Argument fallacies you need to revise for the exam

Straw man

Slippery slope

Ad hominem

Reasoning from wrong actions

Generalisations

To prepare for Friday's exam, make sure you know how these fallacies work.  You can find many examples and exercises online.

In the exam, provide a full answer, beginning with the conclusion and then looking at the reasons given to support the conclusion. 

Words and phrases you need for the exam

Words and phrases you need for the critical thinking exam paper.

To curb:  to control or limit something in order to prevent it from having a harmful  effect.

A shift:  working for a period of time during the day or night.

Net borrowing:  net = the final amount that remains after all the other amounts have been taken away.

To allude to:  to mention something or someone indirectly.

He didn’t want to discuss the past, though he alluded to ‘some bad things that happened.’

To infer:  to inform the opinion that something is probably true because of the information that you have.

To evince:  to show a feeling or have a quality in a way that people can easily notice.

She evinced no surprise at seeing them together.

Causal relationship:  relating to the connection between two things, where one causes the other to happen or exist.

Premise

Syllogism

Implied overall conclusion

Underlying / necessary assumption

exam practice

State the implied overall conclusion of the arguments below.

More than 3.5 million people in Britain - 6% of the population - belong to a gym or fitness club, presumably thinking that exercise improves their quality of life.  However, growing numbers of scientists accept that punishing workouts are unnatural for the human body and may ultimately impair physical fitness, as demonstrated when Jim Fixx, the American pioneer of jogging, collapsed and died at the age of 52.

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Although we regard ourselves as much healthier than people a hundred years ago, we suffer from far higher rates of cancer, Alzheimer’s, motor neurone disease and other such illnesses.  This can be explained by our fast-paced, high-pressure, consumer-orientated urban lifestyle.  

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People who play violent video games are more aggressive, more likely to commit violent crimes and less likely to help others.  This is supported by many studies which have found this link and also found that players are more likely to be tense, frustrated, suffer from stress-related illnesses and ADHD.  This can be explained by the way violent video games activate the fight or flight mechanism, but provide no natural way to release it.  A real fight, or a real flight, would release the body’s adrenaline in a healthy way.

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Critical Thinking exam

Critical Thinking exam

The exam will be held on May 24th.

It is 80 minutes.

The exam is worth 30% of the total marks for this module.

The exam looks at five areas of critical thinking skills:

1/  analysing short arguments.

This means identifying the main conclusion and the reasons (or the premises), inferring the conclusion from the information given, and stating the implied overall conclusion of a short argument.

You also need to understand how syllogisms work, to judge whether or not the conclusions are valid.  

2/  Assumptions.  Underlying assumptions that are hidden, and necessary assumptions.

3/  Evaluating evidence.  Is the evidence relevant and sufficient?  Is the evidence credible?

4/  Logical fallacies.  You need to be able to identify the fallacy and explain why the reasoning does not support the conclusion.

5/  Text analysis.  You will be given a longer argument and a number of questions.  The questions will ask you about the conclusion, supporting reasons, use of evidence (relevance, sufficiency, neutrality/bias/credibility - the whole credibility issue).

Preparation work.

The orange book.

Implicit assumptions, p89.  Activity p90.

Premises, p42 and p91.  Activity p92

Evidence and credibility:  p129 - 131

reputable sources

authenticity and validity

currency and reliability

relevant and irrelevant evidence

Blue book

Evidence, credibility criteria p74

Evaluating the use of evidence, p147 - 151

Drawing conclusions (inferring conclusions) p126 - 128.

Welcome

Dear Everyone,

Welcome to Cambridge, the UK, EF and Critical Thinking class.

I hope you like this subject.  It will help you think, write and play.



William