PHI 1101 Midterm: Test 1 Review
23 May 2018
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Test 1 Review
Chapter 1
The purpose of thinking critically is to come to correct conclusions !
Beliefs and claims are propositional: they can be expressed in true or false declaration
sentences !
Claim - when a belief (judgement, opinion) is asserted in a declarative sentence, the result is a
claim, statement, assertion !
An objective claim - whether it’s true or false is independent of whether people think its true or
false !
Ex. “There is life on mars” - whether or not life exist there doesn’t depend on whether people
think it does !
Subjective claim - whether a subjective is true or false is not independent of whether people
think its true or false !
Ex. Rice vinegar is too sweet - it depends on what YOU think !
Objective claim vs. Subjective claim !
An objective claim is true or false regardless of whether people think its true or false. Claims
that lack this are said to be subjective !
Relativism - the idea that truth is relative to the standards of a given culture !
Ex. If two cultures have different meaning to the word water, then neither of them are mistaken
for the meaning of the word itself!
Facts vs. Opinion - people sometimes refer to true objective claims as facts, and use the word
opinion to designate any claim that is subjective !
Factual claim - an objective claim. Saying saying that a claim is factual is not the same as
saying it is true. A factual claim is simply a claim whose truth does not depend on our thinking
it Is true !
Moral subjective - the idea that moral judgements are subjective. There is nothing either good
or bad but that thinking makes it so !
Issue - a question !
Argument - an argument consists of two parts - one part of which (the premise or premises) is
intended to provide a reason for accepting the other part (the conclusion)!
Argument - people sometimes use this word to refer just to an argument’s premise !
Argument and issues - the conclusion of an argument states a position on the issue under
consideration !
Cognitive bias - a feature of human psychology that skews belief formation. !
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Belief bias - evaluating reasoning by how believable its conclusion is !
Confirmation bias - a tendency to attach more weight to considerations that support our view !
Availability heuristic - assigning a probability to an event based on how easily or frequently It is
though of !
False consensus effect - assuming our opinions and those held by people around us are
shared by society at large !
Bandwagon effect - the tendency to align our beliefs with those of other people !
Negativity bias - attaching more weight on negative information than to positive information !
Loss aversion - being more strongly motivated to avoid a loss than to accrue a gain !
In-group bias - a set of cognitive biases that make us view people who belong to our group
differently from people who don’t !
Fundamental attribution error - having one understanding of the behaviour of people in the in-
group and another for people not in the in-group!
Obedience to authority - a tendency to comply with instructions from an authority !
Overconfidence effect - a cognitive bias that leads us to overestimate what percentage of our
answers on a subject are correct !
Better-than-average illusion - a self-deception cognition bias that leads us to overestimate our
own abilities relative to those of others !
Truth - a claim is true if it is free from error !
Knowledge - if you believe something, have an argument beyond a reasonable doubt that it is
so, and have no reason to think you are mistaken, you can claim you know it !
Chapter 2
Arguments always have two parts, a premise(s) and a conclusion !
The same statement can be a premise in one argument and a conclusion in a second argument !
The two fundamental types of reasoning are deductive demonstration and inductive support !
A deductive argument is used to demonstrate or prove a conclusion, which it does if it is sound !
An argument is sound if it is valid and its premise(s) is true !
An argument is valid if it isn’t possible for its premise(s) to be true and its conclusion to be false !
An inductive argument is used to support rather than to demonstrate a conclusion !
An argument supports a conclusion if it increases the likelihood that the conclusion is true !
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
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PHI 1101 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
The purpose of thinking critically is to come to correct conclusions. Beliefs and claims are propositional: they can be expressed in true or false declaration sentences. Claim - when a belief (judgement, opinion) is asserted in a declarative sentence, the result is a claim, statement, assertion. An objective claim - whether it"s true or false is independent of whether people think its true or false. There is life on mars - whether or not life exist there doesn"t depend on whether people think it does. Subjective claim - whether a subjective is true or false is not independent of whether people think its true or false. Rice vinegar is too sweet - it depends on what you think. An objective claim is true or false regardless of whether people think its true or false. Claims that lack this are said to be subjective. Relativism - the idea that truth is relative to the standards of a given culture.
