Premium Essay

Critical Thinking-Argumentation

In:

Submitted By Kirthana
Words 919
Pages 4
[pic]

PCR0025
Critical Thinking
All Foundation

ONLINE NOTES

Topic 3: Argumentation

• Argument is a claim put forward and defended with reasons. • Arguments are composed of: 1. Premises 2. Conclusion

• Statement: A sentence that can sensibly be regarded as either true or false. • 2 things about statements: 1. A sentence may be used to express more than one statement. 2. Not all sentences are statements. 3. Consider the CONTEXT in which particular expression is used.

Identifying Premises and Conclusions

1. Premise indicators • Since, for, seeing that, in view of the fact that, because, given that, being that, as, as indicated by.

2. Conclusion indicators • Therefore, hence, so, it follows that, that is why, wherefore, as a result, suggests that, thus, consequently, accordingly, for this reason, which shows that, implies that, we may infer that, proves that.

• 2 types of arguments: 1. Simple 2. Complex

• 5 types of nonarguments: 1. Reports 2. Unsupported statements of belief and opinion 3. Conditional statements 4. Illustrations 5. Explanations

Reports • To convey information about a subject, not to offer reasons why one statement should be accepted on the basis of others.

Unsupported statements of belief/opinion • No claim that these statements follow from or imply any other statements.

Conditional statements • “if-then” statements.

Illustrations • Intended to provide examples of a claim rather than to prove or support the claim.

Explanations • Try to show why something is the case, not to prove that it is the case.

Evaluating Arguments

• 2 questions: 1. Are the premises true? 2. Can the premises provide “good

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Skeptics

...practice of using critical thinking and reasoning to find justification in a supported assumption. David Hume was a supporter of skepticism, and was said to make “skeptical attacks” and to “offer positive theories based on natural beliefs”. To me it seems that Hume uses abductive argumentation because of his use of incomplete observations, he questions statements and theories. An example of this would be Hume’s view change multiple times through the years. Hume acknowledges that he discards extreme skepticism (Pyrrhonian Skepticism) but agrees with the moderate form of skepticism (Academic Skepticism), declaring that “no durable good can ever result from it [extreme skepticism]. Nevertheless, Hume recommended Academic Skepticism which tones down Pyrrohonism by utilizing caution and modesty in our decisions along with limiting our assumptions to intellectual reasoning and matters of fact. With Hume’s thoughts of skepticism, he has inclined Immanuel Kant to give his opinions on the matter. Kant states “Hume awoke him from “dogmatic slumber”” and that he was “heavily influenced by the empiricist philosophy of Hume”. Dogmatism, a person who asserts his or her opinion in an overconfident manner, would associate with deductive argumentation from its ability of purpose to expand through simple concepts without critique. They use belief to support their claims. To summarize skepticism in philosophy is not doubting somethings truth but instead is the practice of critical thinking and reasoning...

Words: 293 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Res/341 Research and Evaluation I

...people go to the Theatre; A qualitative study of audience motivation RES/341 Research and Evaluation I 02/19/12 Why people go to the Theatre; A qualitative study of audience motivation “Critical thinking is the disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.” (The Critical Thinking Community, 2011). The benefits of critical thinking include confidence, justice, mental improvements, stay open-minded, integrity, courage, empathy and perseverance. There are two characteristics of Critical thinkers; strong sense and weak sense approaches to critical thinking. The weak sense tends to be a self-centeredness, selfish way of thinking that uses lower-level skills of argumentation, and attempt to make unreasonable thinking look reasonable and reasonable thinking look unreasonable, according to our readings. This form of thinking can be easily seen in unethical lawyers, prosecutors, and politicians who are more concerned with winning than with being fair. They use emotionalism and trickery in an intellectually skilled way, (Paul, R....

Words: 733 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Assurance

...business, critical thinking, and communication. These are College-wide competencies adopted by the faculty for all majors in the College of Business. Please provide the following information at the top of your answer submission: First & Last Name, Panther ID, MAJOR, and Professor’s name. You are encouraged to do your best in this assessment. You do not need to perform web research in answering this question; your academic training at the College of Business Administration should have provided a good foundation and prepared you to provide an excellent answer. Use your time wisely while making sure you display excellent Global Thinking, Critical Thinking and Written Communication skills. Your response will be diligently checked for academic honesty and integrity, so if you feel obliged to research the answers you must appropriately cite your sources.  Please read the following question carefully. You may want to construct a brief outline of your answer on scratch paper before your begin writing in order to better organize your thoughts. You can type your responses directly on the attached document, save it and submit into the Turnitin.com Dropbox that can be found under the assignments tab in your Blackboard course. Your response will be evaluated based on three (3) criteria: • Your ability to apply a global perspective to a business problem, • Your written communication skills, and • Your critical thinking skills Success on the critical thinking portion...

Words: 998 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Critical Thinking

...Critical Thinking and Decision-making Ronald Williams Jr MGT/350 Mar-29-2010 Henry Kelley Critical Thinking and Decision-making To understand the relationship and role critical thinking plays in decision-making, people must first understand the meaning of the terms decision-making, and critical thinking. Illustrating the vast and always changing circumstances around an organization or decision maker, decision-making is not [an assembly line operation, it is messy, chaotic, and a twisted, unshapely, halting flow] (McCall & Kaplan, 1990). Meaning the decision-making process is constantly changing because of the influence of the rapidly changing internal and external factors on the decision maker. To conceptualize critical thinking, look at it as an active process of critical and creative inquiry, an active cognitive approach, and rational assessment of information. This process is, “Based on an understanding and awareness of logical analysis that permit a rational evaluation of arguments” (Sanders & Wiseman, 1994, para. 4). Knowing that decision-making is an ever changing process, with a multitude of influencing factors, and critical thinking is a process influenced by reasoning and logical evaluation of facts, circumstances, and events. Applying the critical thinking process to the decisions made every day will improve, clarify, and target the decisions made to the problem or issue, ultimately improving the ability to make better decisions, communicate...

Words: 868 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Critical Thinking

...Critical Thinking MGT350 July 2, 2012 Critical Thinking Critical thinking is applying, analyzing, and evaluating all the information gathered by your observations, experience, reasoning, and communication, as a guide to belief and action (The Critical Thinking Community, 1987). Strong-sense critical thinkers are not easily tricked by argumentation and intellectual trickery. A characteristic of critical thinkers is their consistent pursuit of the fair and the just. They are always ethical and willing to listen to arguments of ideas that they do not necessarily hold. They will change their views when faced with better reasoning (Paul & Elder, 2006). Within my careers I have had to use critical thinking quite often, especially in the firefighter/EMT field. The one specific incident that I recall where I used my critical thinking was an aid call that came into my crew at 2:00 a.m. of a 40+ year old man that was having heart problems. I was the one in charge of my three man crew that evening, and we responded to the call immediately. While at the house and examining the patient, we found him to be conscious and alert, but having chest pains. His wife wanted him transported to the hospital, but the patient was adamant that he did not want to go. After taking all of his vitals and speaking with the patient and his wife, it was my opinion that it was in his best interest to be seen at the hospital. The patient kept resisting, but after two hours of back...

Words: 723 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Assignment

...Much Nintendo A 17-year-old sued Nintendo and Toys R Us, claiming she suffered repetitive motion injury in her wrist from 7 months of playing home videogames. She asked for more than $10,000 in damages, claiming Nintendo didn't warn of such injuries and that some physicians have referred to Nintendo-related injuries as Nintendinitis. On what principle(s) would you make a decision in this case? How is it related to ethics? Answer: Many things that are praised or rewarded in contemporary life are unworthy. Things that are portrayed as important (e.g., money, power, advantage) often promote unethical conduct by encouraging rash, selfish, or unlawful behavior. Critical thinking is the ability to evaluate viewpoints, facts, and behaviors objectively in order to assess the presentation of information or methods of argumentation to establish the true worth or merit of an act or a course of conduct. Consider the case of the person who plans to host a Super Bowl football party at his house and decides he wants a large-screen plasma television for the party. Unfortunately, he cannot afford one, so he comes up with the idea of “buying” one using his credit card the week before the Super Bowl and then returning it to the store the week after the Super Bowl, claiming he “doesn’t like it” or it “takes up too much space.” Apparently, people have been doing this, and major electronics retailers are now charging restocking fees on returned products. Similarly, Best Buy stores have said that...

Words: 461 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Assumptions and Fallacies

...response to each of the following sets of questions: • What are assumptions? How do you think assumptions might interfere with critical thinking? What might you do to avoid making assumptions in your thinking? • What are fallacies? How are fallacies used in written, oral, and visual arguments? What might you do to avoid fallacies in your thinking? Cite and reference any sourced material consistent with Associate Level Writing Style Handbook guidelines. 1. According to The Random House Dictionary, assumptions is the act of taking for granted or supposing, act of taking to or upon oneself, act of taking possession, arrogance or presumption. In the reading from this week assumption is to take for granted, to expect things will be a certain way because they have been in the past or you want them that way. Assumptions effect critical thinking because if you take something for granted you may not think objectively about something. When I hear the word assume, It reminds me of a saying (to assume makes an *** out of you and me!) this saying helps me keep things in perspective and will assist in the critical thinking process. One way to avoid assumptions is to ask questions (play devils advocate) of the situation or material that you are working on. By getting a different perspective from someone else and compare your way of thinking to theirs to see if there are any flaws. By looking for flaws and avoiding assumptions a person will have a better end product or...

Words: 456 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Ideas

...COURSE DESCRIPTION This is a study in the development and application of the Biblical/Christian Worldview. This course will include an introduction and application of critical thinking skills, as well as a study of religious and philosophical worldviews, the nature of tolerance and basic apologetic methodology. RATIONALE APOL 104 is designed to deepen and broaden the student’s understanding of the core fundamentals of the Biblical/Christian Worldview, and to equip the student to present that view in the face of competing worldviews. The goal is to enable students to think more clearly and critically about Christianity and truth. It is also the goal to equip Christians to become more effective witnesses and participate more constructively in the larger socio-cultural debate. In order to accomplish this goal, we must (1) understand the essentials of Christian truth, (2) understand the historical opponents to Christianity and truth, and (3) present a biblical, logical, and reasonable defense of Christianity. Through studying worldviews, students can better understand the nature of humanity and individual conduct so that they are prepared to address relevant questions in a culture of relativism. As the apostle Paul states, “Know how you should respond to each person who asks us about such things” Col. 4:6 (NASB). By understanding worldviews, one acquires a powerful form of wisdom that characterized the sons of Issachar, “men who understood the times, with knowledge of what...

Words: 702 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Critical Thinking

...Critical Thinking Application Melissa Adams MGT/350 March 14, 2012 Steven Freund Critical Thinking Application As individuals, we are defined by thinking, and how we make choices is determined by our patterns of thinking and knowledge. We can develop standards for our thinking by using critical thinking. This will heighten the quality of thought. Critical thinking cannot be unstated or clear without first investigating the act of thinking itself. Surprisingly, even the ultimate geniuses in the world have problems truly understanding the thought processes of the human brain. “What goes on in your head when you have a thought...the answer must still be: we do not really know,” said author Gerald Edelman and Nobel laureate at the commencement of this millennium. We know a good deal about neuroelectrochemical processes and parts of the brain, but we still have so much to learn. We have greater knowledge of the universe’s basic principles, of our bodies, and of atoms than we do of the workings of our brains (Richard Paul, 2006). If we are unable to explain thinking in a physical sense, we are able to define it more easily as one of the brain’s activities that can possibly be communicated. Our critical thinking methods increase in quality thanks to critical thinking. Thus our competency of creating and successfully communicating our thoughts is also improved. A thought so adaptable and rich is difficult to boil down into a basic definition. To...

Words: 929 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Journal

...necessary for developing an academic paper. I will cover steps involved in researching a topic and collecting data to formulate an academic paper. The item critical thinking with the aspect of decision making will be covered in this document. The academic paper is a presentation of real understanding of the subject, the amount of hard work offered during the research. The document is to be well formatted and organized so that readers can read and escalate the ideas mentioned. Planning and Decision Making Writing an academic paper, initial requirement is gaining knowledge of the subject which is then later researched a lot for better writing flow. An analysis is a next step which leads to a perfect output as an academic paper. There are few necessary steps to develop a good academic paper. The first step is to analyze the paper to be discussed, the analysis is something important which is followed by a sequence of collecting information about the writing through reading many posts, articles or blogs or through research. It is also important it is crucial for students to make a note of the references or where information is gathered. In the same manner, the thesis should be thought of and organizing the material is another aspect to be planned well ahead. Once all these are done, draft and review the paper written. Critical thinking is an aspect students should require to involve in their academic paper. To meet successful writing and meet the academic...

Words: 1046 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Compare and Contrast

...Critical Thinking: Compare and Contrast Latrenda Suggs RSC 801, Section L11 Professor Barker Capitol College Abstract The constructs of this paper will compare and contrast the various definitions of critical thinking. Many of the scholarly articles that I have researched for this paper provide insight of various reasoning as to the ideas of what critical thinking means. Although the wording is very different for each definition they seem to overlap each of in a sense. Some of the researchers of these articles read as though they took a deeper reflection of what critical thinking means. Critical thinking is very important for people all of ages. Critical thinking is detrimental to a student’s success. Introduction Critical thinking is essential for students and people in everyday life. Critical thinking skills are what characterizes’ the way a person thinks and learn. Critical thinking is where ideas are formed. Many researchers interpret critical thinking in different ways. Critical thinking can be used in every field such as engineering, teaching, nursing and business. Some people don’t understand truly what critical thinking mean and how to access their full potential. In 2007 a study was conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics which reveals that the United States was behind the curve on critical thinking. Critical thinking methods aren’t being applied in schools as they should be. Students lack problem solving skills which lead to problems with...

Words: 1602 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Fallacies In Real Life Argument

...According to the textbook, in real life argumentation, the three main factors of underlying fallacies are misleading interpretation, mental carelessness combined with overflowing emotions, and the unexamined presumptions from the arguer point of view. Each of these examples strongly supports the underlying fallacies due to the fact that maybe the arguers may not be aware that the evidence he/she use is ineffective and shown lack of reasoning. Though sometimes the arguer understand his/her own errors in an argument, they might not corrected properly because they think that the audience does pay attention well enough in the speech. Such case becomes more complicated as the arguer tends to trick the person for believing his own words for individual...

Words: 389 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Phi210

...the sources and biases of the vast quantity of information that confronts us in the "Information Age." INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS Required Resources Soomo (2013). Critical Thinking. [Webtext]. Asheville, NC: Soomo Publishing. Note: For each week of the course, all of the following materials in the Preparation and Evaluation portions can be accessed through the Webtext link within Blackboard. The Activities portion (discussion question) will not be located in Webtext, but rather in a separate Blackboard link within your shell. Supplemental Resources Critical Thinking Community. (2013). Defining Critical Thinking. Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766 Ellerton, P. (2011). Reason to Think. Issues, (95), 33-35. ETS. (2013). Introduction to the Argument Task. Retrieved from http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/argument/ Holyoak, K., & Morrison, R. G. (2005). The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Hughes, W. (2000). Critical Thinking: An Introduction to the Basic Skills. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press. Philosophy Pages. (2011). Categorical Syllogisms. Retrieved from http://www.philosophypages.com/lg/e08a.htm Tittle, P. (2011). Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason. New...

Words: 912 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Fallacies

...Political-Editorial Cartoon By Gary Bacskay Kaplan University HU345 Professor Sean Choi 3-14-2014 I chose a cartoon that is portraying President Obama on a fighter jet exclaiming that we are in need of Defense Cuts. Photo by Michael Ramirez - Townhall http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/michaelramirez/2014/02/26/116552 This cartoon to me is describing how the government (with Obama in charge) is so far in debt, that the government is deciding where they need to cut back the federal budget. What better place to do that than taking money away from the military. This cartoon is displaying a military U.S. fighter jet in the sky with a person (President Obama) straddling the plane behind the cockpit holding a chain saw. It shows that the President just got done cutting the end or the back of the fighter jet off as the back of the jet is falling. There is a phrase that the President is saying, it says; “You Won’t Even Notice The Defense Cuts.” Thesis The most logical area to cut the national debt is by reducing the amount of money that is put into our military branches, but is this the best way to shrink our debt? There are those who think that we do not need our military. But I truly believe this is not the way to fix our problem. We need our military whether we like it or not. I know, and I feel much safer knowing that I have my fellow brothers and...

Words: 1351 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Appendix a

...Appendix A Final Project Overview and Timeline Final Project Overview The final project enables you to demonstrate problem-solving and decision-making skills developed throughout the course. The “Qualify or Not” Ethics Case on pp. 288-290 (Ch. 4) introduces an accounting professional who faces an ethical dilemma. Your task is to apply your understanding of philosophical approaches to ethical decision making and stakeholder impact analysis to resolve the ethical dilemma detailed in the Ethics Case. Decide upon an ethical course of action the accountant could take and support that action with critical thinking and argumentation. Analyze the case using the concepts involved in stakeholder impact analysis and the philosophical approaches to ethical decision making. Explain what you think the accountant should do. You might also refer back to resources from your Critical Thinking class to refresh your memory on topics such as structuring arguments that will help your write a persuasive paper. Final Project Timeline You should budget your time wisely and work on your project throughout the course. As outlined below, some assignments in the course are designed to assist you in creating your final project. If you complete your course activities and use the feedback provided by the instructor, you will be on the right track to successfully complete your project. □ Suggested in Week One: Read The Dilemma of an Accountant Ethics Case, which is the focus of the final project...

Words: 495 - Pages: 2