By Force of Argument
• In chapter one, Carlos is in favor of gun control.
Debbie is against it.
• Critical thinkers use reasons to back up their claims.
• What is a claim?
– A claim is a statement that is either true or false. It
must ALWAYS have a truth value (although we do
not always have to know if it is true or false). Here
are some examples of claims:
• It is 5 p.m.
• It ought to be easier to register for classes at this
university.
• 2 + 2 =4
• There is ice on the moon.
• There isn’t ice on the moon.
Claims – Moore and Parker
• The official job of claims is to communicate information. But, in
fact we use claims to accomplish a variety of goals.
• Oftentimes we communicate a fact to others when our main
interest is not simply to make them aware of the fact but rather to
persuade them, warn them, amuse them, comfort them, or annoy
them.
• When we are confronted with a claim, we can respond in lots of
ways. We can ignore the claim, or we can consider it. We can
question or challenge it. We can criticize, defend or make fun of it.
Usually, though, what we want to do is determine whether to
accept it (that is, believe it), reject it (believe that it is false), or
suspend judgment about it (possibly because we don’t have enough
information at the time to accept or reject it).
Claims II – Moore and Parker
• When we accept or reject claims, we do so with varying
degrees of confidence: We may have full confidence in
the truth (or falsity) of one claim but only modest
confidence in the truth or falsity of another. The degree
of confidence in our acceptance or rejection of a claim
should depend on the amount of evidence we have for
or against a claim.
Could knowing less be a reasonable goal for a
critical thinking course? – David L. Fairchild
• “This claim may be less extreme than it first appears,
Part of what is at issue here involves a distinction
between appropriate and inappropriate ways of using
“know.” We sometimes claim to “know” things that we
only believe, for example, or things that we wish we
knew or that we would like someone else to stop talking
about. Sometimes we use “know” deliberately, to
preclude further discussion of a topic about which we
are unsure of or with which we are uncomfortable. If
becoming better reasoners entails becoming more
precise in our epistemological vocabulary, we may well
claim the result of “knowing” less after the experience
than we did before.
Opinions
• Statements such as “You and I just feel differently about it” or
“One person’s opinion is as good as another’s” evade the issue.
• M & P: It is important to watch out for the words: “Everyone is
entitled to his or her opinion.” It is true, in some sense, everyone is
entitled to his or her own opinion on anything. The reason for this
is that in anything except a complete dictatorship, people are not
forced to hold a given set of opinions. It is hard to force someone
to hold a certain opinion. But the fact that we do not force people
to have this or that opinion on a subject does not mean that one
opinion may not be more intelligent, much more practical, much
more humane than some other opinion. Indeed, some opinions are
so bad, stupid, or dangerous that it may be hazardous or even
immoral to hold them.
The Rational Argument
• To present a rational argument, offer reasons to
back up your claims.
• Engage in honest debate, testing your opinions
against others to determine who is correct.
• We don’t want to fool others or ourselves into
accepting something that has no real
foundation. Rather, we want to believe things
with good reason.
Avoiding Self-Contradiction
• One of the most important elements in reasoning well is
to maintain consistency.
• We cannot claim one thing and also claim its opposite.
• This principle of reasoning is called the law of
noncontradiction – a rule formulated by Aristotle.
Nothing both is and is not.
• Contradictions can be divided into three types:
– Contradictions in theories, in statements, and in thoughts.
Contradictions in Theories
• “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs
in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” –
George Orwell
• The example in the book is two attitudes that somehow exist
side by side in the American psyche. For example, we often
maintain that hard-working individuals will eventually
succeed. You can make it in this country with initiative,
perseverance, and good sense. The corollary is that crooks
will eventually get what they deserve. At the same time, we
often believe the opposite. We believe that goodness is self –
sacrificing. In business dealings, we have to be tough and
look out for number one. The kind souls will get eaten alive.
These are contradictory theories.
Contradictions in Statement
• Examples:
• You can’t generalize.
• As a Virgo, I’m very rational, so I don’t believe
in astrology.
• Albert Camus once remarked that the minute
we declare “Everything is absurd” we
contradict ourselves, for we have said
something meaningful.
Contradictions in Thought
• Double binds - cases in which we are asked to think or
feel two things that are impossible to maintain
simultaneously.
• For example, if we tell children that a treasure is
hidden in the garden but they can only find it if they
don’t think of a white rabbit while they are searching.
The children will never find the treasure, of course
(because it isn’t there), but we can explain this by
accusing them of thinking of the white rabbit.
Obviously, they cannot deny it. For they had to
remember to forget a white rabbit. They had to keep in
mind what they have to put out of their mind.
Seeming Contradictions
• Seeming contradictions are called pardoxes and
oxymorons.
• Paradoxes are statements that appear to be
inconsistent, absurd, or opposed to common sense but
may be true in a special or deeper meaning.
- For example: In the book The Little Prince by
Saint Exupery, the prince asks an alcoholic “Why do
you drink?” The man answers, “To forget.” The little
prince then asks “What is it you want to forget?,” to
which the alcoholic replies, “The fact that I drink.” It
sounds absurd but it is also true at a more fundamental
level. Alcoholics find themselves in a downward spiral
in which they drink in order to help ease the shame of
being an alcoholic.
Oxymorons
• An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which
opposite or incongruous words are put together
to express a point more pungently. They are not
conflicts in terms, but only appear to be.
– For example, a deafening silence is not a selfcontradiction because a silence can be significant
when a noise is expected.
Self -contradictions
Explain why the following statements are self –
contradictions:
• We can never know anything.
• One thing I’ve learned is that you can’t
generalize.
• As a solopsist, I believe that I alone exist. I
think everyone else should believe this too.
• Evaluate this quote:
– “I have forced myself to contradict myself in order
to avoid conformity to my own taste.” – Marcel
Duchamp
How words have meaning
• How do words acquire meaning?
• If we want to know what a word means we might
consult a dictionary.
• Words are just squiggles on a page (or screen), or
sounds that reverberate in the air. They can be decoded
and encoded for understanding. Words carry meaning.
• In a larger sense, of course, no inantimate thing can
mean anything; only people can “mean” because we
alone possess intentions.
The Referential Theory of Meaning
• The referential theory of meaning is the theory that a word stands
for, represents, or serves as a label for various objects in the world.
It names them, and enables us to understand each other by
substituting the name for the thing. The theory maintains that
words were created as an expedient way of referring to physical
objects.
• The word “tree” then, refers to a tree, “cloud” to a cloud, “rock”
to a rock, and so forth. The referential theory is reinforced by the
fact that we can translate words from one language to another,
which suggests that people around the world engage in this same
process of putting words to objects. In English, people invented
the mark and sound “dog”, in German “der Hund”, and so forth.
The Referential Theory of Meaning II
• Persuasive as the referential theory sounds, it does not provide a
complete explanation for how words mean. The theory may hold
true for nouns and proper names, but it fails to account for
conjunctions such as “and,” “or,” “as,” and prepositions such as
“with,”, “before,” or “to.” No one has ever seen an “if.” Not all
words represent physical objects, and yet these words have
meaning.
• Some words do not stand for anything at all, even indirectly, such
as “Easter Bunny,” and “Unicorn.” Here we have creations of the
human imagination.
• Also, “The King of Brazil” means something even though no one
fits the description. The overall point is that there are words that
have meaning but do not represent any object, and if words can
mean but not refer then referring cannot be the explanation for
meaning.
The Image Theory of Meaning
• This theory claims that words mean by conjuring up
images in our mind.
• If the word “bank” is used we imagine a safe and solid
building where money is deposited and withdrawn,
loans are made, and various financial transactions are
conducted. The words generate an image that people
share when the communicate, and since people have
experiences in common the images tend to coincide.
However, miscommunication can occur if the image of
the word is not the same for the speaker and the hearer.
If “bank” triggers pictures not of a substantial building
but of the sloping ground beside a river, then people
will be talking at cross –purposes.
The Image Theory of Meaning II
• The theory of meaning as image has the same defects as
as the referential theory. We cannot form an image of
words such as “to,” “for,”, or “as,” and yet they have
meaning. Furthermore, abstract terms also have
meaning, but are not normally pictured. “Truth,”
“love,” ‘integrity,” and so forth have no pictorial
counterparts.
• If we say “I intended to stay a short time, “ or “One
should avoid making logical errors,” few of these words
are pictorial, but the sentences do make sense.
• These type of problems show that this theory is not
comprehensive enough. If words can have meaningful
without generating images, then images cannot be that
which gives words meaning.
Meaning and Use
• In place of the referential or image theory, many
contemporary thinkers prefer to interpret the meaning of a
word as the conditions of its use.
• To know the meaning of “after,” for example, does not
imply some object in our mind’s eye, but knowing when
the word may be applied . We can use “after” for
whatever follows in time or order, that which is
subsequent. It is also properly used to mean the object of
an action (as in “go after the prize”), or in view of (as in
“after all our advice”), or as resembling something(“she
takes after her mother”). Once we have grasped the rules
of usage, we know the meaning of the word.
Meaning and Use II
• This theory accounts for the meaning of conjunctions
and prepositions as well as abstract terms. What’s
more, it does not demand that all words stand for
things, or that words have images to give them
meaning. For words to mean something, the only
criterion is that there be conditions that govern their
application. This theory states that words have
meaning in terms of accepted rules of usage.
• This is the strongest theory, but it still has problems.
Since we do feel, at least some of the time, that our
words describe things as they are, the idea of meaning
as nothing but use leaves us distinctly uneasy. That is,
in some way language does seem to diagram reality and
to more than a self-contained system of rules.
Using Terms and Mentioning
Them
• Sometimes we refer only to the words themselves and not to what
they convey. In these cases the word is being mentioned rather
than used, and we set it off in quotation marks to indicate that.
For example, when we write “Bob” is a palindrome we use
quotation marks to show that the word itself is a palindrome, not
the person Bob.
• Separating when a word is being mentioned and when it is being
used is important in conveying and understanding meaning. A
word is not the thing it represents (assuming that it stands for
something), just as a portrait is not the person.
• When a teacher says, “If you can’t spell well you will get a poor
grade,” it means something very different from “If you can’t spell
“well” you will get a poor grade.