Definitions

 

Reasoning - mental process of drawing a conclusion

 

Sentence - linguistic entity consisting of symbols in a specific language; classified as declarative, interrogative, imperative, etc...

 

Declarative Sentence (statement) - is either true or false. Any statement can function as a premise or a conclusion of arguments.

 

Proposition - a mental entity; contextual info conveyed by a statement.

'Clementine loves Dessy' and 'Dessy is loved by Clementine' are 2 different statements representing the same single proposition. This holds true across languages as well. Hence, it is the propositions that we use in the reasoning process.

 

Argument - a collection of propositions, one of which acts as the conclusion and the remaining (if there are any) act as the premises, which purport to support the conclusion.

Determining 'logicality' is about support that premises give to the conclusion, not about the truth-value of the premises or conclusion.

Example - All ducks are green, and all green things sing operas, so all ducks sing operas (correct argument).

- All kittens are animals, and all cats are animals, so all kittens are cats (incorrect argument).

 

Logic - the science that studies and evaluates correctness of arguments.

 

Inductive Criterion - is one of two criteria used to evaluate arguments. Accordingly, if all premises of an argument are true, then the conclusion is likely to be true. The

'verdict' of an inductive test is based on a scale from 'weak' to 'strong'. An argument is inductively strong if the premises provide strong evidence to support the conclusion.

 

Deductive Criterion - 2nd criterion used to evaluate arguments. According to this, if all premises of the argument are true, then the conclusion MUST be true.