(BQ) Part 2 book "Critical thinking" has contents: Deductive arguments I - categorical logic; deductive arguments II - truth functional logic; thinking critically about inductive reasoning; causal explanation; moral, legal, and aesthetic reasoning. | 8 Deductive Arguments I Categorical Logic . . . The Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. —From an article by Sherlock Holmes, in A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle F ortunately, the greatest detective was doing some serious exaggerating in this quotation. While it may be that few of us mortals will attain “the highest possible perfection” in “the Science of Deduction,” most of us can learn quite a bit in a fairly short time if we put our minds to it. In fact, you already have an understanding of the basics from Chapter 2.* In this chapter and the next, you’ll learn two kinds of techniques for making and evaluating deductive inferences—in other words, arguments. If you flip through the pages of these two chapters, you’ll see diagrams with circles and Xs, and in Chapter 9, page after page of weird symbols that remind some people of Students will learn to . . . 1. Recognize the four types of categorical claims and the Venn diagrams that represent them 2. Translate a claim into standard form 3. Use the square of opposition to identify logical relationships between corresponding categorical claims 4. Use conversion, obversion, and contraposition with standard form to make valid arguments 5. Recognize and evaluate the validity of categorical syllogisms *An understanding that’s somewhat better than Sir Arthur’s, as a matter of fact. Many instances of what he has Sherlock Holmes referring to as “deduction” turn out to be inductive arguments, not deductive ones, as was mentioned in Chapter 2. We mean no disrespect, of course; one of your authors is a dyed-in-the-wool Holmes fanatic. 253 253 12/9/10 1:45 PM 254 CHAPTER 8: DEDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS I mathematics. These pages may look intimidating. But there’s nothing all that complicated .
