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Informal Logic 101: How to Think and Argue Better, Part 6

Published on August 19, 2013 By sirrahc

Part 6: Avoiding Presumptions “A presumption becomes a self-refuting assertion.” — R. Alan Woods Following hot on the heels of “Part 5: Facts Over Feelings”, today’s logical fallacies involve inappropriate presumptions that confuse and invalidate one’s argument. (Of course, I would never do this! … OK, OK, maybe.) Sometimes when making a case or […]

Informal Logic 101: How to Think and Argue Better, Part 5

Published on August 14, 2013 By sirrahc

Part 5: Facts Over Feelings “Feelings should never supersede rational thought… so, if you feel that you’ve got the answer, you should think some more.” — Julie Ann Elliott-Morton Up to this point in the series, we have dealt with the basics. We learned about the fundamental laws of logic, categorical propositions and logical relationships. […]

Informal Logic 101: How to Think and Argue Better, Part 4

Published on July 22, 2013 By sirrahc

Part 4: Three Ways to Argue Meanwhile, at the clinic… Client (Michael Palin): “Aha! If you’re arguing, I must have paid.” Mr. Barnard (John Cleese): “Not necessarily. I could be arguing in my spare time….” OK, if you aren’t a Monty Python fan (and I am only marginally) and you don’t understand the above quote, […]

Informal Logic 101: How to Think and Argue Better, Part 3

Published on July 14, 2013 By sirrahc

Part 3: Logical Suicide and Staying on TRACK “Without good support, not only is it a ‘bad argument’, it’s merely opinion.” — me Welcome back! (Or, just “Welcome!”, if this is the first part you read in this series.) So far, we’ve been learning some fundamental ideas in what is known as “informal logic”. We […]