Critical Thinking Slide 9

CRITICAL THINKING &PRACTICAL REASONING

Session 9 –DEDUCTION VS. INDUCTION(PART 2)

Session Overview
•Deductive arguments or valid arguments may take varied forms. In this course, students will be introduced to syllogisms. Understanding of syllogisms will be good following the discussion that took place in session 8. This session continues discussions on DEDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS solely.
•Goals and Objectives
At the end of the session, the student will
1. Be able identify and construct arguments that are syllogistic.
2. Identify syllogisms as they are written with universal negations.
3. Familiar with syllogistic fallacies.

Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:
•Topic One: UNIVERSAL AFFIRMATION, UNIVERSAL NEGATIONS AND CONDITIONAL STATEMENT.
•Topic Two : THE FOUR VALID SYLLOGISMS(DEDUCTIVE
ARGUMENTS).
•Topic Three: SOUND ARGUMENT VS VALID ARGUMENT

Topic One
UNIVERSAL AFFIRMATION, UNIVERSAL NEGATION, AND CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
UNIVERSAL AFFIRMATION AND UNIVERSAL NEGATION

UNIVERSAL AFFIRMATION
•They are statements in the form ALL As are Bs.
•Examples:
1. All cats have claws.       
2. All snakes are poisonous.
3. Every metal expand when heated.
4. Every day it rains.
5. Students cheat in exams.

UNIVERSAL NEGATION
•They are the opposite of universal affirmation. Their structure looks like this.
•“No As are Bs” or “All As are not Bs”. Examples are:
1. No cat has claws.
2. ALL cats do not have class.
3. No student cheats in exams.
4. All students do not cheat in exams.

CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
•A conditional statement on the other hand is any statement expressed in the form “IF (X is an A) THEN (X is a B).”
•E.g1 If “you pay your school fees” then “you will be allowed to write the exams”.
•E.g2 If “Kwame is a student of UG” then “he reads critical thinking”.
•Every conditional statement has two parts, the antecedent and the consequent.
•The antecedent is the condition that must occur first before the other condition or event will occur. It is the statement that comes immediately after the “IF”.
•The consequent on the other hand is the effect or condition expected to take place after the antecedent has occurred. It is the statement that comes immediately after the “THEN”.

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