SSH 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Deductive Reasoning, Soundness

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Social Sciences and Humanities
• Course: SSH 105
• Professor: Thomas Hart

Document Summary

Make an argument good first, make it elegant later. The substance of an argument is the best guarantee of success. Window dressing is interesting, but non-functional where arguments are concerned. Arguments that show us that their conclusions are things worth knowing, believing or accepting are called good arguments. Those that fail to do this, that cause us to question their conclusions, make us uneasy, or are clearly not worth believing are called bad arguments. There are diff ways for arg to be good or bad because ther are diff types of arg. The two that concern us are called deductive arguments and inductive arguments. As we said, a deductive argument is intended to show conclusive reasons for accepting the conclusion. These are kinds of arguments you see lawyers and police using. In a deductive arg the premises should be definitive, undeniable, evidence for the conclusion. This is one of the most basic, and dominant, forms of reasoning.