Lecture Notes by Christopher Lay

Los Angeles Pierce College

Department of History, Philosophy, and Sociology

Mathew Van Cleave's 2016 Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking

https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/BookDetail.aspx?bookId=457

Review for Final Exam

Chapter 2

Deductive Validity

Form, not Content

Syllogisms 

Categorical Statements

The Four Categorical Statement Forms

"Middle term"

"Distributed"

Determining Validity for Categorical Syllogisms 

1) "At least one of the premises must be affirmative." 

2) "If a premise is negative then the conclusion must also be negative, and if the conclusion is negative then a premise must be negative." 

3) "The middle term must be distributed at least once." 

4) "Any [subject or predicate] distributed in the conclusion must also be distributed [somewhere in] a premise."

Hypothetical Syllogisms

Antecedent

Consequent

Affirming the Antecedent 

Denying the Consequent 

Chapter 3

Inductive Strength or Weakness

Statistical Generalizations

Representative Sample 

Inadequate Sample Size

The Fallacy of Hasty Generalization

Biased Sample

Random Sampling

Questionnaire Bias

Inference to the Best Explanation

Seven Explanatory Virtues

Explanatoriness

Depth

Power

Falsifiability

Modesty

Simplicity

Conservativeness

Analogical Arguments

Relevant similarities

Relevant dissimilarities 

Causal Reasoning

Complexity / Background Conditions

Conditions Necessary

Conditions Sufficient

Causal Generalizations

Mill's Method of Agreement

Mill's Method of Difference 

Mill's Agreement and Difference 

Mill's Concomitant Variation 

Correlation ≠ Causation

Some Third Thing

Accidental Correlations

False Cause Fallacy