TFY-Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Deductive Reasoning

1. Deduction is the subject of formal logic, whose main concern is with creating forms that demonstrate reasoning.

2. Logic has its own technical vocabulary, for example, argument, claim, hidden premise or conclusion, hypothesis, syllogism, valid, propositions.

3. Deductive reasoning is the process of starting with one or more statements called premises and investigating what conclusions necessarily follow from these premises.

4. Deductive and inductive reasoning are not isolated pursuits but are mentally interwoven both in major and mundane problem solving.

5. The standardized language of syllogisms allows a reduction of everyday language into verbal equations.

6. It is possible to infer the rules of valid and invalid reasoning from the study of models.

TFY-Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Inductive Reasoning and Inductive Fallacies

1. The either fallacy, or false dilemma, is an argument that oversimplifies a situation, asserting that there are only two choices, when actually other alternatives exist.

2. Hasty generalization is the fallacy of basing a conclusion on insufficient evidence.

3. Inconsistency in evidence is the fallacy of offering evidence that contradicts the conclusion.

4. The questionable statistic is the statistic that is either unknowable or unsound.

5. The false analogy is a comparison of two things that have some similarities but also
significant differences that are ignored for the sake of the argument.

6. The slippery slope is the fallacy of claiming without sufficient proof that permitting one event to occur would lead to a chain reaction that could be stopped.

7. False cause is the fallacy of claiming there is a causal connection between events without reasonable evidence to support the claim.

TFY-Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Fallacies

1. Misleading euphemism are words that hide meaning by wrapping a less acceptable idea in positive or neutral connotations.

2. Appeals to fear and pity seek to persuade through affecting emotions rather than through sound rational support for an argument.

3. Word ambiguity uses undefined and vague words in an argument, seeking to gain an advantage by using words that could be interpreted in more than one way.

4. Appeal to false authority seeks to influence others by citing phony or inappropriate authorities. This false authority might be a person, a tradition, or conventional wisdom.

5. Prejudicial language persuades through the use of loaded words that convey a bias while pretending to convey objective information.

6. Poisoning the well seek to prejudice others against a person, group, or idea and prevent their positions from being heard. This technique seeks to remove the neutrality necessary for
listening and to implant prejudice instead.

7. Person attack refuses another argument by attacking the opponent rather than addressing the argument itself. This fallacy can take form of using abusive language or name-calling.

8. Circular reasoning is the assertion or repeated assertion of a conclusion as though the conclusion were a reason.

9. The red herring is a ploy of distraction. It makes a claim, and then instead of following through with support, it minimizes the issue or attention into irrelevant issues.