Critical Reasoning 2020-2021 Lecture 3 PDF

University for Development Studies School of Public Health Lecture 3 – Critical Reasoning – Characteristics of Critical Thinkers and Argument structures By: Dr. Mustapha Alhassan Mobile: 0244 78 22 56 Email: [email protected] Office: S...

University for Development Studies School of Public Health Lecture 3 – Critical Reasoning – Characteristics of Critical Thinkers and Argument structures By: Dr. Mustapha Alhassan Mobile: 0244 78 22 56 Email: [email protected] Office: SAHS Building GF 12  Characteristics of Critical Thinkers Passionate drive for clarity, precision, and accuracy Careful, disciplined thinking Sensitivity to the ways that critical thinking can be prejudiced by egocentrism, wishful thinking and other psychological barriers Honesty and intellectual humility Open-mindedness, intellectual courage, love of truth, intellectual perseverance  Argument structure Logic: The study of arguments An argument is a sequence of statements – One is the conclusion to the others. All the others are premises. The premises provide evidence for the conclusion. EXAMPLES All humans are mortal. John is human. John is mortal. Musah did not write the Exams. Therefore, it couldn’t have been Musah got the fail.  FORMAL vs INFORMAL LOGIC Formal logic: the study of argument forms – abstract patterns common to many different arguments. valid invalid If P, then Q If P, then Q P Q Therefore, Q Therefore, P Informal logic: the study of particular arguments in natural language  PREMISES Premises and conclusions are always propositions (statements) – they can be true or false. They are not questions, commands or exclamations. Test: “It is true / not true that P” where P = a premise or a conclusion  NOTE In standard form, the conclusion appears at the end. In practice, the conclusion may appear anywhere.  Conclusions indicators Inference indicators: Indicate the role of a proposition in an argument. Conclusion indicators: There are no lights on. _____ no one is home. Therefore Thus Hence So For this reason Consequently It follows that Which proves/means that AS a result  Premise indicators Premise indicators: ____ there are no lights on, no one is home. Since Because Assuming that Seeing that Granted that In view of the fact that Inasmuch as CAUTION Conclusion and premise indicators don’t always indicate conclusions and premises: - It has been ages since I ate really eggs. - She’s so cute!  NON-ARGUMENTS 1. Reports 2. Unsupported Assertions 3. Conditional Statements 4. Illustrations 5. Explanations Reference https://thebestschools.org/magazine/15-logical-fallacies-know/