Claim Claims And Argument

Claims and Arguments A. Statement- or claim is an assertion that something is or is not the case; it is either true or B. Argument- an argument is a group of statements, one of which is supposed to be supported by the rest. In an argument the supporting statements are known as premises; the statement being supported is known as a conclusion. C. Indicator Words- are terms that often appear in arguments and signal that a premise or conclusion may be nearby.
Arguments Good and Bad 1. Deductive arguments- are supposed to give logically conclusive support to their conclusions. 2. Inductive arguments- are supposed to offer only probable support for their conclusions. 3. Valid arguments- a deductive argument that does in fact provide logically
Cogent argument- strong argent with true premises.

Moral Statements and Arguments A. Moral Statement- is a statement affirming that an action is right or wrong or that a person is good or bad. B. Nonmoral Statements- is a statement that does not affirm that an action is right or wrong or that a person is good or bad.
Avoiding Bad Arguments 1. Begging the question- is the fallacy of arguing in a circle that is trying to use a statement as both a premise in an argument and the conclusion of that argument. 2. Equivocation- assigns two different meanings to the same term in an argument. 3. Appeal to authority- the fallacy of relying on the opinion of someone thought to be an expert who is not. 4. Slippery slope- the fallacy of using dubious premises to argue that doing a particular action will inevitably lead to other actions that will result in disaster, so you should not do that first action. 5. Faulty analogy- is arguing by an analogy that is weak. 6. Appeals to ignorance- fallacy consists of arguing that the absence of evidence entitles us to believe a claim. 7. Straw man- misrepresenting someone’s claim or argument so it can be more easily