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Phil Cheat Sheet

This document introduces some key concepts in informal logic. It defines statements, arguments, premises, conclusions, and the inferential link between premises and conclusions. It distinguishes between dependent and independent premises. It also defines explanations, conditionals, deduction, induction, and different types of syllogisms. The document concludes by outlining skills for distinguishing arguments from non-arguments and diagramming arguments.

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Lauren Pick
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270 views3 pages

Phil Cheat Sheet

This document introduces some key concepts in informal logic. It defines statements, arguments, premises, conclusions, and the inferential link between premises and conclusions. It distinguishes between dependent and independent premises. It also defines explanations, conditionals, deduction, induction, and different types of syllogisms. The document concludes by outlining skills for distinguishing arguments from non-arguments and diagramming arguments.

Uploaded by

Lauren Pick
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Introduc)on

to Informal Logic

Statement/Proposi)on: a sentence capable of being either true or false, e.g. ‘WWII started in 1939’,
‘Obama was the 97th President of the US’.

Argument: a statement, along with some supposed reasons for accepCng the statement
(aka ‘inference’)

premise: a statement which is supposed to be a reason for accepCng an argument’s


conclusion.
conclusion: a statement for which reasons have supposedly been presented.
inferen)al link: when one statement (a premise) supposedly supports another statement (a
conclusion), the two statements have an inferen.al link.
Two types of premise:

dependent: a statement which is supposed to be a reason for accepCng an argument’s


conclusion, but only in conjunc.on with at least one other premise.
Independent: a statement which is supposed to be a reason for accepCng an argument’s
conclusion on its own, without the need for further premises.
Indicator: a word or phrase that usually, but not always, indicates the presence of a
premise, conclusion, or some other logical feature in a passage of text.

Explana)on: statements that purport to shed light on some event or phenomenon, to


make it understandable or predictable

explanandum: the thing being explained (the ‘why’ quesCon - e.g. ‘Why does the Cde go in
and out twice a day?’)
explanans: the thing that does the explaining (or the answer to the ‘why’ quesCon, e.g.
‘Because of the moon’s gravitaConal pull on the earth.’)

Condi)onal: an ‘if… then…’ statement, aka a hypothe.cal, e.g. ‘If the haters gonna hate,
then I’m gonna shake it off’

antecedent: the part of a condiConal that follows the word ‘if’, e.g. the haters gonna hate
consequent: the part of a condiConal the follows the word ‘then’, e.g. I’m gonna shake it
off.

Page 1 of 3
Introduc)on to Informal Logic

Necessary condi)on: some thing (X) is a necessary condiCon for another thing (Y), when X is
required for Y, e.g. ge>ng at least a D in Intro Logic (X) is a necessary
condiCon for passing the class (Y).

Sufficient condi)on: X is sufficient for Y when X is enough, on its own for Y, e.g. ge>ng a C+ in
Intro Logic is a sufficient condiCon for passing the class (Y).

Deduc)ve: an argument incorporaCng the claim that it is impossible for the conclusion to
be false, given that the premises are true.
Induc)ve: an argument incorporaCng the claim that it is improbable that the conclusion
be false given that the premises are true.
Examples:

Induc.on
Most Republicans are pro-life.
BreU Kavanaugh is a Republican.
Therefore BreU Kavanaugh is probably pro-life.

Deduc.on
All of Lil Nas's songs suck.
Old Town Road is a song by Lil Nas.
Therefore, Old Town Road sucks.

Syllogism: An argument consisCng of exactly two premises and one conclusion.


Categorical syllogism: A syllogism in which each statement begins with one of the words ‘all’,
‘no’ or ‘some’.
Hypothe)cal syllogism: A syllogism having a condiConal statement for one or both of its
premises.
Disjunc)ve syllogism: A syllogism having a disjuncCve (‘either… or…’) statement in one of its
premises.

Page 2 of 3
Introduc)on to Informal Logic

Skill 1: dis)nguishing between arguments and non-arguments (esp. explana)ons and condi)onals),
and between premises and conclusions.

To determine whether or not a series of statements consCtutes an argument, and to idenCfy the parts of
an argument (premises and conclusion) you need to look for two things:

1. Indicators (listed below)


2. InferenCal Link

Premise Indicators since because given that

as indicated by in that may be inferred from

as seeing that for the reason that

in as much as owing to etc.

Conclusion Indicators therefore accordingly entails that

wherefore we may conclude hence

thus it must be that it follows that

consequently for this reason implies that

we may infer so as a result

Skill 2: diagramming arguments


1. Assign numbers to each statement by order of appearance in the original text.
2. IdenCfy which statements are premises and which is the conclusion using indicators (above).
3. Place the conclusion at the boUom and the premises above it.
4. Use arrows to link independent premises to the conclusion. Use the + sign to connect any dependent
premises to each other, then use the arrow to connect all those premises to the conclusion.

Page 3 of 3

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