PHIL 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Enthymeme, Abductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning
23 May 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
An argument is cogent just in case it makes its conclusion rationally credible that is, rationally believable. A strongly cogent argument provides a high degree of justification for its conclusion, while a weakly cogent argument might provide only a tentative or easily overturned justification for its conclusion. A deductively sound argument is fully cogent by these definitions: with true premises and valid structure, it demonstrates the truth of its conclusion. Arguments that are invalid simply don"t work; they are logical fallacies. These arguments presented as valid, the success of which would require their validity, but which have invalid forms. Enthymemes arguments are technically invalid in the sense that they have premises that are left unstated, which the audience is supposed to understand from the context. Deductive argument can be an enthymeme if some of premises required for it to be valid are left implicit.
