Critical Thinking __________________________________________

Quiz 3 February 20, 2003 Induction

1. What is the distinction between the weak, inclusive sense of disjunction and the strong, exclusive sense? (From 2/18 class meeting discussion of Quiz 2)

A weak, inclusive disjunction is one in which both of the disjuncts may be true. The strong, exclusive disjunction is one in which only one disjunct may be true. The strong disjunction means “one or the other, but not both.”

2. What is the fallacy of “false dilemma”? (From 2/18 class meeting and text)

False dilemma is a problem in reasoning in which one believes that in a condition of choice, there are two and only two options available (both of which are probably unpleasant or in some other way undesirable) when in fact there either are or may be other options.

3. What is the Principle of Nature’s Uniformity? (From 2/13 class meeting)

That the future will resemble the past.

4. What is the “problem of induction”? (It has to do with circular argumentation – from 2/13 class meeting from the discussion of David Hume.)

Inductive argumentation “works” on the assumption that the future will resemble the past. But the way in which one justifies the claim that the future will resemble the past is to argue that it will resemble the past because it always has resembled the past. In essence, then, it is circular. One argues that the future will resemble the past because the future has resembled the past, and that the future always does resemble the past (and this is of course the point in question).