PHIL 2020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Deductive Reasoning, Informal Fallacy, Critical Thinking

• School: University of Georgia
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 2020
• Professor: Sean Meslar

Document Summary

Heuristics, algorithms and arguments: heuristics and algorithms each have an analogous type of argument. What are they: algorithms are like deductive arguments, since they conclude in a claim with the strongest modality, heuristics are like inductive arguments, since they admit of error, but can be easier to use given limited resources. It is the work of psychology to diagnose when, if, and to what extent people use heuristics and algorithms. Critical thinking, heuristics and algorithms: heuristics get a bad rap; most of the time, when attempting to solve a problem, we have insufficient information, or lots of extraneous information. Heuristics can help to bridge these gaps: the(cid:396)e a(cid:396)e, of (cid:272)ou(cid:396)se, ti(cid:373)es at (cid:449)hi(cid:272)h the(cid:455) (cid:272)a(cid:374) lead us ast(cid:396)a(cid:455). Tha(cid:374)kfull(cid:455), the(cid:396)e(cid:859)s a skill that allo(cid:449)s people to reflect on the reliability and relevance of their thought-processes, and revise them on the merits of these reflections. In its most general sense, a fallacy is an invalid deductive argument.