the world more clearly, and
approaching complex issues in a structured and
thoughtful manner. By honing these skills,
individuals develop the ability to navigate a variety
of scenarios with clarity, objectivity, and precision.
INTRODUCTION
4. Do you have a prior awareness of philosophy? If so, how do you
understand philosophy?
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5. Socrates once stated that
“Wonder is the feeling of a
philosopher, and philosophy
begins in wonder”.
6. What is Philosophy?
Therefore, the etymological meaning of philosophy is "love of wisdom" or "the
pursuit of knowledge and wisdom." In ancient Greece, philosophers were considered to be
individuals who loved knowledge and wisdom, and they were highly respected for their intellectual
pursuits.
The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek
word "philosophia," which is a combination of
two Greek words: "philo," meaning "love,"
and "sophia," meaning "wisdom" or
"knowledge."
7. Pythagoras was the first to use the word “philosopher” to call a
person who clearly shows a marked curiosity in the things he
experiences.
Seeking wisdom is among the various essences of philosophy
that it has got from its etymological definition. Nevertheless,
this is not sufficient by itself to understand philosophy, for not
all wisdoms are philosophy.
What do you think is the wisdom that philosophers seek?
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8. The wisdom that philosophers seek is not the wisdom of the
expertise or technical skills of professionals.
According to Socrates, wisdom consists of a critical habit and eternal
vigilance about all things and a reverence for truth, whatever its form, and
wherever its place. Based on the Socratic understanding of wisdom,
philosophy, as a pursuit of wisdom, is, thus, the development of critical
habits, the continuous search for truth, and the questioning of the
apparent.
Questioning/criticism is not the final end of philosophy, though raising the
right question is often taken not only as the beginning and direction of
philosophy but also as its essence. Raising the right question is an art that
includes the ability to foresee what is not readily obvious and to imagine
9. The philosophical enterprise, as Vincent Barry stated, is “an active
imaginative process of formulating proper questions and resolving them
by rigorous, persistent analysis”.
The essence of what philosophy is all about: it’s an active, creative, and analytical
process.
1. Active Imaginative Process:
Philosophy is not a passive or static activity. It requires active thinking, curiosity, and creativity. Philosophers
need to use their imagination to come up with new, important, and insightful questions about the world and
human experience.
2. Formulating Proper Questions:
Philosophy often starts by asking the right questions—questions that may not have easy answers but are
important for understanding the nature of life, morality, reality, and knowledge. These questions guide
philosophical inquiry.
3. Resolving by Rigorous, Persistent Analysis:
Once the right questions are formulated, philosophers engage in rigorous (careful and detailed) and
persistent (continuing over time) analysis. They evaluate different ideas, challenge assumptions, and
critically examine arguments to come to a deeper understanding or to find a solution.
10. BASIC FEATURES OF PHILOSOPHY
1. Philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life and the universe, which
are often held uncritically.
2. Philosophy is a process of reflecting on and criticizing our most deeply
held conceptions and beliefs.
3. Philosophy is a rational attempt to look at the world as a whole.
4. Philosophy is the logical analysis of language and the clarification of
the meaning of words and concepts.
5. Philosophy is a group of perennial problems that interest people and for
which philosophers always have sought answers.
11. CORE FIELD OF PHILOSOPHY
1.Metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the ultimate nature
of reality or existence. It deal with issues of reality, God, freedom,
soul/immortality, the mind-body problem, form and substance
relationship, cause and effect relationship, and other related issues.
The term metaphysics is derived from the Greek words “meta” means
(“beyond”, “upon” or “after”) and physika, means (“physics”). Literally, it
refers ‘those things after the physics.’
12. CORE FIELD OF PHILOSOPHY
Here are some of the questions that Metaphysics primarily deals with:
What is reality?
What is the ultimately real?
What is the nature of the ultimate reality?
Is it one thing or is it many different things?
Can reality be grasped by the senses, or it is transcendent?
What makes reality different from a mere appearance?
What is mind, and what is its relation to the body?
13. Is there a cause and effect relationship between reality and
appearance?
Does God exist, and if so, can we prove it?
Are human actions free, or predetermined by a supernatural
force?
What is human being? A thinking mind?A perishable body? Or
a combination of both?
What is time?
What is the meaning of life?
14. Metaphysical questions may be divided into four subsets or aspects.
A.Cosmological Aspect: Cosmology consists in the study of theories about the origin
, nature, and development of the universe as an orderly system.
ex. “How did the universe originate and develop?
B. Theological Aspect: Theology is that part of religious theory that deals with
conceptions of and about God.
ex. “Is there a God?
C.Anthropological Aspect: Anthropology deals with the study of human beings
ex. What is the relation between mind and body?
D. Ontological Aspect: Ontology is the study of the nature of existence, or what it means
for anything to exist.
ex. “Is basic reality found in matter or physical energy
(the world we can sense), or is it found in spirit or spiritual energy?
15. 2. Epistemology
Epistemology is the other field of philosophy that studies
about the nature, scope, meaning, and possibility of
knowledge. It deals with issues of knowledge, opinion, truth,
falsity, reason, experience, and faith. Epistemology is also
referred to as “theory of knowledge”.
Etymologically, the word epistemology has been derived from
the Greek words episteme, meaning “knowledge,
understanding”, and logos, meaning “study of ”.
16. The following are among the questions/issues with
which Epistemology deals:
What is knowledge? What does it mean to know?
What is the source of knowledge? Experience? Reason? Or
both?
How can we be sure that what we perceive through our
senses is correct?
What makes knowledge different from belief or opinion?
What is truth, and how can we know a statement is true?
17. Can reason really help us to know phenomenal things
without being informed by sense experiences?
Can our sense experience really help us to know things
beyond our perception without the assistance of our
reasoning ability?
What is the relationship and difference between faith and
reason?
18. Skepticism in its narrow sense is the position claiming that
people cannot acquire reliable knowledge and that any search for
truth is in vain
Agnosticism is a profession of ignorance in reference to the
existence or nonexistence of God.
1. Emperical knowledge - empiricism (knowledge obtained through the
senses
2. Rationalism- reasoning, thought, or logic
Sources of Human Knowledge
19. 3. Intuition- occurs beneath the threshold of
consciousness and is often experienced as a
sudden flash of insight.
4. revelation- presupposes a transcendent
supernatural reality
5. authority.- comes from experts or has been
sanctified over time as tradition
20. 3. Intuition- occurs beneath the threshold of
consciousness and is often experienced as a
sudden flash of insight.
4. Revelation- presupposes a transcendent
supernatural reality
5. Authority.- comes from experts or has been
sanctified over time as tradition
21. 3. Axiology
Axiology is the study or theory of value. The term Axiology stems
from two Greek words- “Axios”, meaning “value, worth”, and “logos”,
meaning “reason/ theory/ symbol / science/study of ”. Hence, Axiology
is the philosophical study of value, which originally meant the worth of
something.
Axiology asks the philosophical questions of values that deal with notions of what a person or a society regards as
good or preferable, such as:
What is a value?
Where do values come from?
How do we justify our values?
How do we know what is valuable?
What is the relationship between values and knowledge?
What kinds of values exist?
Can it be demonstrated that one value is better than another? Who benefits from
22. 4. Ethics
Ethics, which is also known as Moral Philosophy, is a science that deals with the
philosophical study of moral principles, values, codes, and rules, which may be used as
standards for determining what kind of human conduct/action is said to be good or bad,
right or wrong.
Ethics raises various questions including:
What is good/bad?
What is right/wrong?
Is it the Right Principle or the Good End that makes human action/conduct moral?
Is an action right because of its good end, or it is good because of its right principle?
Are moral principles universal, objective, and unconditional, or relative, subjective and
conditional?
What is the ultimate foundation of moral principles? The supernatural God? Human
reason? Mutual social contract? Social custom?
Does God exist? If so, is He Benevolent and Omnipotent?
23. 3 Main Branches
1.Normative Ethics refers to the ethical studies that attempt to
study and determine precisely the moral rules, principles,
standards and goals by which human beings might evaluate and
judge the moral values of their conducts, actions and decisions.
2. Meta-ethics is the highly technical philosophical discipline that
deals with investigation of the meaning of ethical terms, including
a critical study of how ethical statements can be verified.
3. Applied Ethics is a normative ethics that attempts to explain,
justify, apply moral rules, principles, standards, and positions to
specific moral problems.
24. The following are typical Aesthetic questions:
What is art?
What is beauty?
What is the relation between art and beauty?
What is the connection between art, beauty, and truth?
Can there be any objective standard by which we may judge the beauty of
artistic works, or beauty is subjective?
Does art have any moral value, and obligations or constraints?
Are there standards of quality in Art?
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is the theory of beauty. It studies about the particular
value of our artistic and aesthetic experiences. It deals with
beauty, art, enjoyment, sensory/emotional values, perception,
and matters of taste and sentiment.
25. BASIC CONCEPTS OF LOGIC: ARGUMENTS, PREMISES
AND CONCLUSIONS
People use words like "logic" and "logical" a lot, often
without really understanding what they mean.
26. o The word logic comes from Greek word logos,
which means sentence, discourse, reason, truth and
rule.
Logic is a science that helps to develop the method and principles that we
may use as a criterion for evaluating the arguments of others and as a
guide to construct good arguments of our own.
Logic is a science that evaluates arguments.
Logic is the study of methods for evaluating arguments. More precisely,
logic is the study of methods for evaluating whether the premises of
arguments adequately support or provide a good evidence for the
conclusions.
Logic is the attempt to codify the rules of rational thought. Logicians
explore the structure of arguments that preserve truth or allow the
optimal extraction of knowledge from evidence.
Logic is one of the primary tools philosophers use in their inquiries. The
precision of logic helps them to cope with the subtlety of philosophical
problems and the often misleading nature of conversational language.
27. Argument is a technical term and the chief concern of
logic.
Arguments from logical point of view, it is a group of statements, one or
more of which (the premise) are claimed to provide support for, or
reason to believe, one of the other, the (conclusion).
What is a statement?
A statement is a declarative
sentence that has a truth-value
of either true or false
Example # 1
a)Dr. Abiy Ahmed the current Prime Minister of Ethiopia.
b)Mekelle is the capital city of Tigray Region.
c) Ethiopia was colonized by Germany
.
WHAT IS ARGUMENT?
First, an argument is a group of statements
28. EXAMPLE# 2
a) Would you close the window? (Question)
b) Let us study together. (Proposal)
c) Right on! (Exclamation)
d) I suggest that you read philosophy texts.
(Suggestion)
e) Give me your ID Card, Now! (Command)
29. Second, the statements that make up an argument
are divided into premise(s) and conclusion. Hence, an
argument is a group statement, which contains at least
one premise and one and only one conclusion
Argument always attempts to justify a claim.
• The claim that the statement attempts to justify is known as a conclusion of
an argument; and
• the statement or statements that supposedly justify the claim is/are known
as the premises of the argument
Premise- is a statement that set forth the reason or
evidence, which is given for accepting the conclusion
of an argument
Conclusion is a statement, which is claimed to
follow from the given evidence (premise
30. Example-1:
1)All Ethiopians are Africans. (Premise 1)
Tsionawit is Ethiopian. (Premise2)
Therefore, Tsionawit is African. (Conclusion)
Example-2:
2)Some Africans are black. (Premise-1)
Zelalem is an African. (Premise-2)
Therefore, Zelalem is black. (Conclusion)
31. But how can we distinguish premises from conclusion
and vice versa?
The first technique that can be used to identify premises from a conclusion and
vice versa is looking at an indicator word. Frequently, arguments contain certain
indicator words that provide clues in identifying premises and conclusion.
Therefore
Wherefore
Accordingly
Provided that
It must be
that
We may
conclude
Entails that
Hence
It shows that
Whence
Thus
Consequently
We may infer
It implies that
As a result
So
It follows that
Here below are some Conclusion
Indicators:
32. In argument that contains any of the conclusion indicator words,
the statement that follows the indicator word can usually be
identified as the conclusion. By the process of elimination, the other
statements in the argument can be identified as premises, but only
based on their logical importance to the identified conclusion.
Example:
Women are mammals.
Zenebech is a woman.
Therefore, Zenebech is a mammal.
Based on the above rule, the conclusion of this argument is
“Zenebech is a mammal” because it follows the conclusion indicator
word “therefore”, and the other two statements are premises. If an
argument does not contain a conclusion indicator, it may contain a
premise indicator.
33. In that
May be inferred
from
Inasmuch as
For the reason
that
Here below are some typical Premise
Indicators:
Since
As
indicated
by
Because
Owing to
Seeing
that
Given
that
As
For
34. In argument that contains any of the premise
indicator words, a statement that follows the
indicator word can usually be identified as a
premise. By same the process of elimination, the
other remaining single statement will be a
conclusion.
Example:
You should avoid any form of cheating on exams
because cheating on exams is punishable by the
Senate Legislation of the University.
35. Sometimes a single indicator can be used to identify more than one
premise.
Ex.
Tsionawit is a faithful wife, for Ethiopian women are faithful wives and Tsionawit an
Ethiopian.
The premise indicator ‘‘for’’ goes with both ‘‘Ethiopian women are faithful wives’’
and ‘‘Tsionawit is an Ethiopian”. These are the premises. By process of elimination,
‘‘Tsionawit is a faithful wife” is the conclusion.
Sometimes you may have an argument that contains no indicator at all: neither a
conclusion indicator word nor a premise indicator word. When this occurs, the reader/
listener must ask himself or herself such questions as:
What single statement is claimed (implicitly) to follow from the others?
What is the arguer trying to prove?
What is the main point in the passage?
The answers to these questions should point to the conclusion.
Example:
Our country should increase the quality and quantity of its military. Ethnic conflicts are
recently intensified; boarder conflicts are escalating; international terrorist activities are
increasing.
36. The main point of this argument is to show that the country should increase the size
and quality of its military. All the rest are given in support of the conclusion. As you
can see there are no indicator words. The following is the standard form of this argument:
Ethnic conflicts are recently intensified. (P-1)
Boarder conflicts are escalating. (P-2)
International terrorist activities are increasing. (P-3)
Thus, the country should increase the quality and quantity of its military. (C)
Passages that contain arguments sometimes contain statements that are neither
premises nor conclusion. Only statements that are actually intended to support the
conclusion should be included in the list of premises. If a statement has nothing to
do with the conclusion or, for example, simply makes a passing comment, it should
not be included within the context of the argument.
Example:
Socialized medicine is not recommended because it would result in a reduction in
the overall quality of medical care available to the average citizen. In addition, it
might very well bankrupt the federal treasury. This is the whole case against
socialized medicine in a nutshell.
37. Techniques of Recognizing Arguments
Not all passages contain argument. a passage contains an argument
if it purports to prove something; if it does not do so, it does not
contain an argument.
But what does it mean to purport to prove something?
Two conditions must be fulfilled for a passage to purport to prove
something:
1) At least one of the statements must claim to present evidence or
reasons.
2) There must be a claim that the alleged evidence or reasons supports or
implies something- that is, a claim that something follows from the
alleged evidence.
The first condition expresses a factual claim.
The second condition expresses what is called an inferential
claim.
explicit or
38. An explicit inferential claim is usually asserted by
premise or conclusion indicator words (‘‘thus,’’ ‘‘since,’’
‘‘because,’’ ‘‘hence,’’ ‘‘therefore,’’ and so on).
Example: Gamachuu is my biological father, because my mother told so.
An implicit inferential claim exists if there is an inferential
relationship between the statements in a passage, but the
passage contains no indicator words.
Example: The genetic modification of food is risky business. Genetic engineering can
introduce unintended changes into the DNA of the food-producing organism, and
these changes can be toxic to the consumer.
39. Recognizing Non-argumentative Passages
Simple non-inferential passages are unproblematic passages
that lack a claim that anything is being proved.
PASSAGES OF THIS SORT INCLUDE:
1. A warning is a form of expression that is intended to put
someone on guard against a dangerous or detrimental
situation.
Example:
Whatever you promise to tell, never confide political secrets to your wife.
PASSP
40. 2. A piece of advice is a form of expression that makes a
recommendation about some future decision or course of
conduct.
Example:
After class hours, I would suggest that you give careful
consideration to the subject matter you have discussed.
.
3. A statement of belief or opinion is an expression about
what someone happens to believe or think about something.
Example:
We believe that our university must develop and produce outstanding
students who will perform with great skill and fulfill the demands of our
nation.
41. 4. Loosely associated statements may be about the same general
subject, but they lack a claim that one of them is proved by the others.
Example:
Not to honor men of worth will keep the people from contention; not to
value goods that are hard to come by will keep them from theft; not to
display what is desirable will keep them from being unsettled of mind.
(Lao-Tzu, Thoughts from the Tao Te
Ching)
5. A report consists of a group of statements that convey
information about some topic or event.
Example # 1:
The great renaissance dam of Ethiopia has opened an employment
opportunity for thousands of Ethiopians. In its completion, thirteen
thousand Ethiopians are expected to be hired.`
42. Example # 2:
“The Air Force faces a serious shortage of experienced pilots in the years
ahead, because repeated overseas tours and the allure of high paying jobs
with commercial airlines are winning out over lucrative bonuses to stay in the
service,” says a prominent Air Force official. (Newspaper clipping)
Expository Passages
An expository passage is a kind of discourse that begins
with a topic sentence followed by one or more
sentences that develop the topic sentence. If the
objective is not to prove the topic sentence but only to
expand it or elaborate it, then there is no argument
43. Example: There is a stylized relation of artist to mass audience in the
sports, especially in baseball. Each player develops a style of his own-the
swagger as he steps to the plate, the unique windup a pitcher has, the
clean-swinging and hard-driving hits, the precision quickness and grace of
infield and outfield, the sense of surplus power behind whatever is done.
(Max Lerner, America as a Civilization)
Illustrations
An illustration is an expression involving one or more examples that
is intended to show what something means or how it is done.
Illustrations are often confused with arguments because many
illustrations contain indicator words such as “thus.”
Example:
Chemical elements, as well as compounds, can be represented by molecular
formulas. Thus, oxygen is represented by “O2”, water by “H2O”, and sodium
chloride by “NaCl”.
44. Explanations
One of the most important kinds of non-argument is the
explanation. An explanation is an expression that
purports to shed light on some event or phenomenon,
which is usually accepted as a matter of fact. It attempts
to clarify, or describe such alike why something is
happen that way or why something is what it is.
Example:
Cows digest grass while humans cannot, because their
digestive systems contain enzyme not found in humans.
45. Every explanation is composed of two distinct components:
A. Explanandum is the statement that describes the event
or phenomenon to be explained.
B. Explanans is the statement or group of statements that
purports to do the explaining. In the first example, the
explanandum is the statement
46. Conditional Statements
A conditional statement is an “if . . . then . . .” statement.
• The component statement immediately following the “if” is
called the antecedent (if-clause),
Example: If you study hard, then you will score ‘A’ grade.
• The one following the “then” is called the consequent (then-
clause
For example: if we left out “then” from the above example the
antecedent and consequent is reversed: You will score ‘A’
grade if you study hard.
47. Conditional statements are not arguments
In a conditional statement, there is no claim that either the antecedent or the
consequent presents evidence
48. • Some conditional statements are similar to arguments in that
they express the outcome of a reasoning process. As such, they
may be said to have a certain inferential content.
Example:
If destroying a political competitor gives you joy, then you have a low
sense of morality
• The conditional statement can be re-expressed to form an
argument .
Example:
Destroying a political competitor gives you joy. Therefore, you have a
low sense of morality.
49. • While no single conditional statement is an
argument, a conditional statement may serve as
either the premise or the conclusion (or both) of an
argument
Example:
If he is selling our national secretes to enemies, then he is a
traitor. He is selling our national secretes to enemies.
Therefore,
he is a traitor.
If he is selling our national secretes to enemies, then he is a
traitor. If he is a traitor, then he
must be punished by death.
Therefore, If he is selling our national secretes to enemies, then he must be punished by death.
50. The relation between conditional statements
and arguments may now be summarized as
follows:
1)A single conditional statement is not an
argument.
2)A conditional statement may serve as either
the premise or the conclusion (or both) of an
argument.
3)The inferential content of a conditional
statement may be re-expressed to form an
51. Conditional statements are especially important in logic (and many other fields) because they
express the relationship between necessary and sufficient conditions. A is said to be a sufficient
condition for B whenever the occurrence of A is all that is needed for the occurrence of B. For
example, being a dog is a sufficient condition for being an animal. On the other hand, B is said
to be a necessary condition for A whenever A cannot occur without the occurrence of B. Thus,
being an animal is a necessary condition for being a dog.
On the other hand, suppose you are told that whatever might be in the box, it is not an animal.
Then you know for certain there is no dog in the box. The reason you can draw this conclusion is
that being an animal is necessary for being a dog. If there is no animal, there is no dog.
On the other hand, suppose you are told that whatever might be in the box, it is not an
animal. Then you know for certain there is no dog in the box. The reason you can draw
this conclusion is that being an animal is necessary for being a dog. If there is no
animal, there is no dog. However, being an animal is not sufficient for being a dog,
because if you are told that the box contains an animal, you cannot, from this
information alone, conclude that it contains a dog. It might contain a cat, a mouse, a
squirrel, and so on. These ideas are expressed in the following conditional statements:
If X is a dog, then X is an animal.
If X is not an animal, then X is not a dog.
52. In deciding whether a passage contains an argument, you should
look for three things:
1) indicator words such as “therefore,” “since,” “because,” and so
on;
2) an inferential relationship between the statements; and
3) typical kinds of non-arguments
53. In many arguments that lack indicator words, the
conclusion is the first statement.
Furthermore, it helps to mentally insert the word
“therefore” before the various statements before
deciding that a statement should be interpreted as a
conclusion.
54. Types of Arguments
Deductive Arguments
- A deductive argument is an argument incorporating the claim that it is impossible
for the conclusion to be false given that the premises are true. It is an argument in
which the premises are claimed to support the conclusion in such a way that it is
impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false. In such arguments,
the conclusion is claimed to follow necessarily (conclusively) from the premises.
Thus, deductive arguments are those that involve necessary reasoning.
Example-1:
All philosophers are critical thinkers.
Socrates is a philosopher.
Therefore, Socrates is a critical thinker.
55. Example-2:
All African footballers are blacks.
Messi is an African footballer.
It follows that, Messi is black.
Inductive Arguments
An inductive argument is an argument incorporating the
claim that it is improbable for the conclusion to be false
given that the premises are true. . It is an argument in
which the premises are claimed to support the
conclusion in such a way that it is improbable for the
premises to be true and the conclusion false.
56. Example-1:
Most African leaders are blacks.
Mandela was an African leader.
Therefore, probably Mandela was black.
Example-2:
Almost all women are mammals.
Hanan is a woman.
57. 1. The occurrence of special indicator words.
Example:
“certainly,’’ “necessarily,” ‘‘absolutely,’’ and ‘‘definitely’’ indicate that the
argument should be taken as deductive, whereas words like,
“probable” ‘‘improbable,’’ ‘‘plausible,’’ ‘‘implausible,’’ ‘‘likely,’’
‘‘unlikely,’’ and ‘‘reasonable to conclude”
2) The actual strength of the inferential link between
premises and conclusion.
3) The character or form of argumentation the
arguers use.
Differentiating Deductive and Inductive
Arguments
58. Instances of Deductive Argumentative Forms
Argument based on mathematics: it is an argument in which the conclusions
depend on some purely arithmetic or geometric computation or measurement
Ex.
You can put two orange and three bananas in a bag and conclude that the bag
contains five fruits. Or again you can measure a square pieces of land and after
determining it is ten meter on each side conclude that its area is a hundred square
meter.
Arguments based on definition: it is an argument in which the
conclusion is claimed to depend merely up on the definition of
some words or phrase used in the premise or conclusion.
Ex.
One may argue that Angel is honest; it is follows that Angel tells the
truth. Or again, Kebede is a physician; therefore, he is a doctor.
59. Syllogisms are arguments consisting of
exactly two premises and one conclusion.
A. Categorical syllogism: a syllogism is an argument consisting of
exactly two premises and one conclusion. Categorical syllogism is a
syllogism in which the statement begins with one of the words “all”,
“no” and “some”.
Example:
All Egyptians are Muslims.
No Muslim is a Christian. Hence,
no Egyptian is a Christian.
60. B. Hypothetical syllogism: It is a syllogism having a
conditional statement for one or both of its premises.
Example:
If you study hard, then you will graduate with Distinction.
If you graduate with Distinction, then you will get a rewarding
job.
Therefore, if you study hard, then you will get a rewarding job.
C. Disjunctive syllogism: it is a syllogism having a disjunctive statement.
(I.e. an “either … or” statement.)
Example:
Rewina is either Ethiopian or Eritrean.
Rewina is not Eritrean.
Therefore, Rewina is Ethiopian.
61. Instances of Inductive Argumentative Forms
A. Prediction: in a prediction the premises deals with some known event in
the present or the past and the conclusions moves beyond this event to some
event to relative future.
Ex.
One may argue that because certain clouds develop in the center of the
highland, a rain will fall within twenty-four hours
B.An argument from analogy: It is an argument that depends on the
existence of an analogy or similarity between two things or state of
affairs. Because of the existence of this analogy a certain conditions
that affects the better- known thing or situations is concluded to affect
the less familiar , lesser known-thing or situation.
Ex.
one may conclude, after observing the similarity of some features of
Computer A and car B: that both are manufactured in 2012; that both
are easy to access; that Computer A is fast in processing; it follows that
Computer B is also fast in processing.
62. C. An inductive generalization: it is an argument that proceeds
from the knowledge of a selected sample to some claim about the
whole group. Because the members of the sample have a certain
characteristics, it is argued that all members of the group have the
same characteristics.
Ex.
One may argue that because three out of four people in a single
prison are black, one may conclude that three-fourth of prison
populations are blacks
D. An argument from authority: it is an argument in which
the conclusions rest upon a statement made by some
presumed authority or witness.
Ex.
A lawyer, for instance, may argue that the person is guilty
because an eyewitness testifies to that effect under oath. Or
again one may argue that all matters are made up of a small
particles called “quarks” because the University Professor said
so
63. E.Arguments based on sign: it is an argument that proceeds from the
knowledge of a certain sign to the knowledge of a thing or situation
that the sign symbolizes.
Ex.
One may infer that after observing ‘No Parking’ sign posted on the side
of a road, the area is not allowed for parking
F. A causal inference: it is an argument which proceed from the
knowledge of a cause to the knowledge of an effect, or conversely,
from the knowledge of an effect to knowledge of a cause
Ex.
From the knowledge that a bottle of water had been accidentally left in the
freezer overnight, someone might conclude that it had frozen (cause to effect).
Conversely, after tasting a piece of chicken and finding it dry and tough, one
might conclude that it had been overcooked (effect to cause).
64. Validity, Truth, Soundness, Strength,
Cogency
A Valid Argument is a deductive argument in
which, if the premises are assumed true, it is
impossible for the conclusion to be false. In such
arguments, the conclusion follows with strict
necessity from the premises.
For example;
All birds are mammals.
A crocodile is a bird.
Therefore, the crocodile is a mammal.
65. An Invalid Argument is a deductive
argument such that if the premises are
assumed true, it is possible for the conclusion
to be false. In these arguments the conclusion
does not follow with strict necessity from the
premises, even though it claimed to.
Here is an example of valid argument having a false premise and false
conclusion:
All auto makers are computer manufacturers;
NOKIA is an auto maker.
Therefore, NOKIA is a computer manufacturer.
All banks are financial organizations.
Nyala Insurance Company is a financial organization.
Therefore, Nyala Insurance Company is a bank.
66. A Sound Argument is a deductive argument that is valid
and has all true premises. Both conditions must be met
for an argument to be sound, and if either is missing the
argument is unsound.
For example:
All trees are plants.
Acacia is a tree.
Therefore, acacia is a plant.
67. Unsound Argument is a deductive argument that is invalid, has one or more false premises, or both
A Strong Argument is an inductive argument such that if the premises are assumed true, then based
on the assumption it is probable that the conclusion is true.
Ex.
This mini-library contains over 10,000 books. 1000 books selected at random were found to be written
on philosophy. Thus, it is likely that all of the books in the minilibrary are books written on philosophy.
(Strong Inductive Argument)
A weak Argument is an inductive argument such that if the premises are assumed true, then based
on that assumption it is not probable that the conclusion is true.
Examples:
This mini-library contains over 10,000 books. 50 books selected at random were found to be written on
philosophy. Thus, it is likely that all of the books in the minilibrary are books written on philosophy.
(Weak Inductive Argument
.
