Logic and

Critical
Thinking
Presentatio
n
LEILANIE P. CAMAYANG LPT,MST
( Instructor)
 INTRODUCTION

Logic and critical thinking are intertwined

intellectual disciplines that shape how
individuals reason, solve problems and
make decisions. They provide frameworks
for evaluating arguments, understanding
the world more clearly, and approaching
complex issues in a structured and
thoughtful manner. By honing these skills,
individuals develop the ability to navigate
LESSON 1: MEANING AND
NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY
Do you have a prior awareness of philosophy? If so, how do you
understand philosophy?
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Socrates once stated
that “Wonder is the
feeling of a philosopher,
and philosophy begins
in wonder”.
 What is Philosophy?
The word "philosophy" comes from
the Greek word "philosophia," which
is a combination of two Greek words:
"philo," meaning "love," and
"sophia," meaning "wisdom" or
"knowledge."

Therefore, the etymological meaning of philosophy is "love of wisdom"

or "the
pursuit of knowledge and wisdom." In ancient Greece, philosophers were
considered to be
individuals who loved knowledge and wisdom, and they were highly respected
for their intellectual
pursuits.
 Pythagoras was the first to use the word “philosopher”
to call a person who clearly shows a marked curiosity in
the things he experiences.

Seeking wisdom is among the various essences of

philosophy that it has got from its etymological definition.
Nevertheless, this is not sufficient by itself to understand
philosophy, for not all wisdoms are philosophy.

What do you think is the wisdom that philosophers seek?

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  The wisdom that philosophers seek is not the wisdom
of the expertise or technical skills of professionals.

According to Socrates, wisdom consists of a critical habit and eternal

vigilance about all things and a reverence for truth, whatever its form,
and wherever its place. Based on the Socratic understanding of
wisdom, philosophy, as a pursuit of wisdom, is, thus, the development
of critical habits, the continuous search for truth, and the questioning
of the apparent.

Questioning/criticism is not the final end of philosophy, though raising

the right question is often taken not only as the beginning and
direction of philosophy but also as its essence. Raising the right
question is an art that includes the ability to foresee what is not
 The philosophical enterprise, as Vincent Barry stated, is “an
active imaginative process of formulating proper questions and
resolving them by rigorous, persistent analysis”.

The essence of what philosophy is all about: it’s an active, creative, and analytical
process.
1. Active Imaginative Process:
Philosophy is not a passive or static activity. It requires active thinking, curiosity, and creativity. Philosophers
need to use their imagination to come up with new, important, and insightful questions about the world and
human experience.

2. Formulating Proper Questions:

Philosophy often starts by asking the right questions—questions that may not have easy answers but are
important for understanding the nature of life, morality, reality, and knowledge. These questions guide
philosophical inquiry.

3. Resolving by Rigorous, Persistent Analysis:

Once the right questions are formulated, philosophers engage in rigorous (careful and detailed) and
persistent (continuing over time) analysis. They evaluate different ideas, challenge assumptions, and
critically examine arguments to come to a deeper understanding or to find a solution.
 BASIC FEATURES OF PHILOSOPHY

1. Philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life and

the universe, which are often held uncritically.
2. Philosophy is a process of reflecting on and
criticizing our most deeply held conceptions and
beliefs.
3. Philosophy is a rational attempt to look at the world
as a whole.
4. Philosophy is the logical analysis of language and
the clarification of the meaning of words and concepts.
 CORE FIELD OF PHILOSOPHY

1.Metaphysics

 Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the

ultimate nature of reality or existence. It deal with issues of
reality, God, freedom, soul/immortality, the mind-body
problem, form and substance relationship, cause and effect
relationship, and other related issues.

 The term metaphysics is derived from the Greek words

“meta” means (“beyond”, “upon” or “after”) and physika,
means (“physics”). Literally, it refers ‘those things after the
 CORE FIELD OF PHILOSOPHY
Here are some of the questions that Metaphysics primarily
deals with:

What is reality?
What is the ultimately real?
What is the nature of the ultimate reality?
Is it one thing or is it many different things?
Can reality be grasped by the senses, or it is
transcendent?
What makes reality different from a mere
Is there a cause and effect relationship between
reality and appearance?
Does God exist, and if so, can we prove it?
Are human actions free, or predetermined by a
supernatural force?
What is human being? A thinking mind?A
perishable body? Or a combination of both?
What is time?
What is the meaning of life?
 Metaphysical questions may be divided into four subsets or
aspects.

A.Cosmological Aspect: Cosmology consists in the study of theories about the origin
, nature, and development of the universe as an orderly system.
ex. “How did the universe originate and develop?

B. Theological Aspect: Theology is that part of religious theory that deals with
conceptions of and about God.
ex. “Is there a God?

C.Anthropological Aspect: Anthropology deals with the study of human beings

ex. What is the relation between mind and body?
D. Ontological Aspect: Ontology is the study of the nature of existence, or what it means
for anything to exist.
ex. “Is basic reality found in matter or physical energy
(the world we can sense), or is it found in spirit or spiritual energy?
 2. Epistemology
Epistemology is the other field of philosophy that
studies about the nature, scope, meaning, and
possibility of knowledge. It deals with issues of
knowledge, opinion, truth, falsity, reason,
experience, and faith. Epistemology is also
referred to as “theory of knowledge”.
Etymologically, the word epistemology has been
derived from the Greek words episteme, meaning
“knowledge, understanding”, and logos, meaning
“study of”.
The following are among the
questions/issues with which Epistemology
deals:

What is knowledge? What does it mean to

know?
What is the source of knowledge? Experience?
Reason? Or both?
How can we be sure that what we perceive
through our senses is correct?
What makes knowledge different from belief or
Can reason really help us to know phenomenal
things without being informed by sense
experiences?
Can our sense experience really help us to know
things beyond our perception without the
assistance of our reasoning ability?
What is the relationship and difference between
faith and reason?
  Skepticism in its narrow sense is the position
claiming that people cannot acquire reliable
knowledge and that any search for truth is in vain


Agnosticism is a profession of ignorance in reference
to the existence or nonexistence of God.

Sources of Human Knowledge

1. Emperical knowledge - empiricism (knowledge

obtained through the senses
2. Rationalism- reasoning, thought, or logic
3. Intuition- occurs beneath the
threshold of consciousness and is
often experienced as a sudden flash
of insight.
4. revelation- presupposes a
transcendent supernatural reality
5. authority.- comes from experts or
has been sanctified over time as
tradition
3. Intuition- occurs beneath the
threshold of consciousness and is
often experienced as a sudden flash
of insight.
4. Revelation- presupposes a
transcendent supernatural reality
5. Authority.- comes from experts or
has been sanctified over time as
tradition
 3. Axiology
Axiology is the study or theory of value. The term Axiology
stems from two Greek words- “Axios”, meaning “value,
worth”, and “logos”, meaning “reason/ theory/ symbol /
science/study of”. Hence, Axiology is the philosophical
study of value, which originally meant the worth of
Axiology asks the something.
philosophical questions of values that deal with notions of what a person or a
society regards as good or preferable, such as:

 What is a value?
 Where do values come from?
 How do we justify our values?
 How do we know what is valuable?
 What is the relationship between values and knowledge?
 What kinds of values exist?
 Can it be demonstrated that one value is better than another?  Who
 4. Ethics
Ethics, which is also known as Moral Philosophy, is a science that deals with the
philosophical study of moral principles, values, codes, and rules, which may be
used as standards for determining what kind of human conduct/action is said to be
good or bad, right or wrong.

Ethics raises various questions including:

 What is good/bad?
 What is right/wrong?
 Is it the Right Principle or the Good End that makes human action/conduct
moral?
 Is an action right because of its good end, or it is good because of its right
principle?
 Are moral principles universal, objective, and unconditional, or relative,
subjective and conditional?
 What is the ultimate foundation of moral principles? The supernatural God?
Human reason? Mutual social contract? Social custom?
 Does God exist? If so, is He Benevolent and Omnipotent?
 3 Main Branches

1.Normative Ethics refers to the ethical studies that attempt

to study and determine precisely the moral rules, principles,
standards and goals by which human beings might evaluate
and judge the moral values of their conducts, actions and
decisions.
2. Meta-ethics is the highly technical philosophical discipline
that deals with investigation of the meaning of ethical terms,
including a critical study of how ethical statements can be
verified.
3. Applied Ethics is a normative ethics that attempts to
explain, justify, apply moral rules, principles, standards, and
positions to specific moral problems.
 Aesthetics
Aesthetics is the theory of beauty. It studies about the
particular value of our artistic and aesthetic experiences. It
deals with beauty, art, enjoyment, sensory/emotional
values, perception, and matters of taste and sentiment.

The following are typical Aesthetic questions:

 What is art?
 What is beauty?
 What is the relation between art and beauty?
 What is the connection between art, beauty, and truth?
 Can there be any objective standard by which we may judge the
beauty of artistic works, or beauty is subjective?
 Does art have any moral value, and obligations or constraints?
 Are there standards of quality in Art?
 BASIC CONCEPTS OF LOGIC: ARGUMENTS,
PREMISES AND CONCLUSIONS

People use words like "logic" and "logical" a lot, often

without really understanding what they mean.
 o The word logic comes from Greek word logos,
which means sentence, discourse, reason,
truth and rule.
 Logic is a science that helps to develop the method and principles
that we may use as a criterion for evaluating the arguments of
others and as a guide to construct good arguments of our own.
 Logic is a science that evaluates arguments.
 Logic is the study of methods for evaluating arguments. More
precisely, logic is the study of methods for evaluating whether the
premises of arguments adequately support or provide a good
evidence for the conclusions.
 Logic is the attempt to codify the rules of rational thought. Logicians
explore the structure of arguments that preserve truth or allow the
optimal extraction of knowledge from evidence.
 Logic is one of the primary tools philosophers use in their inquiries.
The precision of logic helps them to cope with the subtlety of
philosophical problems and the often misleading nature of
 WHAT IS ARGUMENT?
 Argument is a technical term and the chief
concern offrom
 Arguments logic.
logical point of view, it is a group of statements,
one or more of which (the premise) are claimed to provide support
for, or reason to believe, one of the other, the (conclusion).

 First, an argument is a group of

statements
What is a statement?
A statement is a declarative
sentence that has a truth-
Example # 1 value of either true or false
a)Dr. Abiy Ahmed the current Prime Minister of Ethiopia.
b)Mekelle is the capital city of Tigray Region.
c)Ethiopia was colonized by Germany
.
EXAMPLE# 2
a) Would you close the window? (Question)
b) Let us study together. (Proposal)
c) Right on! (Exclamation)
d) I suggest that you read philosophy texts.
(Suggestion)
e) Give me your ID Card, Now! (Command)
 Second, the statements that make up an
argument are divided into premise(s) and
conclusion. Hence, an argument is a group
statement, which contains at least one premise
and one and only one conclusion
Argument always attempts to justify a claim.

• The claim that the statement attempts to justify is known as a

conclusion of an argument; and
• the statement or statements that supposedly justify the claim is/are
known as the premises of the argument

 Premise- is a statement that set forth the reason

or evidence, which is given for accepting the
conclusion of an argument
 Conclusion is a statement, which is claimed to
follow from the given evidence (premise
Example-1:
1)All Ethiopians are Africans. (Premise 1)
Tsionawit is Ethiopian. (Premise2)
Therefore, Tsionawit is African. (Conclusion)

Example-2:
2)Some Africans are black. (Premise-1)
Zelalem is an African. (Premise-2)
Therefore, Zelalem is black. (Conclusion)
 But how can we distinguish premises from
conclusion and vice versa?

The first technique that can be used to identify premises from a conclusion
and vice versa is looking at an indicator word. Frequently, arguments
contain certain indicator words that provide clues in identifying premises
and conclusion.

Here below are some Conclusion

Indicators:
Therefore Entails that
We may infer
Wherefore Hence
It implies
Accordingly It shows that
that
Provided Whence
that As a result
Thus
It must be So
Consequently
that It follows
We may
that
In argument that contains any of the conclusion indicator
words, the statement that follows the indicator word can
usually be identified as the conclusion. By the process of
elimination, the other statements in the argument can be
identified as premises, but only based on their logical
importance to the identified conclusion.
Example:
Women are mammals.
Zenebech is a woman.
Therefore, Zenebech is a mammal.
Based on the above rule, the conclusion of this argument is
“Zenebech is a mammal” because it follows the conclusion
indicator word “therefore”, and the other two statements are
premises. If an argument does not contain a conclusion
indicator, it may contain a premise indicator.
 Here below are some typical Premise
Indicators:

Since
Seeing In that
As
that May be inferred
indicated
Given from
by
that Inasmuch as
Because
As For the reason
Owing to
For that
 In argument that contains any of the premise
indicator words, a statement that follows the
indicator word can usually be identified as a
premise. By same the process of elimination,
the other remaining single statement will be
a conclusion.
Example:
You should avoid any form of cheating on
exams because cheating on exams is
punishable by the Senate Legislation of the
University.
  Sometimes a single indicator can be used to identify more than one
premise.
Ex.
Tsionawit is a faithful wife, for Ethiopian women are faithful wives and
Tsionawit an Ethiopian.
The premise indicator ‘‘for’’ goes with both ‘‘Ethiopian women are faithful
wives’’ and ‘‘Tsionawit is an Ethiopian”. These are the premises. By process of
elimination, ‘‘Tsionawit is a faithful wife” is the conclusion.

 Sometimes you may have an argument that contains no indicator at all: neither a
conclusion indicator word nor a premise indicator word. When this occurs, the
reader/ listener must ask himself or herself such questions as:
 What single statement is claimed (implicitly) to follow from the others?
 What is the arguer trying to prove?
 What is the main point in the passage?
The answers to these questions should point to the conclusion.
Example:
Our country should increase the quality and quantity of its military. Ethnic
conflicts are recently intensified; boarder conflicts are escalating;
international terrorist activities are increasing.
 The main point of this argument is to show that the country should increase
the size and quality of its military. All the rest are given in support of the
conclusion. As you can see there are no indicator words . The following is the
standard form of this argument:
Ethnic conflicts are recently intensified. (P-1)
Boarder conflicts are escalating. (P-2)
International terrorist activities are increasing. (P-3)
Thus, the country should increase the quality and quantity of its military. (C)
Passages that contain arguments sometimes contain statements that are
neither premises nor conclusion. Only statements that are actually intended to
support the conclusion should be included in the list of premises. If a
statement has nothing to do with the conclusion or, for example, simply makes
a passing comment, it should not be included within the context of the
Example:
argumentmedicine
Socialized . is not recommended because it would result in a
reduction in the overall quality of medical care available to the average
citizen. In addition, it might very well bankrupt the federal treasury.
This is the whole case against socialized medicine in a nutshell.
 Techniques of Recognizing
Not Arguments
all passages contain argument. a passage contains an
argument if it purports to prove something; if it does not do so, it
does not contain an argument.
But what does it mean to purport to prove something?
Two conditions must be fulfilled for a passage to purport to prove
something:
1) At least one of the statements must claim to present evidence
or reasons.
2) There must be a claim that the alleged evidence or reasons
supports or implies something- that is, a claim that something
 The first condition expresses a factual claim.
follows from the alleged evidence.
 The second condition expresses what is called an
inferential claim.
  An explicit inferential claim is usually asserted by
premise or conclusion indicator words (‘‘thus,’’
‘‘since,’’ ‘‘because,’’ ‘‘hence,’’ ‘‘therefore,’’ and so on).

Example: Gamachuu is my biological father, because my mother told

so.

 An implicit inferential claim exists if there is an

inferential relationship between the statements in a
passage, but the passage contains no indicator words .

Example: The genetic modification of food is risky business. Genetic

engineering can introduce unintended changes into the DNA of the food-
producing organism, and these changes can be toxic to the consumer.
 Recognizing Non-argumentative
 Passages
Simple non-inferential passages are unproblematic
passages that lack a claim that anything is being proved.

PASSAGES OF THIS SORT INCLUDE:

1. A warning is a form of expression that is intended to

put someone on guard against a dangerous or detrimental
situation.
Example:
Whatever you promise to tell, never confide political secrets to your
wife. PASSP
 2. A piece of advice is a form of expression that
makes a recommendation about some future decision or
course of conduct.
Example:
After class hours, I would suggest that you give careful
consideration to the subject matter you have discussed.
.
3. A statement of belief or opinion is an expression
about what someone happens to believe or think about
something.
Example:
We believe that our university must develop and produce
outstanding students who will perform with great skill and fulfill
the demands of our nation.
 4. Loosely associated statements may be about the same
general subject, but they lack a claim that one of them is proved
by the others.
Example:
Not to honor men of worth will keep the people from contention;
not to value goods that are hard to come by will keep them from
theft; not to display what is desirable will keep them from being
unsettled of mind.
5. A report consists of a group of statements
(Lao-Tzu, that convey
Thoughts from the Tao Te
information
Ching)about some topic or event.
Example # 1:
The great renaissance dam of Ethiopia has opened an
employment opportunity for thousands of Ethiopians. In its
completion, thirteen thousand Ethiopians are expected to be
 Example # 2:
“The Air Force faces a serious shortage of experienced pilots in the
years ahead, because repeated overseas tours and the allure of
high paying jobs with commercial airlines are winning out over
lucrative bonuses to stay in the service,” says a prominent Air
Force official. (Newspaper clipping)

Expository Passages
 An expository passage is a kind of discourse that
begins with a topic sentence followed by one or
more sentences that develop the topic sentence. If
the objective is not to prove the topic sentence but
only to expand it or elaborate it, then there is no
argument
 Example: There is a stylized relation of artist to mass audience
in the sports, especially in baseball. Each player develops a style
of his own-the swagger as he steps to the plate, the unique
windup a pitcher has, the clean-swinging and hard-driving hits,
the precision quickness and grace of infield and outfield, the
sense of surplus power behind whatever is done. (Max Lerner,
America as a Civilization)
 Illustrations
 An illustration is an expression involving one or more examples
that is intended to show what something means or how it is
done. Illustrations are often confused with arguments because
many illustrations contain indicator words such as “thus.”
Example:
Chemical elements, as well as compounds, can be represented by
molecular formulas. Thus, oxygen is represented by “O2”, water by
“H2O”, and sodium chloride by “NaCl”.
 Explanations
 One of the most important kinds of non-argument is
the explanation. An explanation is an expression that
purports to shed light on some event or
phenomenon, which is usually accepted as a matter
of fact. It attempts to clarify, or describe such alike
why something is happen that way or why something
is what it is.
Example:
Cows digest grass while humans cannot, because their
digestive systems contain enzyme not found in
humans.
 Every explanation is composed of two distinct
components:
A. Explanandum is the statement that describes the
event or phenomenon to be explained.
B. Explanans is the statement or group of statements
that purports to do the explaining. In the first example,
the explanandum is the statement
Conditional Statements
A conditional statement is an “if . . . then . . .”
statement.

• The component statement immediately following the

“if” is called the antecedent (if-clause),
Example: If you study hard, then you will score ‘A’ grade.
• The one following the “then” is called the consequent
(then-clause
For example: if we left out “then” from the above
example the antecedent and consequent is reversed: You
will score ‘A’ grade if you study hard.
Conditional statements are not arguments

In a conditional statement, there is no claim that either the antecedent or the

consequent presents evidence
 • Some conditional statements are similar to arguments in
that they express the outcome of a reasoning process. As
such, they may be said to have a certain inferential
content.
Example:
If destroying a political competitor gives you joy, then you
have a low sense of morality
• The conditional statement can be re-expressed to form an
argument .
Example:
Destroying a political competitor gives you joy. Therefore, you
have a low sense of morality.
 • While no single conditional statement is an
argument, a conditional statement may serve as
either the premise or the conclusion (or both) of
an argument

Example:
If he is selling our national secretes to enemies, then he
is a traitor. He is selling our national secretes to
enemies.
Therefore, he is a traitor.
If he is selling our national secretes to enemies, then he
is a traitor. If he is a
traitor, then he must be punished by death.
Therefore, If he is selling our national secretes to enemies, then he must be punished
The relation between conditional statements
and arguments may now be summarized as
follows:
1)A single conditional statement is not an
argument.
2)A conditional statement may serve as
either the premise or the conclusion (or
both) of an argument.
3)The inferential content of a conditional
statement may be re-expressed to form an
 Conditional statements are especially important in logic (and many other fields) because
they express the relationship between necessary and sufficient conditions. A is said to be
a sufficient condition for B whenever the occurrence of A is all that is needed for the
occurrence of B. For example, being a dog is a sufficient condition for being an animal.
On the other hand, B is said to be a necessary condition for A whenever A cannot occur
without the occurrence of B. Thus, being an animal is a necessary condition for being a
dog.
On the other hand, suppose you are told that whatever might be in the box, it is not an
animal. Then you know for certain there is no dog in the box. The reason you can draw
this conclusion is that being an animal is necessary for being a dog. If there is no animal,
there is no dog.

On the other hand, suppose you are told that whatever might be in the box, it is
not an animal. Then you know for certain there is no dog in the box. The reason
you can draw this conclusion is that being an animal is necessary for being a
dog. If there is no animal, there is no dog. However, being an animal is not
sufficient for being a dog, because if you are told that the box contains an
animal, you cannot, from this information alone, conclude that it contains a dog.
It might contain a cat, a mouse, a squirrel, and so on. These ideas are expressed
in the following conditional statements:
If X is a dog, then X is an animal.
In deciding whether a passage contains an argument, you
should look for three things:

1) indicator words such as “therefore,” “since,” “because,”

and so on;
2) an inferential relationship between the statements; and
3) typical kinds of non-arguments
In many arguments that lack indicator words, the
conclusion is the first statement.
Furthermore, it helps to mentally insert the word
“therefore” before the various statements before
deciding that a statement should be interpreted
as a conclusion.
 Types of Arguments

 Deductive Arguments
- A deductive argument is an argument incorporating the claim that it is
impossible for the conclusion to be false given that the premises are true. It is
an argument in which the premises are claimed to support the conclusion in
such a way that it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion
false. In such arguments, the conclusion is claimed to follow necessarily
(conclusively) from the premises. Thus, deductive arguments are those that
involve necessary reasoning.
Example-1:
All philosophers are critical thinkers.
Socrates is a philosopher.
Therefore, Socrates is a critical thinker.
 Example-2:
All African footballers are blacks.
Messi is an African footballer.
It follows that, Messi is black.

Inductive Arguments

An inductive argument is an argument incorporating

the claim that it is improbable for the conclusion to
be false given that the premises are true. . It is an
argument in which the premises are claimed to
support the conclusion in such a way that it is
improbable for the premises to be true and the
conclusion false.
Example-1:

Most African leaders are blacks.

Mandela was an African leader.
Therefore, probably Mandela was black.

Example-2:

Almost all women are mammals.

Hanan is a woman.
 Differentiating Deductive and Inductive
Arguments
1. The occurrence of special indicator words.
Example:
“certainly,’’ “necessarily,” ‘‘absolutely,’’ and ‘‘definitely’’
indicate that the argument should be taken as deductive,
whereas words like, “probable” ‘‘improbable,’’ ‘‘plausible,’’
‘‘implausible,’’ ‘‘likely,’’ ‘‘unlikely,’’ and ‘‘reasonable to
conclude”
2) The actual strength of the inferential link
between premises and conclusion.
3) The character or form of argumentation the
arguers use.
 Instances of Deductive Argumentative Forms

 Argument based on mathematics: it is an argument in which the

conclusions depend on some purely arithmetic or geometric computation or
measurement
Ex.
You can put two orange and three bananas in a bag and conclude that the bag
contains five fruits. Or again you can measure a square pieces of land and
after determining it is ten meter on each side conclude that its area is a
 Arguments
hundred squarebased
meter.on definition: it is an argument in which
the conclusion is claimed to depend merely up on the
definition of some words or phrase used in the premise or
conclusion.
Ex.
One may argue that Angel is honest; it is follows that Angel tells
the truth. Or again, Kebede is a physician; therefore, he is a
  Syllogisms are arguments consisting of
exactly two premises and one conclusion.

A. Categorical syllogism: a syllogism is an argument

consisting of exactly two premises and one conclusion.
Categorical syllogism is a syllogism in which the statement
begins with one of the words “all”, “no” and “some”.

Example:

All Egyptians are Muslims.

No Muslim is a Christian. Hence,
no Egyptian is a Christian.
 B. Hypothetical syllogism: It is a syllogism having a
conditional statement for one or both of its premises.
Example:
If you study hard, then you will graduate with
Distinction.
If you graduate with Distinction, then you will get a
rewarding job.
Therefore, if you study hard, then you will get a
C. Disjunctive syllogism: it is a syllogism having a disjunctive
rewarding job.
statement. (I.e. an “either … or” statement.)
Example:
Rewina is either Ethiopian or Eritrean.
Rewina is not Eritrean.
Therefore, Rewina is Ethiopian.
 Instances of Inductive Argumentative
Formsdeals with some known
A. Prediction: in a prediction the premises
event in the present or the past and the conclusions moves beyond this
event to some event to relative future.
Ex.
One may argue that because certain clouds develop in the center of
the highland, a rain will fall within twenty-four hours

B.An argument from analogy: It is an argument that depends

on the existence of an analogy or similarity between two things
or state of affairs. Because of the existence of this analogy a
certain conditions that affects the better- known thing or
situations is concluded to affect the less familiar , lesser known-
thing or situation.
Ex.
one may conclude, after observing the similarity of some features
of Computer A and car B: that both are manufactured in 2012;
that both are easy to access; that Computer A is fast in
 C. An inductive generalization: it is an argument that
proceeds from the knowledge of a selected sample to some
claim about the whole group. Because the members of the
sample have a certain characteristics, it is argued that all
members of the group have the same characteristics.

Ex.
One may argue that because three out of four people in a single
prison are black, one may conclude that three-fourth of prison
populations are blacks
D. An argument from authority: it is an argument in
which the conclusions rest upon a statement made by
some presumed authority or witness.
Ex.
A lawyer, for instance, may argue that the person is guilty
because an eyewitness testifies to that effect under oath.
Or again one may argue that all matters are made up of a
small particles called “quarks” because the University
Professor said so
E.Arguments based on sign: it is an argument that proceeds
from the knowledge of a certain sign to the knowledge of a thing
or situation that the sign symbolizes.
Ex.
One may infer that after observing ‘No Parking’ sign posted on the
side of a road, the area is not allowed for parking
F. A causal inference: it is an argument which proceed from the
knowledge of a cause to the knowledge of an effect, or
conversely, from the knowledge of an effect to knowledge of a
cause
Ex.
From the knowledge that a bottle of water had been accidentally left in
the freezer overnight, someone might conclude that it had frozen (cause
to effect). Conversely, after tasting a piece of chicken and finding it dry
 Validity, Truth, Soundness, Strength,
Cogency
 A Valid Argument is a deductive argument in
which, if the premises are assumed true, it is
impossible for the conclusion to be false. In such
arguments, the conclusion follows with strict
necessity from the premises.

For example;
All birds are mammals.
A crocodile is a bird.
Therefore, the crocodile is a mammal.
 Here is an example of valid argument having a false premise and
false conclusion:

All auto makers are computer manufacturers;

NOKIA is an auto maker.
Therefore, NOKIA is a computer manufacturer.

An Invalid Argument is a deductive

argument such that if the premises are
assumed true, it is possible for the
conclusion to be false. In these arguments
the conclusion does not follow with strict
necessity from the premises, even though it
All to.
claimed banks are financial organizations.
Nyala Insurance Company is a financial
organization.
Therefore, Nyala Insurance Company is a bank.
 A Sound Argument is a deductive argument that is
valid and has all true premises. Both conditions must
be met for an argument to be sound, and if either is
missing the argument is unsound.

For example:
All trees are plants.
Acacia is a tree.
Therefore, acacia is a plant.
 Unsound Argument is a deductive argument that is invalid, has one or more false
premises, or both

A Strong Argument is an inductive argument such that if the premises are assumed true,
then based on the assumption it is probable that the conclusion is true.
Ex.
This mini-library contains over 10,000 books. 1000 books selected at random were found to be
written on philosophy. Thus, it is likely that all of the books in the minilibrary are books written on
philosophy. (Strong Inductive Argument)
A weak Argument is an inductive argument such that if the premises are assumed true, then
based on that assumption it is not probable that the conclusion is true.
Examples:
This mini-library contains over 10,000 books. 50 books selected at random were found to be
written on philosophy. Thus, it is likely that all of the books in the minilibrary are books written on
philosophy. (Weak Inductive Argument

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