PHIL 2100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Deductive Reasoning, Critical Thinking, Relativism

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 2100
• Professor: Yussif Yakubu

Document Summary

Lecture # 5 - some features of arguments. Critical thinking takes place in the mental environment: experience, thoughts, feelings. Some elements of the mental environment can undermine our ability to think critically. We are able to control these mental hindrances through effort and practice: two main groups of barriers to critical thinking. Subjective relativism: truth depends solely on what the individual believes. Philosophical skepticism: the belief that we can never really know anything. Two main forms of arguments: deductive argument: a deductive argument intends to provide a logically conclusive support for its conclusion. In a deductive argument, the truth of the premises guarantees the truth of the conclusion: inductive argument: an inductive argument intends to provide a probable (non-conclusive) support for its conclusion. There are many different argument types based on the way premises of the argument (fill in) Premise 1 -> premise 2 = conclusion.