Glossary

Conclusion: The claim intended to be supported by the argument.

Premises: The claims given as reasons for thinking the conclusion of the argument is true.

Inductive: Makes general claims based on specific instances. (Weak/Strong)

Ad Hominem: An irrelevant attack on the arguer and suggest that this attack undermines the argument itself.

Red Herring: A digression that leads the reasoner off the track of considering only relevant information.

Slippery Slope: Claims that a first step (in a chain of causes and effects, or a chain of reasoning) will probably lead to a second step that in turn will probably lead to another step and so on until a final step ends in trouble.

Deductive: Stipulates conditions and extrapolates truth.

Deductive Validity: An argument is valid if the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises; if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true.

Soundness: An argument is sound if it is valid and all of it’s premises are true.

Inductive Strength: It is unlikely that the conclusion is false if the premises are true.

Argument: A set of reasons given in support of a claim.

Catharsis: Way of purging emotions.

Epistemology: Study of Knowledge.

Knowledge: True justified belief.

Truth: A statement is true if it corresponds to a fact in the world.

Justified: Have enough evidence to believe it. (Not Simple).

Theosophy: Teaching about God and the world based on the mystical insight.

Hypothesis: Anything that may be proposed to our belief.

Phantasm: A product of fantasy, a figment of the imagination.

Dualism: The view of mind/soul and body are separate. The mind is independent of the body.

mystical insight.

Methodological Doubt: Doubt any proposition if there is the slightest reason to do so.

Tragedians: an actor who specializes in tragic roles.

Fatalism: Our fate is entirely determined from the origins of the universe, events are inevitable at certain times, places and nothing will change that. Choice is the only difference with determinism.

Indeterminism: Our actions are not determined by casual factors.

Riotous: marked by or involving public disorder.

Semblance: The outward appearance or apparent form of something, especially when the reality is different.

Tantamount: Equivalent in value, significance, or effect.

Rationalism: Epistemological portion that knowledge comes through reason.

Form: Essence, idea, type, concept, definition.

Skepticism: Doubting to the point that you don’t believe knowledge is possible.