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Logical Reasoning updated: 11/29/11 Logical Reasoning Bradley H. Dowden Philosophy Department California State University Sacramento Sacramento, CA 95819 USA ii Preface Copyright © 2011 by Bradley H. Dowden This book Logical Reasoning by Bradley H. Dowden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. That is, you are free to share, copy, distribute, store, and transmit all or any part of the work under the following conditions: (1) Attribution You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author, namely by citing his name, the book title, and the relevant page numbers (but not in any way that suggests that the book Logical Reasoning or its author endorse you or your use of the work). (2) Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial purposes (for example, by inserting passages into a book that is sold to students). (3) No Derivative Works You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. An earlier version of the book was published by Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California USA in 1993 with ISBN number 0-534-17688-7. When Wadsworth decided no longer to print the book, they returned their publishing rights to the original author, Bradley Dowden. If you would like to suggest changes to the text, the author would appreciate your writing to him at [email protected]. iii Praise Comments on the 1993 edition, published by Wadsworth Publishing Company: "There is a great deal of coherence. The chapters build on one another. The organization is sound and the author does a superior job of presenting the structure of arguments. " David M. Adams, California State Polytechnic University "These examples work quite well. Their diversity, literacy, ethnic sensitivity, and relevancy should attract readers." Stanley Baronett. Jr., University of Nevada Las Vegas Far too many authors of contemporary texts in informal logic – keeping an eye on the sorts of arguments found in books on formal logic – forget, or underplay, how much of our daily reasoning is concerned not with arguments leading to truth-valued conclusions but with making choices, assessing reasons, seeking advice, etc. Dowden gets the balance and the emphasis right. Norman Swartz, Simon Fraser University iv Acknowledgments For the 1993 edition: The following friends and colleagues deserve thanks for their help and encouragement with this project: Clifford Anderson, Hellan Roth Dowden, Louise Dowden, Robert Foreman, Richard Gould, Kenneth King, Marjorie Lee, Elizabeth Perry, Heidi Wackerli, Perry Weddle, Tiffany Whetstone, and the following reviewers: David Adams, California State Polytechnic University; Stanley Baronett, Jr., University of Nevada-Las Vegas; Shirley J. Bell, University of Arkansas at Monticello; Phyllis Berger, Diablo Valley College; Kevin Galvin, East Los Angeles College; Jacquelyn Ann Kegley, California State University-Bakersfield; Darryl Mehring, University of Colorado at Denver; Dean J. Nelson, Dutchess Community College; James E. Parejko, Chicago State University; Robert Sessions, Kirkwood Community College; and Stephanie Tucker, California State University Sacramento. Thinking and writing about logical reasoning has been enjoyable for me, but special thanks go to my children, Joshua, 8, and Justine, 3, for comic relief during the months of writing. This book is dedicated to them. For the 2011 edition: This book is dedicated to my wife Hellan whose good advice has improved the book in many ways. v Table of Contents Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... ii Copyright ................................................................................................................................................ ii Praise .......................................................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................... v CHAPTER 1 How to Reason Logically ........................................................................................ 1 Facing a Decision as a Critical Thinker ............................................................................................... 2 Advice for Logical Reasoners ............................................................................................................... 5 Examples of Good Reasoning............................................................................................................. 14 Review of Major Points ....................................................................................................................... 16 Glossary ............................................................................................................................................. 18 Exercises ............................................................................................................................................ 18 CHAPTER 2 Claims, Issues, and Arguments .............................................................................. 22 What is a Claim? ................................................................................................................................... 22 What is an Argument? ......................................................................................................................... 23 What is the Issue? ................................................................................................................................. 26 What is a Proof? .................................................................................................................................... 29 Indicators ............................................................................................................................................... 30 Premise Indicators ............................................................................................................................ 32 Conclusion Indicators ...................................................................................................................... 32 Discount Indicators .......................................................................................................................... 35 Rewriting Arguments in Standard Form .......................................................................................... 36 Conditionals and the Word If ............................................................................................................. 38 Deductively Valid and Inductively Strong....................................................................................... 41 Uncovering Implicit Premises ............................................................................................................ 43 Locating Unstated Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 47 Detecting Obscure Argumentation ................................................................................................... 50 Diagramming Multiple Arguments .................................................................................................. 53 Descriptions and Explanations .......................................................................................................... 61 vi Review of Major Points ....................................................................................................................... 68 Glossary ............................................................................................................................................. 68 Exercises ............................................................................................................................................ 70 CHAPTER 3 Writing with the Appropriate Precision .............................................................. 96 Being Ambiguous................................................................................................................................. 96 Context and Background Knowledge ........................................................................................... 98 Disambiguation by Machine ........................................................................................................ 103 Semantic Disagreements ............................................................................................................... 104 Equivocation ................................................................................................................................... 105 Being Too Vague ................................................................................................................................ 106 Being Too General .............................................................................................................................. 109 Giving Too Many Details .................................................................................................................. 113 Being Pseudoprecise .......................................................................................................................... 113 Improper Operationalization ..........................................................................................................
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