Power Point Presentation by Chapter Critical Thinking The Art of Argument Slides designed by Ness A Creighton Send comments to tcreigton gsu edu Chapter One 1 Critical Thinking And Arguments Presentation by Ness A Creighton Learning Outcomes Identify arguments Identify the conclusion and premise s of arguments Distinguish arguments from explanations Put arguments into standard form Identify unstated premises and subarguments What is Critical Thinking Definition Critical Thinking is the skill of correctly evaluating the arguments made by composing good arguments of one s own others It is a skill that can be and should be used every day for the rest of your life Our course focuses on using this skill in the university setting how to think critically while in college What Critical Thinking IS NOT Being critical of people making arguments Knowing lots of facts about the content of arguments Evaluating the arguments of others without coming to conclusions Simply contradicting others What is an Argument If Critical Thinking is being able to construct and evaluate arguments then we need to know what an argument is first Argument Most people think of having a verbal fight when they use the word argument In this course we use argument to mean any attempt to provide reasons for thinking that some belief is true Identify An Argument The golden rod and asters adorn the roadsides the odors of the sweet gale and scented fern are wafted gratefully to our senses as we pass along the lanes and there among the fallen leaves at the very edge of the woods peers out a bright yellow mushroom brighter from the contrast to the dead leaves around and then another close by and then a shining white cap further on a mouse colored one gray and silky in texture What a contrast of colors Among the Mushrooms Ellen Dallas and Caroline Burgin Identify An Argument It is apparent that a thing is not necessarily bad because it is forbidden by the law Legislators are forever repealing and abolishing criminal statutes and organized society is constantly ignoring laws until they fall into disuse and die Not only are criminal statutes always dying by repeal or repeated violation but every time a legislature meets it changes penalties for existing crimes and makes criminal certain acts that were not forbidden before Crime Its Cause and Treatment Clarence Darrow What An Argument Is We have said an argument is any attempt to provide reasons for thinking that some belief is true There is more to an argument internally than just this however All arguments have a particular two part structure that we can identify Structure of an Argument The reasons are the premises and the belief being supported is the conclusion All arguments have A Conclusion the statement that the argument is intended to support Premises the statement s that are intended to support the conclusion One conclusion one argument Statements Both the conclusion and the premises are statements A statement is a sentence that makes a claim that can be either true or false Anything that is not capable of being either true or false is not a statement Things that are not statements do not belong in well formed arguments Spot the Statement 1 Read the instructions before doing any problems 2 There are four sentences on this 3 There are five words in this 4 How many words are in this page sentence sentence Spot the Statement There are four sentences on this page This is a true statement There are five words in this sentence This is a false statement Spot the Statement 1 Your state governor has an orange cat with 26 toes 2 What type of cat is it 3 There is an invisible cat on the 4 There are sixty cats on the moon at table this moment Spot the Statement Your state governor has an orange cat with 26 toes There is an invisible cat on the table There are sixty cats on the moon at this moment Note that you have little chance of knowing any of these things currently but each can be either true or false Non Declarative Statements People sometimes use non declarative sentences in a way that indicates they want to make an argument For example Don t you think a well formed argument is a good way to convince people of things In these cases the sentences can be rephrased as declarative sentences A well formed argument is a good way to convince people of things Truth Value We have talked about a statement being either true or false The more technical way of saying this is to say that a statement has a truth value of either true or false The truth value of this statement is F is another way of saying that the statement is false You may come across discussions in which you ll consider truth values besides true and false Don t worry about those for this class Statements vs Sentences Statement and Sentence are not interchangeable terms One statement may result from two sentences Both make the same claim Our diet influences our health daily What we eat impacts our ability to function every day One sentence may contain two statements One makes two claims Apples are red and they grow on short shrubby trees Finding Arguments It is easy to spot arguments in some passages Other times it can be very difficult To make the process of finding an argument in a passage easier here is a simple method A Method to the Madness 1 Look for an attempt to convince Look for a disagreement 2 Find the Conclusion Look for key words 3 Find the Premises Look for premise indicator words Conclusion Indicator Words so Therefore thus consequently hence accordingly proves that as a result for these reasons it follows that we infer that implies that means that which entails that we can show accordingly indicates that in fact in short it is clear that it is likely that shows that suggests that the point is it must be that serves to show that in conclusion demonstrates as a consequence so we see that is evidence that Premise Indicator Words since because for as based on follows from as shown by inasmuch as as indicated by reason may be inferred from derived from given that on account of due to suppose that for the reason seeing that is clear from insofar as assuming that on the grounds that granted that owing to Complicating Factors Unfortunately those three simple steps are too simple You need to know about some complications A Madness in the Method Unfortunately there are some complicating factors Indicator words are imperfect guides Sentence order may not indicate argument order Conclusions and premises are