PHIL 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Deductive Reasoning, Nerd, Fetus

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 150
• Professor: Kent Schmor

Document Summary

Statement (claim) not a question or a command: an assertion that something is or is not the case. A statement given in support of another statement: conclusion. A statement that premises are used to support: argument. One or more premises, which contain the evidence, and. A conclusion, which is supposed to follow from the premises. Deductive: a deductive argument intends to provide conclusive support for its conclusion, a deductive argument that succeeds in providing conclusive support for its conclusion is said to be valid. If a deductive argument fails at providing conclusive support for its conclusion, then it"s called invalid. Conclusion: so, gasoline is bleach: a deductively valid argument with true premises is said to be sound. Conclusion: so, kent must be a nerd: are the premises true, do those premises lead to this conclusion, these are two separate issues. A non-deductive argument is intended to provide probable support for its conclusion: inductive.