WGU D265 Premises and Conclusions:
Understanding Logical Structures in Argument
Study Notes
Section 1: Introduction
Section 1: Introduction
This section, Evaluating Arguments and Evidence, explores the basic
components of arguments, distinguishing between premises and
conclusions, arguments and non-arguments, evaluating the validity or
strength of arguments, and finally formal and informal fallacies.
This section consists of five lessons each with content and practice activities
designed to help you prepare for the objective assessment:
Lesson 1: Basic Components of Propositions
Lesson 2: Distinguishing between Premises and Conclusions
Lesson 3: Distinguishing between Arguments and Non-arguments
Lesson 4: Validity or Strength of Arguments
Lesson 5: Fallacies
Build Employability Skills and Competency
Employers from all sectors value critical thinking skills. In this section you will
demonstrate the following skills:
1. Distinguish fact from opinion.
2. Analyze another person’s logic in making a decision.
, 3. Identify connections between ideas.
You can demonstrate these skills by passing a final assessment that
measures whether you have mastered the following competency:
• The learner evaluates the quality of an argument.
Prepare for the Assessment
To prepare for the Competency Objective Assessment, ask yourself these
questions:
1. Can I examine basic components of an argument?
2. Can I evaluate the validity or strength of arguments?
3. Can I identify formal fallacies?
Move Ahead
Are you ready to demonstrate your competency and skills?
If you answered yes to all of the "Prepare for the Assessment" questions,
begin this section by taking the Section 1 Test.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson Introduction
The most important thing human beings do is learn how to think. This is
important for two reasons: it is important to human beings because thinking
is the most distinctively unique fact about humans—both rationally and
abstractly. Thinking is also important because it is the most wide-reaching
capacity humans have—touching virtually all aspects of their lives. Having a
heart pumping blood or a body capable of certain physical activities might be
more fundamental, meaning more crucial to simply surviving, but thinking
,underlies a broad range of activities without which human beings would be
living less than full human lives. This lesson will define critical thinking and
explore the building blocks of arguments: propositions (or statements).
Identifying propositions and learning to break down complex propositions
into simpler propositions will be reviewed.
Learning Objective
Keep the following learning objective in mind as you move through the
lesson:
• Distinguish propositions from non-propositions
• Lesson 1.1: Critical Thinking
Overview
Read this content to learn how critical thinking is defined (Reading: 5
minutes).
After reading, reflect on the following: (Reflection: 10 minutes)
1. Why is it important to think critically?
2. Which definition(s) of critical thinking are most closely aligned to your
current thinking?
3. Which definition(s) of critical thinking do you need more practice or
awareness around?
Critical Thinking Defined
Critical thinking is primarily the ability to think carefully about thinking and
reasoning—to criticize your own reasoning. "Criticize" here is not meant in
the sense of being mean or talking down or making fun of. Instead, it is used
in the sense of, for example, how a coach might take a critical stance toward
a players' skills—he throws high every time, she does not lead with her foot,
they ride too forward in the saddle, etc. "Critical" here means something
, more like "reflective," "careful," or "attentive to potential errors."
To engage in critical thinking is to engage in self-critical, self-reflective, self-
aware thinking and reasoning—thinking and reasoning aimed at self-
improvement, at truth, and at careful, deliberate, proper patterns of
reasoning.
Critical thinking involves many practices, but here are just a few:
• Being curious and thinking creatively: not believing things are simple
and settled, being willing to go the next step and think about all relevant
positions and arguments before settling into a belief.
• Separating the thinker from the position: being able to discuss a
position without attacking or judging the person holding the position,
without getting caught up in our own attachment to a position, and
without having our identities wrapped up in a particular viewpoint or
opinion.
• Knowing oneself enough to avoid biases and errors of
thought: being aware of the flawed patterns of reasoning we are
disposed to engage in, being aware of cognitive biases and mental
heuristics (rough rules that work well enough to survive but don't work in
many cases) that we're prone as a species to have, all in the interest of
counteracting these biases and flaws.
• Having intellectual honesty, humility, and
charity: being honest about what we know and how we know it, what
evidence we have and what questions are not yet settled;
being humble in recognizing the vast number of things we don't yet know
or understand and in recognizing how very difficult it is to truly know
anything at all and so recognizing that the standards are high and we,
most of the time, don't meet them (and that's okay); and
being charitable or having the disposition to attribute the best intentions
and most sophisticated positions and arguments that we can imagine to
our opponents in arguments.
• Understanding arguments, reasons, and evidence: thinking
carefully about thinking, about arguments and positions.
Being a critical thinker involves training yourself to have a lot of good habits
and dispositions. It involves developing rational virtues so that when the time
Understanding Logical Structures in Argument
Study Notes
Section 1: Introduction
Section 1: Introduction
This section, Evaluating Arguments and Evidence, explores the basic
components of arguments, distinguishing between premises and
conclusions, arguments and non-arguments, evaluating the validity or
strength of arguments, and finally formal and informal fallacies.
This section consists of five lessons each with content and practice activities
designed to help you prepare for the objective assessment:
Lesson 1: Basic Components of Propositions
Lesson 2: Distinguishing between Premises and Conclusions
Lesson 3: Distinguishing between Arguments and Non-arguments
Lesson 4: Validity or Strength of Arguments
Lesson 5: Fallacies
Build Employability Skills and Competency
Employers from all sectors value critical thinking skills. In this section you will
demonstrate the following skills:
1. Distinguish fact from opinion.
2. Analyze another person’s logic in making a decision.
, 3. Identify connections between ideas.
You can demonstrate these skills by passing a final assessment that
measures whether you have mastered the following competency:
• The learner evaluates the quality of an argument.
Prepare for the Assessment
To prepare for the Competency Objective Assessment, ask yourself these
questions:
1. Can I examine basic components of an argument?
2. Can I evaluate the validity or strength of arguments?
3. Can I identify formal fallacies?
Move Ahead
Are you ready to demonstrate your competency and skills?
If you answered yes to all of the "Prepare for the Assessment" questions,
begin this section by taking the Section 1 Test.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson Introduction
The most important thing human beings do is learn how to think. This is
important for two reasons: it is important to human beings because thinking
is the most distinctively unique fact about humans—both rationally and
abstractly. Thinking is also important because it is the most wide-reaching
capacity humans have—touching virtually all aspects of their lives. Having a
heart pumping blood or a body capable of certain physical activities might be
more fundamental, meaning more crucial to simply surviving, but thinking
,underlies a broad range of activities without which human beings would be
living less than full human lives. This lesson will define critical thinking and
explore the building blocks of arguments: propositions (or statements).
Identifying propositions and learning to break down complex propositions
into simpler propositions will be reviewed.
Learning Objective
Keep the following learning objective in mind as you move through the
lesson:
• Distinguish propositions from non-propositions
• Lesson 1.1: Critical Thinking
Overview
Read this content to learn how critical thinking is defined (Reading: 5
minutes).
After reading, reflect on the following: (Reflection: 10 minutes)
1. Why is it important to think critically?
2. Which definition(s) of critical thinking are most closely aligned to your
current thinking?
3. Which definition(s) of critical thinking do you need more practice or
awareness around?
Critical Thinking Defined
Critical thinking is primarily the ability to think carefully about thinking and
reasoning—to criticize your own reasoning. "Criticize" here is not meant in
the sense of being mean or talking down or making fun of. Instead, it is used
in the sense of, for example, how a coach might take a critical stance toward
a players' skills—he throws high every time, she does not lead with her foot,
they ride too forward in the saddle, etc. "Critical" here means something
, more like "reflective," "careful," or "attentive to potential errors."
To engage in critical thinking is to engage in self-critical, self-reflective, self-
aware thinking and reasoning—thinking and reasoning aimed at self-
improvement, at truth, and at careful, deliberate, proper patterns of
reasoning.
Critical thinking involves many practices, but here are just a few:
• Being curious and thinking creatively: not believing things are simple
and settled, being willing to go the next step and think about all relevant
positions and arguments before settling into a belief.
• Separating the thinker from the position: being able to discuss a
position without attacking or judging the person holding the position,
without getting caught up in our own attachment to a position, and
without having our identities wrapped up in a particular viewpoint or
opinion.
• Knowing oneself enough to avoid biases and errors of
thought: being aware of the flawed patterns of reasoning we are
disposed to engage in, being aware of cognitive biases and mental
heuristics (rough rules that work well enough to survive but don't work in
many cases) that we're prone as a species to have, all in the interest of
counteracting these biases and flaws.
• Having intellectual honesty, humility, and
charity: being honest about what we know and how we know it, what
evidence we have and what questions are not yet settled;
being humble in recognizing the vast number of things we don't yet know
or understand and in recognizing how very difficult it is to truly know
anything at all and so recognizing that the standards are high and we,
most of the time, don't meet them (and that's okay); and
being charitable or having the disposition to attribute the best intentions
and most sophisticated positions and arguments that we can imagine to
our opponents in arguments.
• Understanding arguments, reasons, and evidence: thinking
carefully about thinking, about arguments and positions.
Being a critical thinker involves training yourself to have a lot of good habits
and dispositions. It involves developing rational virtues so that when the time
