22(2)pp5-27TeachingSupplement7.pdf Premise, CQ1 lelusion and Condilionallndicalors TS 5 Premise, Conclusion and Conditional Indicators CLAUDE GRATTON Department of Philosoph y University of Nevada at Las Vegas Las Vegas, NY 89154-5028 U.SA granonc@ncvada.cdu One way to help improve stud ents' reasoning skills is to improve their und erstand- ing and use of various groups of words that have important argum entative func- tions, such as premise and concl usion ind icators, di sco unt exp ress ions (e.g., 'but '. ;however'), gua rd ing (e.g., 'can', 'may') and assuring (e.g., 'necessaril y', 'ev i- dentl y') qualifiers, quantifiers (e.g. , 'most', 'all ', 'some'), and conditional indica- tors (e.g., 'on ly if, 'w hen'). T he worksheets be low have helped my students to identify and use premise and conclusion indicators, and the various words that express conditional statemen ts. Textbooks usually give on ly a short list of these groups of words, and as a res ult students fail to realize the variety of ex pressions that exist in the English language. My lists inc lud e more examples, but they are not exnausti ve. Yo u will see that I have in chlded in each worksheet expressions that are not premi se or conclusion indi cations, or conditional indicators. My goal is to help st ud ents to be more li ngui sti ca lly alert, for they ca n easily fall into a mental rut with these kinds of worksheets. According to my expe ri ence, the most effective steps to fo ll ow when using th ese worksheets is to do a few exam ples in class in ord er to make sure that all the students understand how to do the exe rcises, secondly, have them work in sma ll groups on a portion of the worksheet, and third ly, go over that porti on as a class. Stud ents seem to learn better when we spend about fifteen minutes per class on a few co nsecuti ve classes, than if we do every thi ng in a sin gle class. Rather than j ust have students give th eir answers, have th em also give examples of the appli ca- ti on o f these expressions. Fo r thi s will he lp you to see how th ey are th inking, and th us allow yo u to make co rrections at that deeper leve l rather than just at the leve l of their outward performance ; the variety of examples will make the activ ity more interes ting, and faci lit ate th e transferen ce of th ese ski ll s to different contexts. Of course, the s uccessfu l comp let ion of these worksheets is definite ly not sufficie nl to g ive students the maste ry they need. In order to re info rce their learn- in g I assign a project in which they are s upposed to hand in five argu ments' and © Claude Gratton 2003 TS 6 Claude Gratton five causal explanations from their own readings (e,g" textbooks used in their other courses, magazines , movies), diagram the reasoning (labeling each arrow in a diagram as either an argument or a causal explanation, for some passages con· tain both arguments and causal explanations), circle conclusion indicators, box in premise indicators, underline conditional indicators, and use different parentheses to identify discount expressions and qualifiers, If they get anything wrong in a particular passage , they do not get their point, but they may submit a new passage, and use my feedback to avoid repeating their mistake, Until the deadline, students may submit any quantity of new examples at any time, This flexibility (mastery learning) allows the slow learners to get the practice and feedback they need , and to get a good grade, This project is usually worth ten percent, and many students who start working on the project as soon as it assigned succeed in getting their ten out of ten, This project will also give you a chance to accumulate examples of arguments and causal explanations that you can latcr use in quizzes, tests, exams, assignments, If any of your students are learning any other languages, suggest to them to construct similar lists in the languages they are learning: this will help them to reason more effectively in that language , Premise & Conclusion Indicators instructions: The purpose of this assignment is to help you to become aware of a variety of words that have the important function of indicating whether statements are used as reasons Or as conclusions. Let the letters "PH stand for a premisel reason, and "e" for a conclusion. Insen these letters in the appropriate positions . For example, the correct insertion of these letters in "_ therefore, _" is "L therefore ~". Since 'therefore' introduces a conclusion, it is a "conclusion indicator". The correct insertion of these letter in "Since _, _ " is "Since L, ~". As 'since' introduces a premise, it is a "premise indicator". Note: (a) Not all of the following expressions are either premise or conclusion indicators. If you identify an expression that we typically do fl ot use as a premise or a conclusion indicator, do not insert any letter, leave the expression blank. (b) If you are going to use the same argument to determine the function of all or most of these expressions, then you will sometimes have to rephrase your argument , I) _ , consequently, _ , 3) As shown by the fact that _, _' 5) As_,_ 7) 9) , From this we can deduce that , Accordingly, ' - - II) _' From this it follows that _' 2) entails that 4) _' This ' is shown by _' 6) shows that 8) , However, 10) _' I conclude that _' 12) _ follows from _ ' I Impersonal pronouns sometimes refer to earlier statements. Premise, Conclusion and Conditional Indicators TS 7 13) _. Moreover,_. 15) _. Thi s proves that _ . 17) _. Furthermore, _ . 19) _ . Hence, _ . 21) _ . Then _ . [find exceptions] 14) _. That is prove n from _. 16) Granted that ~ _ . 18) Supposing that _,_. 20)_. For_. 22) _ because _. [arg.lexpl.] 23) Beca use_ ,_ . [argumentslexplanations]24) _. Nevertheless_. 25) _ . That is why _. 26 Thi s is why ---' _. 27) _ . Here is why, _ . 29) _. Obviously _. 3 1) _ impli es that_. 33) _ due to the reason that_. 35) Despite the fact that _ , _ . 37) I n view of the fact that _, _. 39) _ may be deduced from _. 41) _ may be inferred from _ . 43) _. Al so _ . 45) _, thus, _. [identify exceptions] 47) It can be derived from that 49) _. This bears out the point that _ . 51) _ establishes that _. 53) _ proves that_. 55) _ . This is proven from _ . 57) _ supports that _. 59) In support of _ , consider _ . 61) _. Evide ntly,_. 63) Inasmuch as _, _. 65) On the hypothesis that ---' _ . 67) _ ind icates that _. 69) _ guarantees that _. 71) On the basis of _,_. 73) In li ght of the fact that _,_. 28) Here is why _, _. 30) _. Thi s being so, _. 32) As indicated by ---' _. 34) On account of the reason that - ' - 36) _. In view of that, _. 38) _. In addition, _ . 40) _ .One can deduce that_. 42) _. One may infer that_. 44) _, thereby showing that_. 46) _. Still,_. 48) _ . That is derived from_. 50) _ . Besides, 52) _justifir.s that_. 54) _ . Its proo f is that_. 56) _ . Finally,_. 58) _ is supported by _. 60) _ lend s credence to _ . 62) leads me to believe that 64) _. As a result, _. 66) _ demonstrates that _. 68) _ signifies that _ . 70) _ is based on _ . 72) _. In that case, _ . 74) Even if _,_. 75) _. You just need to consider that _ . 76) _ . But comes down to_. 77) _ . That makes me believe that _. 78) _. To say that is to say _. _. 79) _ . In concl usion, _ . [find exception s]80) _. This comes from _. TS 8 C laude Gratton 81) _ . That authorizes me to say that _. 82) I' m co nvinced from _ , that 83) _. This marsha ls in favor of_. 85) _. On th is account, _. 84 ) _ . For this reason, _. 86) Seeing that _, _. Id entify or invent three other premise indicators. Identify or invent three other conclusion indicators. Conditional Statements Instructions: The purpose of this assignment is \0 help yo u to become aware of a variety of words that have the im portant function of expressing conditional state- ment s. Where are the sufficient condition [S] and the necessary conditi on [N] located in the following conditional statements? Example: I . If ~ then __ . Ans wer: If.2..- , then -lL. Note: (1) These expressions are not always used in the same way by everyone. (2).If an expression is not typically lIsed to assert a conditional statement, then do not insert any letter, leave the expression blank. 2. __ only if __ . 4. Whenever __ , __ . 6. When~ _ _ . 8. __ provided that __ . 10 . No _ _ , unless __ . 12. __ is necessary for _ _ . 14 . __ is required for __ . 16. __ is ind ispe nsable for __ . 18. is needed for 20. __ , is requisite for __ . 22. There must be __ , for 24. __ , inescapably __ . 26. _ _ . inevitably _ _ 28. Postulating __ , __ . 30. Hypothes izing __ , _ _ . 32. Presuming that __ , __ . 34. __ presuppos es that _ _ . 36. In the case that _ _ . __ . 38. __ is enough for __ . 3. Each time ~ __ . 5. Every time __ , _ _ . 7. __ only when __ . 9. _ _ only provided that __ . II. Unless _, there 's no 13. Supposing that ~ _ _ . 15. __ . suppos ing that __ . 17 . Assuming that _ _ , __ . 19. __ , assuming that __ . 2 1. Admitting that __ , _ _ . 23. _ _ , admitting that __ . 25. Providing that _ ___ . 27. __ , providing that __ . 29. Positing __ , __ . J I. Conjecturing _ _ , __ . 33. Vent uring that __ , _ _ . 35. Presuppos ing that __ . _ _ . 37. In the event that --'-- 39. ___ is adequate for __ . Elementary Logic from a ll Advanced Standpoint TS 9 40. __ is satisfactory for __ . 42. _ _ is ample for __ . 44. As soon as _ _ , _ _ . 46 . Until_, there ' s no _. 48 . Without _, there 's no_. 50. In the eve nt that _, _ . 52. on the condition that 41. is suitable for 43 . __ is plenty fo r __ . 45. Once -'- 47. No _, until _. 49. No w itho ut 5 1. . On these terms 53. _ o nly on the condition that _. 54. _ o nly on the assumption that _" 55. On the condition that --,_. 56. Granting that _ , _ . 57. Granted that _ , _ Elementary Logic from an Advanced Standpoint MAURICE A. FINOCCHIARO Departm ent of Philosophy University of Nevada at Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV 89 154 -5028 U.S. A. mauricc:f@ncvada.cdu l.lntroductioD For the past 30 years I have taught a course entitled '-Log ic.a l Theory," and here I should like to briefly relate its origin and history, desc ri be its structu re and content, and explain its aim and rational e. The co urse is at the upper~ di vis j on leve l and has for prerequisite anyone of th ree introd uctory logic courses in (I) reasoning and critica l th inking, (2) ev id ence and inductive reasoning. or (3) formal, deductive, or symbo lic logic. Its catalogue description read s: "G eneral study of the natu re of argument; how it relates to reasoning, critici sm, deduction, logical form, ind uc- tion , and pers uas ion . Emphasizes both the systemat ic development of log ical con- cepts and the ir application to actual arguments." Thi s course originated in part as my attempt to teach a co urse similar (mu - tatis nlutcmd is) to a grad uate serninar I had taken in 1967 frorn Michael Sc riven as a g radu ate student at the Un ivers ity of Cal ifornia-Berkeley, which was my first exposure to inforrnallogic and critical thinking. That mernorable course was enti- © Maurice Fin occhiaro 2003 saklak Text Box