Philosophical Terms and Its Definitions

Robert Gutierrez
4th Period     Sept 7, 2011
Ch 2 Basic Ideas (Pgs 31-42)
  * Logic as the tool or key to philosophizing-Philosophers pay attention to the philosophical discipline of logic, which is defined as the study of right reasoning. Philosophers can no more do without logic than the physicist can do without mathematics.
  * The Three Laws of Thought-The Three Laws of Thought consist of the Law of Non-Contradiction, the Law of Excluded Middle, and the Law of Identity. These laws in a sense are the beginning of all thinking. It is important to pay attention
      * Non-Contradiction-Nothing can be both be and not be at the same time and in the same respect.
      * Excluded Middle-Something either is or either isn’t.
      * Identity-Something is what it is.
  * The nature and elements of an argument-An argument is an attempt to show that something is true by providing evidence for it. More technically, it is a group of propositions in which one is said to follow from at least one other. The proposition that follows from the others, that is, the “something to be shown,” is called the conclusion; the proposition from which the conclusion follows, that is, the evidence, are called premises.
  * Deduction reasoning-it is sometimes said that deductive arguments reason from the whole to the part, or from the general to the specifics.
  * Logical entailment- by virtue of a relation of entailment, or logical implication, between terms or propositions in the premises: “to entail means “to include” or “to involve.” Deductive entailment has to do with the way a term or proposition may be included to another.
  * Syllogism-the most traditional and even yet one of the most common deductive argument. This is a type of argument consisting of two premises and a conclusion. Syllogism comes from a Greek word meaning “proposition considered together.”
  * Categorical syllogism-Categorical syllogism has its name because both of the premises are categorical...