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D265Critical Thinking Reason and Evidence Latest Study
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D265Critical Thinking Reason and Evidence Latest Study Guide 2025 Critical Thinking - The ability to think carefully about thinking and reasoning--to criticize your own reasoning. Critical - Reflective, careful, or attentive to potential errors. Critical Thinking - Being curious and thinking creatively; Being billing to go the next step and think about all of the possible positions and arguments before settling into a position. Critical Thinking - Separating the thinking from the position; Removing personal opinion from the discussion and not making it personal against the other person. Critical Thinking - Knowing oneself enough to avoid biases and errors of thought; being thoughtful and aware of personal biases and working against them to challenge thinking. Critical Thinking - Understanding arguments ,reasons, and evidence; thinking carefully about thinking, about arguments, and positions. Propositions - Statements that can be true or false. Non-Proposition Sentences - Sentences that cannot be true or false; cannot disagree with them; cannot argue whether they're right or wrong; cannot question them. Simple Propositions - Proposition with no internal logical structure, meaning whether they are true or false does not depend on whether a part of them are true or false. They simply are true or false on their own. Complex Propositions - Propositions with an internal logical structure, meaning they are composed of simple propositions. Common Anatomy of an Argument -
One or more premises that are propositions that support or demonstrate at least one conclusion. Premise - Propositions/statements that support or demonstrate the conclusion. Conclusion - The point being made and offered for acceptance or rejection as the basis of an argument. Bad Inferential Structure - The argument's premises do not demonstrate or support the conclusion. We can accept the premises as true without being compelled to accept the conclusion. False Premise - The premises in an argument are false. Argument - A set of statements where the premises attempt to provide a reason for thinking that the conclusion is true. Conclusion Indicators - Therefore, Hence, We may conclude that, So, Thus, Implies that, It follows that, Entails that, As a result Premise Indicators - Because, In that, As indicated by, Given that, Since, For, As Inference - Argument Argument - Any purportedly rational movement from evidence or premises to a conclusion. Deductive Inferences - Arguments where the premises guarantee or necessitate the conclusion. Inductive Inferences - Arguments where the premises make the conclusion probable, at best.
Y = true. Therefore, X = true. Denying the Atecedent - Formal fallacy. If X, then Y. X = false. Therefore, Y = false. Modus Ponens - Good deductive structure. Opposite of Affirming the Consequent. If X, then Y. X = true. Therefore, Y = true. Modus Tollens - Good deductive structure. Opposite of Denying the Antecedent. If X, then Y. Y = false. Therefore, X = false. Humiliation Tactics - The goal of the argument is to "win" and even humiliate rather than to connect and understand. The Fallacy Fallacy - When someone uses the fact that a fallacy was committed to justify rejecting the conclusion of the fallacious argument. Red Herring Fallacy - When the arguer changes the subject to something irrelevant to the original topic. Begging the Question Fallacy - When an arguer assumes the truth of the conclusion in one or more of the premises. Content Collapse - Everything on the internet, particularly social media, seems to be taking place in "my context, right now".
Bias - Being predisposed to arrive at a conclusion, even if evidence does not support it. Principle of Charity - Interpreting someone's reasoning or argument in the best possible light. Disarm your Conversant - Letting your opponent know that you understand their position and why someone might believe it. Confirmation Bias - The natural tendency to seek out evidence supporting our beliefs and ignoring the evidence in the way of our beliefs. Confirmation Bias - Ignoring the evidence that undermines what we already believe and putting extra weight on evidence that supports what we already believe. Cognitive Bias - Quirks about the way we naturally categorize and make sense of the world around us. Includes aliefs and mental heuristics (representativeness, availability, and anchor and adjust heuristics) Alief - Automatic belief-type attitudes that can explain how our instinctual responses can conflict with our reasoned-out beliefs. Alief - Automatic or habitual belief-like attitudes--how we instinctively respond. Belief - What you have determined or rationalized consciously. Heuristic - Rule of thumb, a ready strategy, or a shortcut. Satisficing - Satisfy + suffice. Choices that are "good enough" to satisfy our needs. Bounded Rationality -
A form of selection bias. When individuals can opt themselves in to be included in a survey. Selective Reporting - Reporting the same data in different ways to achieve different rhetorical goals. Questions and Who is Taking the Survey - Two things that make or break a survey Non-Response Bias - The people who are most likely to complete a survey are systematically different from those who don't. Voluntary Response Bias - People who choose to respond to voluntary surveys are people who are different from the broader population. Underrepresentation - Random sampling and response bias may accidentally exclude small minority groups. Stratified Random Sampling - Splits the population into groups of interest and randomly selects people from each of the "stratas" so that each group in the overall sample is represented appropriately. Cluster Sampling - Creates clusters that are naturally occurring and randomly select a few clusters to survey, instead of randomly selecting individuals. Snowball Sampling - Used when respondent group is small and/or very specific. When current respondents are asked to help recruit people they know from the population of interest. Census - Surveys an entire population. The US does one every 10 years. Strong Inductive Generalization - A generalization based on an adequate number of relevant cases. Is the generalization based on a sufficient number of germane samples? -
Most relevant question to ask when seeking to identify an unwarranted statistical generalization. How to Counteract: Confirmation Bias - Actively seek out the best justifications for alternative viewpoints and make sure that, when an alternative viewpoint is rejected, it is for good reasons. How to Counteract: Representativeness Heuristic - Look for carefully conducted scientific studies or larger sets of data when available. How to Counteract: Anchoring Bias - Ask, "Is this sample really representative of the population under study?", or, "Do I have enough credible evidence to generalize about this?" System 1 Thinking - Thinking that is quick, automatic, and emotional. System 1 Thinking - Fast Thinking System 2 Thinking - Slow Thinking System 2 Thinking - Thinking that is deliberate, effortful, and calculating. Analysis Paralysis - No decision being made due to weighing too many factors. Narrow Framing - A tendency to see investments without considering the overall portfolio. Mental Accounting - The different values a person places on the same amount of money, based on subjective criteria, often with detrimental results. Numerate - A good basic knowledge of arithmetic; able to understand and work with numbers.
Versions of the Red Herring Fallacy -
Attempts to assume the truth or reasonableness of an idea based on (typically negative) consequences of accepting that idea. Equivocation Fallacy - The same word being used in two different sentences with two different meanings. Ad Hominem Fallacy - When one attacks the person making an argument rather than the argument itself. Genetic Fallacy - When one argues that the origin of an idea is a reason for rejecting or accepting that idea. Straw Figure (Man) Fallacy - When one misrepresents anothe's argument, then attacks the misrepresented (weaker) argument rather than the actual (stronger) argument. Red Herring Fallacy - When one introduces an irrelevant topic. Appeal to Authority Fallacy - When one appeals to an unqualified authority in support of one's claim. Appeal to Force Fallacy - When one uses a threat to compel agreement with one's claim. Appeal to Popularity Fallacy - When one appeals to the popularity of a belief as a reason to affirm its truth. Appeal to Consequences Fallacy - When one appeals to the good or bad consequences of accepting a claim as a reason to accept or reject it as true. Fallacy of Equivocation - When one's argument mistakenly uses the same word in two different senses. Appeal to Ignorance Fallacy - A fallacy that asserts that a proposition is either true or false because it has not been proven either way.
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc Fallacy - When someone claims some other event causes another just because the first event (the alleged cause) occurs before the second event (the alleged effect). Hasty Generalization Fallacy - When someone generalizes too quickly about a group of people, things, or events. Complex Questions Fallacy - The answer to a given question presupposes a prior question. AKA loaded or trick questions. False Dichotomy (Dilemma) Fallacy - A disjunction that does not exhaust all of the possible options. Either/or choices. Burden of Proof Shifting Fallacy - When one decides that someone else must prove them wrong when in reality, they are the person with the burden of proof. FalseDilemma (Dichotomy) Fallacy - When one presumes that there are fewer options (typically two) than there actually are. Begging the Question Fallacy - A circular argument in which a premise of the argument presumes the truth of its conclusion. Burden of Proof Shifting Fallacy - When one presumes that one's (implausible) claim is justified unless someone else demonstrates otherwise. Syllogism - Simple arguments; consist of one or two premises and one conclusion. Independent Premise Support - Each premise seems like an argument for the conclusion on its own. Conjoint Premise Support - The premise does not support the conclusion without the help of other premises. The General-Specific Pattern -
Two premises where one premise is a general definition, generalization, hypothetical/conditional, or general principle, and the other premise is a specific claim about an individual under than generalization. "Level" or "Layer" of an Argument Map - One horizontal row of a carefully drawn argument map. Main Conclusion - The final conclusion of the argument. Always the bottom-most layer in an argument map. Main Premise - One among the set of premises directly supporting the main conclusion. Always the second-to-bottom layer in an argument map. Sub-Inference - An inference from a premise to another premise. Sub-Premise - A premise in a sub-inference. Sub-Conclusion - A conclusion in a sub-inference. Hidden/Suppressed/Missing Assumptions/Premises - Assumptions that are part of the argument but are not explicitly stated. Normative Principle - A general rule that allows one to move from a simple statement of supposed fact to a prescription for what one should do.