critical reasoning. stephen watson –[email protected]@bond.edu.au –office in hss 4234...
TRANSCRIPT
Critical Reasoning
Critical Reasoning
• Text– R.J. Fogelin & W. Sinnott-Armstrong (2005)
7th edition Understanding Arguments: an introduction to informal logic
Critical Reasoning
• Further Reading– Cederblom, J. & D. W. Paulsen (c2001)
Critical Reasoning– Copi, I. & C. Cohen, (1994), Introduction to
Logic
Critical Reasoning
• Assessment– Mid-semester Assignment: 35% – Quiz #1 (week 7) 30%– Quiz #2 (week 12) 35%
Critical Reasoning
• Goals– improve critical reading skills required for
undergraduate study– improve academic writing skills and the clear
presentation of your ideas– assist in the imaginative aspects of thinking
necessary to good problem solving.
Critical Reasoning
• Lectures– First part of 3 hour block is lectures– Feel free to ask for clarifications during
lectures
Critical Reasoning
• Tutorials– second part of 3 hour block is a tutorial– Questions from the text or elsewhere will be
discussed.– Discussions will be on the material in the
lecture just given – so make sure you’re understanding things at the time
Aspects of Language
No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
John Donne
Language and Argument
• An argument is the giving of reasons for or against a claim.
• Arguing is a linguistic activity
Language and Convention
• The language we use to communicate ideas, beliefs, etc. is a matter of convention. – semantic conventions: words acquire their
meaning by convention – syntactic conventions: grammar, is
conventional
Language and Convention
• Language is, however, not arbitrary . – Communication depends on shared linguistic
conventions – The truth or falsity of information
communicated is generally not dependent on conventions
Levels of Language
• Language can be used to perform many functions – to convey or request information – to bring things about – to elicit a response in one's audience
Linguistic Acts
• Language contains many conventions. Two have already been noted – semantic conventions – syntactic conventions
• When an utterance satisfies these two conventions we can be said to have performed a linguistic act
Linguistic Acts
• Indicative mood (for a statement of fact)– "He is running."
• Interrogative mood (for a question) – "Is he running?"
• Imperative mood (for a command)– "Run!"
• Expressive mood (for a desire or wish)– "Ah, to be running now!"
Speech Acts
• A linguistic act is one level at which speech acts can be described
... but there is another level. The level of illocutionary acts
Performatives
• Certain kinds of utterances — performatives — bring something about, rather than merely describe– A marriage celebrant says
"You are now man and wife"
Explicit Performatives
• The ‘Thereby’ Test
Utterance U expresses an explicit performative just in case it:
(i) is first-person singular present indicative(ii) yields a true statement when
plugged into the patternIn saying "I ..." I thereby ... .
Explicit Performatives
• Examples– "I now declare you man and wife" – "I congratulate you"
• The saying is a kind of doing
Kinds of Speech Acts
• Performative utterances are used for (linguistic acts and) speech acts
• One and the same linguistic act can do a variety of things — perform a number of speech acts
Kinds of Speech Acts
• Examples– "Is there any pizza left?" "Yes" – "Do you promise to pay me back?" "Yes" – "Do you swear to tell the truth?" "Yes" – "Do you refuse to leave?" "Yes"
The linguistic act of saying "Yes" is used – To state something– To promise– To take an oath– To refuse
Kinds of Speech Acts
• An illocutionary act is the act that an utterance effects.It is what is done in making the utterance.– E.G. stating, promising, swearing, refusing
Kinds of Speech Acts
• Different kinds of speech acts are named by the different verbs that occur in explicit performatives – In saying "I promise ..." I thereby promise ...
So promising is a kind of speech act– In saying "I refuse to ..." I thereby refuse to ...
So refusing is a kind of speech act.
• These verbs are called performative verbs
Kinds of Speech Acts
• Not all speech acts are named by performative verbs – The speech act of insulting is not.
'Insult' is not a performative verb.
(Just try the thereby-test to see.).
Making Statements
• One important kind of speech act is to make statements that are true or false– the speech act of asserting, or stating, or
describing
Speech act rules
• To perform a particular speech act certain conventions may need to be met– The speaker might need to occupy a special
position – Special words, gestures or formatting may be
required – There may be presupposed facts – A particular response might be required
Speech act rules
• Though a speech act may have occurred, it can be insincere – Certain feelings or beliefs are expected by the
speaker • When you promise someone by saying "I promise"
the speech act of promising occurs, however it can be defective if the speaker is not sincere
Perlocutionary Acts
• The act of causing an effect in an audience by means of language is a perlocutionary act – "Look out for the tiger snake!"
• I perform the linguistic act of saying something meaningful
• I perform the illocutionary act of warning you • I perform the perlocutionary act of putting you on
guard
Conversational Rules
• Linguistic acts can be used to perform perlocutionary acts because of assumed conventions or rules – I say “The house is on fire” (linguistic act) and
you are alerted (perlocutionary act) because we assume
• People generally aim at truth in cooperative conversation
• People generally have evidence for claims they make
Conversational Rules
• Cooperative conversations are governed by such rules
• Hence, cooperative conversations are situations in which conversational acts are commonly performed
Conversational Implicature
• Because cooperative conversation is governed by rules we can draw conclusions from what someone says without them having to be explicitly stated– "Where does Jo live? "
"In Brisbane somewhere "– Cooperative Rule: Be as informative as
possible.– Implicature: I don't know exactly where Jo
lives
Conversational Implicature
• B conversationally implicated by linguistic act A just in case:(i) B is not explicitly stated by A(ii) B could be false given A(iii) yet B could explain why A is uttered in a cooperative conversation
Conversational Implicature
• Example– "No one has spoken to Phil all evening" – Conclude C: “No one likes Phil”; but
• It is not explicitly stated, and • It could be false. But• It explains why the remark was made
Conversational Implicature
• Example– "No one has spoken to Phil all evening" – Conclude C: “No one likes Phil”; but
• It is not explicitly stated, and • It could be false. But• It explains why the remark was made
– So C is an implicature
Conversational Implicature
• Compare– "No one has spoken to Phil all evening" – Conclude D: “Phil hasn't had a conversation
all evening” – D is logically implied (it can’t be false)