REVIEW OF LESSON 1

1
 Review

1. What is critical thinking?

2. What are standards of critical thinking?
3. What are benefits of critical thinking?
4. What are major barriers to critical thinking?
5. What are characteristics of a critical
thinker?
 Chapter 2
RECOGNIZING ARGUMENTS

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 CONTENTS

1. Statements
2. Non-statements
3. Arguments
4. Non-arguments
 1. STATEMENTS

- A statement is a sentence that can be viewed as

either true or false.
- Ex:
- International University is in Thu Duc District.
- International University is the best choice in HCMC.
- International University is accessible only by bus from
downtown.
ACTIVITY: WHICH OF THESE ARE STATEMENTS?
1. On what date do we study Critical Thinking?
2. Critical Thinking always gives us a headache.
3. Hi, my dear IUers.
4. Dont come to class late next time!
5. A good score for Critical Thinking guarantees good scores for other
subjects.
6. Please do some reading before each class meeting.
7. IU has many soft skills clubs.
8. Lets submit our assignments before the deadline.
9. Register IE4 before AE1.
10. A TOEFL iBT of 61 is a requirement at IU.
11. Oh dear. I failed Critical Thinking again!
ACTIVITY: WHICH OF THESE ARE STATEMENTS?
1. On what date do we study Critical Thinking? Question
2. Critical Thinking always gives us a headache.
3. Hi, my dear IUers. Greeting
4. Dont come to class late next time! Command
5. A good score for Critical Thinking guarantees good scores for other
subjects.
6. Please do some reading before each class meeting. Request
7. IU has many soft skills clubs.
8. Lets submit our assignments before the deadline. Proposal
9. Register IE4 before AE1. Instruction
10. A TOEFL iBT of 61 is a requirement at IU.
11. Oh dear. I failed Critical Thinking again! Exclamation
 2. NON-STATEMENTS
Questions

Greetings

Commands

Requests

Proposals

Instructions

Exclamations
 Task: Statements or non-statements?
1. Capital punishment is wrong.
2. Do you say we stop at the next station?
3. Great!
4. Please print your name legibly.
5. Turn off your engine when waiting to pick up your kids. Idling
longer than 10 seconds uses more gas than restarting the car.
6. What a boy!
7. Ill have a cheese burger, please.
8. Happy New Year!
9. Yuck!
10. Be nice to your kids. Theyll choose your nursing home.
Task: Creative thinking: Penalty Puzzle
A student had been caught cheating and was about
to be punished by the teacher.
The teacher said: "You have a chance to get out of
this. Give me a statement. If it is true, you will get a
score of 1. If it is false, you will get a zero. If I cant
decide whether the statement is true or false, no
penalty will be applied."
In the end, the teacher could not apply any penalty.
What is the student's statement?
Only statements are used in arguments.
Lets have a look at this argument.
I ate a hamburger this morning and now Im having
a stomachache. Obviously, the hamburger is not
fresh any more.

Visibly, an argument consists of:

Premise(s): I ate a hamburger this morning and

now Im having a stomachache.
Conclusion: Obviously, the hamburger is not fresh
any more.
- An argument is a claim defended with reasons.

- Visibly, an argument is often composed of one or

more premises and a conclusion.
ASSUMPTIONS (IN)VISIBLE ELEMENT OF ARGUMENTS

1. Premise: evidence including reasons,

(Support) examples, facts, figures, etc.

2. Assumption(s): belief(s) or principle(s) taken

(Warrant) for granted

3. Conclusion(s):
inferences drawn from evidence
(Claim)
and assumptions
Now look at the argument again.

I ate a hamburger this morning and now Im

having a stomachache. Obviously, the
hamburger is not fresh any more.

What does the speaker assume?

Expired food causes stomachache.

 Practice: Find the premises, conclusion, and
assumption(s) in the following argument.

Nguyen Ha Dong spent some days developing Flappy

Bird and earned 1 billion VND each day. Ill double time
developing Floppy Bird and Ill surely earn 2 billion VND
each day!
Practice: Find the premises, conclusion, and
assumption(s) in the following argument.

Magic Mirror: You dont

have a girlfriend. So dont
hang out on Valentine.
Practice: Find the premises, conclusion, and
assumption(s) in the following argument.

Apple CEO: The government is

asking Apple to hack our own
users. This demand undermines
decades of security
advancements that protect our
customers.
Practice: Find the premises, conclusion, and
assumption(s) in the following argument.

A forum member: It is very

understandable that ordinary
citizens are very skeptical of the
FBI and our government's
intentions. The FBI in particular
has played a dubious role in many
domestic incidents where the
public trusted people in office to
"do no harm.
1. There are fewer than 70 students in our class today.
Students should not have registered for the course if they
dont want to attend.
2. You should be careful with your possessions when youre
on the bus. I lost my laptop last month.
3. There is nothing wrong talking on a mobile phone during
lectures. Other students do it quite often.
4. There is free wifi in more and more buses in HCMC.
Therefore, this means of transport will increase the
number of passengers.
5. Consumption of alcoholic drinks at night causes family
violence and social disorder. Therefore, the government
should ban the sales of alcoholic drinks after 22 p.m.
20
Be critical with nonstatement-looking sentences

1. You should quit smoking. Dont you realize

how bad it is for your health?

2. Do not read beauty magazines. They will

make you feel ugly. (Mary Schmich.)
Be critical with nonstatement-looking sentences

1. You should quit smoking. Dont you realize how

bad it is for your health?
This rhetorical question is in fact a statement: Smoking is
bad for heath.
2. Do not read beauty magazines. They will make
you feel ugly. (Mary Schmich.)
This imperative is in fact a statement: You should not read
beauty magazines.
 Identifying

premise indicators and conclusion indicators

 Now look at these arguments
1. Having fun can be the spice of life but not its main course, because when
it is over, nothing of lasting values remain. (Harold Kushner)

2. Since effective reasoning requires reliable information, its important to be

able to distinguish good sources and trustworthy experts from less useful
ones. (Drew E. Hinderer)

3. Women are not by any means to blame when they reject the rules of life,
which have been introduced into the world, seeing that it is men who have
made them without consent. (Michel de Montaigne)

4. To know that God exists in a general and confused way is implanted in us

by nature, inasmuch as God is mans beatitude. (Saint Thomas Aquinas)
 PREMISE INDICATORS

since because as for

seeing that given that considering that

inasmuch as in view of the fact that

as indicated by judging from on account of

 Now look at these arguments
1. You want people to be honest with you, so be honest with them.

2. Sorrow is merely a state of mind and may not be warranted by the

circumstance. Hence whether or not you feel sad over something is all in
the mind. (Lie Zi)

3. Your life is what your thought make it. That is why it is important for all of
us to guard our minds from unhealthy habits of thinking, habits that hold
us back from what we could be accomplishing. (Tom Morris)

4. As our birth brought us the birth of all things, so will our death bring us the
death of all things, Wherefore it is as as foolish to weep because a
hundred years from now we shall not be alive, as to weep because we
were not living a hundred years ago. (Michel de Montaigne)
 CONCLUSION INDICATORS

therefore wherefore thus so

hence as a result that is why

accordingly it follows that for this reason

this shows/implies/suggests that

we may infer that this being so

Now lets look at this argument.
I cant be completely responsible for my life. After all, there
are many factors outside my control, people and forces that
create obstacles and undermine my efforts. And we are
subject to pressures and inuences from within ourselves:
feelings of greed, fear of death, altruistic impulses, sexual
compulsions, need for social acceptance, and so on. (John
Chaffee, emphasis omitted)

Not all arguments contain premise/conclusion indicators.

 PRACTICE

premises, conclusions, and assumptions

 Identify 3 elements in these texts

1. IU had another twin building at the end of 2013. Students

can organize more events on campus now.

2. Ho Da, Stone Lake, now belongs to IU and security will be

improved in this area. There will be more class outings and
dates of UI students there.

3. Students tend to choose international universities or to

study abroad though these programs are more costly. They
will have better job opportunities.
 Identify 3 elements in these texts
4. Mary always gets As for her tests. Her straight As show that
she really has good study habits.
5. Higher speed limits will be permitted on the highway. This
will result in more needless deaths.
6. Sarah ought to try out for the volleyball team. Shes a great
basketball player.
7. Joe couldnt have been involved in the crime. He was
sitting with me in Lotteria when the crime was committed.
8. Since an adult chimpanzee is more intelligent that a one-
year-old human, the life of my chimpanzee has more value
than the life of your one-year-old human.
 Activity: Identify three elements
In years past, professional baseball players lifted
weights less but were also injured less often during
games. Obviously, the more an athlete lifts
weights, the more likely they get injured.

1.Evidence: - Pro. baseball players lifted weight less;

- They got injured less

3. Conclusion: If athletes lift weight more, they

are more likely to get injured.
Activity: Identify three elements

In years past, professional baseball players lifted weights less but were also injured
less often during games. Obviously, the more an athlete lifts weights, the more
likely they get injured.
What is the assumption of the argument?

(A) The increase in baseball injuries is due to a factor other than weightlifting.
(B) The activities of baseball players represent those of athletes as a group.
(C) Most baseball injuries today result from too much weight-lifting.
(D) There is no proven correlation between how much athletes lift weights and
how likely they are to be affected by injury.
(E) Weightlifting has always been common practice for professional athletes.

The correct answer is (B).

According to a nationwide demographic study, more and
more people today are moving from suburbs to downtown
areas. To boost our profits, therefore, we should relocate our
business from Thu Duc District to District 1 or District 3.
 Evidence : Trend of moving downtown

Conclusion : Moving downtown will boost profits.

Assumption : People moving downtown are

potential customers.
A group of college students participated in a sleep
study where half of them slept for a full eight hours
and the other half were woken up two to three times
during the night. The half that slept the full eight hours
uninterrupted performed better, on average, on a
logical reasoning exam the next day than the other
half whose sleep was interrupted. Therefore, people
have the best brain function when they sleep for a full
eight hours, uninterrupted.
4. WHAT IS NOT AN ARGUMENT?
 Lets consider these texts.
1. There was a heavy storm last night. Hundreds of
houses were destroyed and 20 people were killed.
2. The economy of Viet Nam will develop drastically
this year.
3. If swimming is not taught at school, more and
more young students will get drowned.
4. The housing market in Vietnam is on a decline. For
example, Hoang Anh Gia Lai apartments cannot
sell well even at greatly discounted prices.
5. I ate because I was hungry.
 What is not an argument?

1. Reports
2. Unsupported assertions
3. Conditional sentences
4. Illustrations
5. Explanations
 What are the assumptions of these arguments?
1. Having fun can be the spice of life but not its main course,
because when it is over, nothing of lasting values remain.
(Harold Kushner)
Lasting values are more important in life.
2. Women are not by any means to blame when they reject the
rules of life, which have been introduced into the world,
seeing that it is men who have made them without consent.
(Michel de Montaigne)
Women must be forgiven when they do wrong things.
3. You want people to be honest with you, so be honest with
them.
You get what you give.
Practice: Find the premises, conclusion, and
assumption(s) in the following argument.

A company CEO:
After experiencing disappointing sales results in the spring,
we analyzed the sales data to determine how our company
can boost our sales for the fall season. Sales data for our
retail stores in April and May showed that during this period,
we sold 50 percent more pink sweaters than sweaters of
any other color. With this result, I conclude that our
company should develop a whole line of pink clothes for the
fall season.
Practice: Find the premises, conclusion, and
assumption(s) in the following argument.

The alligator is found in nature only in the coastal

wetlands of North America. Unfortunately, because
of urban expansion and industrial development, the
coastal wetlands of North America are disappearing
at a rate of 100,000 acres per year. With only two
million acres of coastal wetlands left on the
continent, it is inevitable that the alligator will
become extinct within 20 years.
Task: Creative thinking

Now lets step out the book into your world:

Make some arguments of your own
containing premise/conclusion indicators.
Identify the possible assumptions.