Argument - ANSWER Made of premise(s) and conclusions
Premises - ANSWER The facts, the evidence. Always accept premises. Always
focus on how the premises fit together and are defined by their relationship to the
conclusion.
Conclusion - ANSWER Judgments the author makes, built upon the arrangement
of premises. They are part of the argument you question - usually they can be made
invalid through loopholes.
Valid conclusion - ANSWER Must be true if the premises are true. They're 100%
provable. Look for common terms between n two premises and find out what that
repetition allows you to conclude. Always part of an argument.
EXAMPLE:
Premise 1 - Maya won't eat grapefruit.
Premise 2- Only those who always eat grapefruit will be committed to the mental
institution.
Valid: Maya will not be committed to the mental institution.
Inferences - ANSWER Not part of the argument, something we come up with
from the premise set. An inference is a valid conclusion you design yourself, not a
conclusion inside an argument.
Invalid Conclusions - ANSWER The conclusion is not ironclad, it can fall apart
using loopholes. What if...?
Always assume the author is leaving something out. These conclusions take things for
granted in the premises.
EX:
,Avocados & gingerbread both contain nitrogen, nitrogen is an element. Avocados and
nitrogen are similar.
Loophole: What if avocados and gingerbread are different in every other aspect? This
would make the conclusion inaccurate.
Intermediate Conclusion - ANSWER Fulfills the argumentative role of both a
premise and a conclusion. Supports the main conclusion and is supported by
premises. If you have no reason for why something is true it is a premise.
Nested Claims & Hybrid Arguments - ANSWER When someone besides the
author makes a claim. A description of how someone believes something. If the
author concludes anything themselves they will use the nested claim as a premise for
the conclusion. If the author does not conclude anything we use the nested claim as
a conclusion and attack that with loopholes.
Attacking an Argument - ANSWER Attack the premises relationship to one
another and to the conclusion, but never question the truth of the premises. Always
ask yourself why the conclusion is supposed to be true. Always assume there is
something being left out of what the author chose to present. Attack what they
aren't telling you.
Must - ANSWER Tough to prove easy to attack. Powerful premises. Always, every
single time, no exceptions ever, you can't get out of doing this.
Cannot - ANSWER Tough to prove and easy to attack. Never, impossible in any
circumstance, no way.
Could - ANSWER Easier to prove, harder to attack. We just need premises that
allow the conclusion stated to be a possibility. Possible, there is a chance, maybe,
might, encompasses both something unlikely and likely, may or may not.
, Not Necessarily - ANSWER Easier to prove, harder to attack. We just need
premises saying we don't have to. Doesn't have to be the case, literally "not must",
could be an exception, not guaranteed.
Certainty Power Players the 100% & the 0% - ANSWER Must and cannot. When
you don't see indicators of certainty or uncertainty, this is a sentence that is claiming
certainty.
Must: the 100% true. No exceptions to what the author is saying. Huge burden of
proof and easily attackable with loopholes.
Cannot: The 0% Never Never Never. There is no remote chance.
Could "Not impossible" - ANSWER 1 - 100% includes Must. Does not include
cannot.
All could statements are concluding is that it is not impossible for the conclusion to
be true.
Not Necessarily "Not Must" - ANSWER 0 - 99% includes cannot. Does not
include must. Allows for every single possibility except for must. Commonly used o
smack down somebody else's statement.
Certainty Premises - ANSWER Must Premises, cannot premises - Strong evidence.
Possibility Premises - ANSWER Could Premise, Not Necessarily Premise - Weak
Evidence
Certainty Conclusions - ANSWER Must Conclusion, cannot conclusion - difficult to
prove. Almost always require certainty premises in order to be valid. Certainty
premises are in terms of what they can do. Find the gaps between the premises, not
the premises themselves. Any gap is a loophole opportunity. You usually can't prove a
certainty conclusion from all possibility premises.