Skip to main content
Humanities LibreTexts

5.7: Review Questions

  • Page ID
    162468
  • \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \)

    \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)

    \( \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)

    ( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\)

    \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\)

    \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\)

    \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\)

    \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)

    \( \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\)

    \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)

    \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

    \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\)

    \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\)

    \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\)

    \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\)

    \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\)

    \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\)

    \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

    \( \newcommand{\vectorA}[1]{\vec{#1}}      % arrow\)

    \( \newcommand{\vectorAt}[1]{\vec{\text{#1}}}      % arrow\)

    \( \newcommand{\vectorB}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \)

    \( \newcommand{\vectorC}[1]{\textbf{#1}} \)

    \( \newcommand{\vectorD}[1]{\overrightarrow{#1}} \)

    \( \newcommand{\vectorDt}[1]{\overrightarrow{\text{#1}}} \)

    \( \newcommand{\vectE}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash{\mathbf {#1}}}} \)

    \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \)

    \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)

    5.1 Philosophical Methods for Discovering Truth

    1. What is the general structure of a dialectic?
    2. What is a statement?
    3. Offer an example of a statement and its negation.
    4. How does the law of noncontradiction logically imply the law of the excluded middle?

    5.2 Logical Statements

    5. Offer an example of a conditional, then identify the necessary and sufficient conditions expressed by it.
    6. What is a counterexample?
    7. Consider the following conditional: “If you walk in the rain, your shirt will get wet.” What is a possible counterexample to this statement?
    8. Consider the following universal affirmative statement: “All games involve a winner and a loser.” What is a counterexample to this statement?

    5.3 Arguments

    9. What is an argument?
    10. What are the key components of an argument?
    11. Consider the following argument: “Since Jori is allergic to cats and her apartment complex does not allow dogs, it must be the case that Jori does not have a pet.” What are the premises of this argument, and what is the conclusion? What words in the argument indicate the premises and conclusion?
    12. Explain the difference between a logical analysis and a truth analysis of an argument.

    5.4 Types of Inferences

    13. What makes a deductive argument valid, and how can you test for validity?
    14. Explain inductive inference, and describe how it is different from an abductive inference.
    15. How is reasoning from specific instances to generalizations similar to reasoning from the past to the future?
    16. Explain abductive inference and describe how it is similar to an inductive inference.

    5.5 Informal Fallacies

    17. What are the four general categories of informal fallacies?
    18. What is the difference between fallacies of relevance and fallacies of weak induction?
    19. What is problematic with appealing to emotion in an argument, and how does this qualify it as a fallacy of relevance?
    20. Explain what a fallacy of unwarranted assumption is, and offer an example of one.

    This page titled 5.7: Review Questions is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Nathan Smith et al. (OpenStax) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

    • Was this article helpful?