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Building Logical Arguments Critical Thinking Skills Understand and use principles of scientific investigation Apply rules of formal and informal logic Inductive reasoning Deductive reasoning Analyze arguments for soundness of conclusions Anatomy of an Argument Argument – consists of one more more premises used to provide support for a conclusion Premises – reasons presented to persuade someone that a conclusion is true or probably true. Assumptions – premises for which no proof of evidence is offered. Often left unstated Analogy for Understanding Argument Strength Conclusion Premises unrelated to conclusion Conclusion Conclusion supported by many weak premises Conclusion Conclusion supported by single strong premise Conclusion Few weak premises fail To support conclusion Common Fallacies in Reasoning Irrelevant reasons Circular reasoning If X happens then Y is sure to follow Weak analogies The premise and the conclusion are the same Slippery slope Non sequitur – the conclusion does not follow from the reason Similarity between object A and Object B is weak False dichotomy Either-or choice between two outcomes presented as only possibilities Final Critical Thinking Skill Carefully evaluate the quality of information Are there alternative explanations? Are there contradictory data? Evaluating the relative strength of an argument Evaluating Argument Strength 1. 2. What is the conclusion? What are the premises provided to support the conclusion? • 3. Does the conclusion follow from the premises? • 4. • Are they valid assumptions? Should they be stated explicitly? What are the counterarguments? • 6. Are there any fallacies in the reasoning What assumptions have been made? • 5. Are the premises valid? Do they suffer from logical fallacies? Do they weaken the argument? Is there any other information omitted from the argument? Building Arguments in Your Paper The Conclusion Your hypothesis is based on the conclusion you draw after reviewing relevant literature. Your review of the literature provides the premises to support your conclusion You should look for and provide evidence (if it exists) that both support and weaken your conclusion Inductive reasoning – using the results of a number of individual studies to support conclusion (specific to general) Deductive reasoning – using theory (supported empirically) to make prediction in your specific study (general to specific)