Exam 8: Evaluating Arguments and Truth Claims

We may have good reason to doubt the credibility of a source if _____.

According to the principle of rational acceptance, it is generally reasonable to accept an unsupported claim if _____.

An argument can be refuted by showing _____.

Generally speaking, it is reasonable to accept a claim if _____.

Picking out those premises that are essential to an argument's success and attempting to refute as many as necessary to knock out the conclusion's support is known as _____.

A good argument should neither be deductively sound nor inductively cogent.

Generally, we should be cautious about accepting a claim on authority if it comes from a source who is speaking outside his or her area of expertise.

From the standpoint of critical thinking, a good argument is a persuasive argument.

From a critical thinking standpoint, an argument can be a good argument even if it is seriously lacking in clarity, precision, relevance, and completeness.

An argument's _____ are those that are necessary to support the argument's conclusion.

From the standpoint of critical thinking, a good argument should be _____.

A deductive argument can be a poor argument even if it is logically valid.

Which of the following are the most important questions to ask in assessing the logic of an argument?

Which of the following should we NOT ask in evaluating an argument?

Which of the following questions should be asked while evaluating the sufficiency of an argument's supporting premises?

According to the text, most of us _____.

To refute an argument is merely to challenge or criticize it.

Practically speaking, an argument is "good" if the reader or listener agrees with it.

Which of the following should we ask in evaluating an argument?

Never to believe without sufficient evidence and never to believe more strongly than the evidence warrants are the watchwords of the wise critical thinkers.