Glossary

Find terms

Filter by tier

All 475 terms

A34 terms

A fortioriTier IVNo lesson yet
Arguing that if something holds in the harder case it holds all the more in the easier one.

See also Precedent, Argument from analogy

AbductionTier V1 lesson
Reasoning from something observed to a hypothesis that would explain it. Some writers use the word for the generative step of producing a candidate worth considering, and reserve inference to the best explanation for accepting one; others use the two names interchangeably.

See also Inference to the best explanation, Explanatory virtues, Induction

Used in A Third Kind of Inference

AccentTier III1 lesson
A shift of meaning produced by where the stress falls, or by what is left out of a quotation, rather than by the words themselves.

See also Ambiguity, Fallacy of ambiguity

Used in Accent

AccidentTier III2 lessons
Applying a sound general rule to a case that the reason behind the rule does not cover.

See also Converse accident, Special pleading

Used in Accident and Converse Accident, Which Presumption Was Made?

Ad hominemTier II2 lessons
Attacking the person making an argument instead of answering the argument.

See also Straw man, Relevance

Used in Name-Calling Instead of Arguing, Spotting All Six

AdditionTier V1 lesson
The rule taking any sentence to a disjunction of it with anything whatever. It looks idle and is what makes the disjunctive syllogism reachable.

See also Rules of inference, Disjunctive syllogism

Used in Simplification, Conjunction, Addition

Admissible setTier VII1 lesson
A conflict-free set of arguments that defends each of its members against every attacker.

See also Argumentation framework, Grounded extension

Used in Dung's Abstract Argumentation Frameworks

Affirmative propositionTier III1 lesson
also affirmativeA categorical proposition that places the subject class, wholly or partly, inside the predicate class. The A and I forms are affirmative.

See also Negative proposition, Quality

Used in Quality

Affirming a disjunctTier III1 lesson
The invalid move from "P or Q" and P to not-Q. It treats an inclusive "or" as though it were exclusive.

See also Disjunctive syllogism, Inclusive "or"

Used in Affirming a Disjunct

Affirming the consequentTier III2 lessons
The invalid move from "if P then Q" and Q to P.

See also Denying the antecedent, Validity, Consequent

Used in Affirming the Consequent, Counterexamples to a Form

Alternative hypothesisTier V1 lesson
What is concluded if the null is rejected. It is rarely a single specific claim, which is why rejecting the null establishes less than it appears to.

See also Null hypothesis, Statistical significance

Used in The Null Hypothesis

AmbiguityTier III1 lesson
also ambiguousA term or a sentence is ambiguous when it carries more than one distinct meaning and the context does not settle which is intended.

See also Vagueness, Equivocation, Amphiboly

Used in Vagueness and Ambiguity

AmphibolyTier III1 lesson
Ambiguity arising from how a sentence is put together rather than from any one word, so that the same plain words carry two readings.

See also Ambiguity, Equivocation

Used in Amphiboly

AmplificationTier IV2 lessons
Making something already granted weigh more. It is not further proof; the audience has accepted the fact, and what remains is what the fact is worth.

See also Pathos, Impact calculus

Used in The Peroratio, Amplification

AnaphoraTier IV1 lesson
Repeating the same words at the start of successive clauses.

See also Epistrophe, Isocolon

Used in Anaphora and Epistrophe

AntecedentTier III4 lessons
The "if" part of a conditional.

See also Consequent, Contrapositive

Used in Antecedent and Consequent, Modus Ponens, Affirming the Consequent, The Destructive Dilemma

AntimetaboleTier IV1 lesson
Repeating the same words in reversed order. It is the strongest form of chiasmus and the most quotable, which is why it is worth checking what it actually claimed.

See also Chiasmus, Epistrophe

Used in Chiasmus and Antimetabole

AntithesisTier IVNo lesson yet
Setting two contrary terms against each other in parallel shape.

See also Chiasmus, Isocolon

ApostropheTier IV1 lesson
Turning aside from the audience to address someone absent, or something that cannot answer.

See also Figure of thought, Impersonation

Used in Irony and Apostrophe

Appeal to forceTier II2 lessons
Offering a threat, or the pressure of what will happen to you, in place of a reason.

See also Fallacy, Relevance

Used in Threatening Instead of Arguing, Spotting All Six

Appeal to ignoranceTier II2 lessons
Treating the absence of a disproof as though it were a proof. Nobody having shown a claim false is not a reason to think it true.

See also Fallacy, Burden of proof

Used in Nobody's Proved Me Wrong, Spotting All Six

Appeal to pityTier II2 lessons
Offering sympathy for someone in place of a reason for the claim.

See also Fallacy, Relevance, Pathos

Used in Feeling Sorry Instead of Answering, Spotting All Six

ArgumentTier II2 lessons
also argumentsA set of statements in which some, the premises, are offered in support of another, the conclusion. Not a quarrel.

See also Premise, Conclusion, Claim

Used in What an Argument Is, Premise and Conclusion

Argument from analogyTier IV2 lessons
Arguing that because two cases are alike in stated respects, what holds of one holds of the other. It stands or falls on whether the respects claimed to carry over are the ones doing the work.

See also Disanalogy, Argument from sign

Used in Argument from Analogy, Argument by Analogy

Argument from authorityTier IV1 lesson
Resting a claim on the word of someone placed to know. It is legitimate where the authority is genuine, within their field, and not contradicted by their peers.

See also Misuse of authority, Interest and bias

Used in Argument from Authority

Argument from causeTier IVNo lesson yet
Arguing that one thing will produce or has produced another. It requires a mechanism, not merely a sequence.

See also Post hoc, False cause, Argument from consequences

Argument from consequencesTier IV1 lesson
Arguing for or against a course of action by what would follow from it. It is proper about actions and improper about whether a claim is true.

See also Argument from cause, Impact calculus

Used in Argument from Consequences

Argument from signTier IV1 lesson
Arguing from an indicator to what it indicates. It requires saying what the sign is a sign of, and whether anything else produces the same indicator.

See also Argument from cause, Correlation

Used in Argument from Sign

Argumentation frameworkTier VII1 lesson
A set of arguments together with an attack relation on them, abstracting away from their content.

See also Admissible set, Grounded extension

Used in Dung's Abstract Argumentation Frameworks

Argumentation schemeTier VI1 lesson
also argumentation schemesA recurring pattern of defeasible argument, paired with the critical questions that test an instance of it.

See also Critical questions, Defeater

Used in Argumentation Schemes and Their Critical Questions

ArrangementTier IV2 lessons
The canon of ordering what has been found, so that each part arrives when the audience is ready for it.

See also The five canons, The parts of an oration

Used in Five Canons as a Sequence of Work, Arrangement

AssociationTier V1 lesson
The equivalence permitting the regrouping of a chain of conjunctions, or of disjunctions, without change of meaning.

See also Replacement rules, Commutation

Used in Double Negation, Commutation, Association

AssumptionTier II2 lessons
also assumptionsSomething an argument leans on without ever saying it. It is usually left out because it seems too obvious to state.

See also Premise, Argument

Used in The Part Left Unsaid, Assuming for the Sake of Argument

AsyndetonTier IV1 lesson
Leaving out the conjunctions between items, which makes a list read as faster and as though it could continue.

See also Polysyndeton

Used in Asyndeton and Polysyndeton

B10 terms

BackingTier IV2 lessons
In the Toulmin model, the support offered for a warrant itself.

See also Warrant

Used in The Toulmin Warrant, Backing

BandwagonTier II2 lessons
Offering the popularity of a belief as if it were evidence for it.

See also Ad hominem, Relevance

Used in Everybody Thinks So, Spotting All Six

Base rateTier V1 lesson
How common a condition is in the population before any test is applied. Ignoring it makes a positive result look more informative than it is.

See also Conditional probability, Prosecutor's fallacy

Used in Base Rate Neglect

Base rate neglectTier V1 lesson
Reasoning from the accuracy of a test to the probability of the condition without using how common the condition is.

See also Base rate, Prosecutor's fallacy, Bayes' theorem

Used in Base Rate Neglect

Bayes' theoremTier VNo lesson yet
The rule fixing how the probability of a hypothesis given evidence relates to the probability of the evidence given the hypothesis, together with the prior. In odds form, posterior odds are prior odds times the likelihood ratio.

See also Prior probability, Posterior probability, Likelihood ratio, Base rate

Begging the questionTier III2 lessons
Offering as a premise something that presupposes the conclusion.

See also Premise, Conclusion

Used in Assuming What You Set Out to Prove, Which Presumption Was Made?

BiconditionalTier III2 lessons
A statement of the form "P if and only if Q" — both conditionals at once, so each is necessary and sufficient for the other.

See also Conditional, Necessary condition, Sufficient condition

Used in Both at Once, The Biconditional

Bound variableTier V1 lesson
An occurrence of a variable falling within the scope of a quantifier on that variable.

See also Free variable, Quantifier scope, Closed formula

Used in Bound and Free

Burden of proofTier III3 lessons
The obligation to make the case for a claim, which rests on the party advancing it.

See also Presumption, Principle of charity

Used in Who Has to Make the Case, Burden of Proof, Rejoinder, and Clash, Presumption and the Burden of Proof

Burden of rejoinderTier IV1 lesson
The obligation on each side to answer what has been said. An argument left unanswered stands, whatever its merits.

See also Burden of proof, Dropped argument

Used in Burden of Proof, Rejoinder, and Clash

C67 terms

CardTier IV1 lesson
also cards, cutting a cardA piece of published text cut down to what a speaker will read aloud, with a citation attached and a line of the speaker's own writing on top.

See also Clipping, Paraphrase, Fabrication

Used in The Card

Case-control studyTier V1 lesson
A design starting from those who have an outcome and those who do not, and looking backward at their exposures. How the controls were chosen governs what it can show.

See also Cohort study, Selection bias

Used in Observational Studies

Categorical propositionTier III1 lesson
also categorical propositionsA proposition relating two classes, saying that one is included in the other, wholly or partly, or excluded from it.

See also The four categorical forms, Subject term, Predicate term, Copula

Used in Subject, Copula, Predicate

Change of quantifierTier V1 lesson
also quantifier negationThe equivalences moving a negation across a quantifier — not everything is F is equivalent to something is not F, and nothing is F to everything is not F.

See also De Morgan's laws, Quantifier scope

Used in Change of Quantifier

CheckableTier II1 lesson
Said of a claim when you can name something a person could do that would settle it.

See also Fact, Evidence

Used in What Makes a Fact Checkable

Cherry-pickingTier V1 lesson
Reporting the cases, periods, or measures that favor a conclusion and passing over the rest.

See also P-hacking, The Texas sharpshooter

Used in Cherry-Picking and p-Hacking

ChiasmusTier IV1 lesson
A reversal of grammatical order across two clauses, so that the second mirrors the first.

See also Antimetabole, Antithesis

Used in Chiasmus and Antimetabole

ChreiaTier IV1 lesson
The exercise that takes a brief saying or deed attributed to a named person and expands it into a composition arguing that the saying is right.

See also Maxim, Proverb, The Progymnasmata

Used in Chreia

Circular definitionTier III2 lessons
also circularA definition that uses the term it is defining, or a word that can only be understood through it, so that nobody who did not already know the term is helped.

See also Begging the question, Definiens

Used in Too Broad, Too Narrow, Circular, Obscure, and Needlessly Negative

ClaimTier II5 lessons
also claimsThe point an argument is trying to get you to accept.

See also Conclusion, Reason, Evidence

Used in Claim and Reason, Named, All, Some, and None, Stasis: Finding the Real Question, The Toulmin Warrant, Rendering an Argument as a Structure

Clarifying questionTier II2 lessons
also clarifying questionsA question asked to find out what somebody meant, before agreeing or disagreeing with them.

See also Misunderstanding, Restating charitably

Used in Asking a Clarifying Question, Named, The Question That Traps and the Question That Clarifies

ClimaxTier IV1 lesson
The figure that arranges members in ascending order of force, so that each step raises the stakes of the last.

Used in Rhythm and the Climax

ClippingTier IV1 lesson
Reading less of a card aloud than the card shows, without saying so, so that what a judge hears is not what a judge would have read.

See also Card, Fabrication

Used in Clipping and Fabrication

Closed formulaTier V1 lesson
A formula in which every variable occurrence is bound. Only closed formulas are statements.

See also Open formula, Bound variable

Used in Bound and Free

Closed questionTier III1 lesson
A question admitting only a short and definite answer, so that the answerer cannot use the time to make a speech.

See also Open question, Cross-examination

Used in The Closed Question

ClusteringTier V1 lesson
Sampling whole groups rather than individuals, which is cheaper and makes an estimate less precise, because members of a group resemble one another.

See also Stratification, Design effect

Used in Random Sampling and Sampling Error

CogencyTier V1 lesson
also cogentAn inductive argument is cogent when it is strong and its premises are in fact true. Cogency stands to strength as soundness stands to validity.

See also Inductive strength, Soundness

Used in Cogency

Cohort studyTier V1 lesson
A design following a group forward in time and comparing outcomes among those who did and did not have an exposure.

See also Case-control study, Cross-sectional study, Observational evidence

Used in Observational Studies

ColliderTier V1 lesson
A variable that both the cause and the effect influence. Selecting or adjusting on one does not remove bias; it creates an association where there was none.

See also Confounding, Mediator, Selection bias

Used in Confounding

CommandTier I1 lesson
also commandsA sentence that tells someone to do something. Like a question, it is neither true nor false.

See also Statement, Question

Used in Statements, Questions, and Commands

CommonplaceTier IV1 lesson
The exercise of speaking against a kind of act or a kind of person, naming no individual and taking the offense as given. The word is used differently elsewhere, where it names a standing line of argument.

See also The Progymnasmata, The topics

Used in Commonplace

CommutationTier V1 lesson
The equivalence permitting the two parts of a conjunction, or of a disjunction, to be exchanged.

See also Replacement rules, Association

Used in Double Negation, Commutation, Association

ComparisonTier IV1 lesson
The exercise of setting two things side by side and arguing that one is better in a named respect. Naming the respect is the whole discipline.

See also The Progymnasmata, Impact calculus

Used in Comparison

ComplementTier III1 lesson
also complementThe class of everything not in a given class. The complement of "mammals" is "non-mammals".

See also Obversion, Contraposition

Used in Obversion

CompositionTier III1 lesson
Arguing from a property of the parts to the same property of the whole, where the property does not travel that way.

See also Division

Used in A Part Is Not the Whole

ConcessionTier II2 lessons
also concessions, concedeGranting that the other side is right about one thing while keeping your own claim.

See also Disagreement, Principle of charity

Used in Conceding a Point, Conceding Without Surrendering

ConclusionTier II4 lessons
also conclusionsThe statement an argument's premises are offered in support of.

See also Premise, Argument

Used in Premise and Conclusion, Indicator Words, All, Some, and None, Valid, True, and Sound

Concomitant variationTier V1 lesson
Where a circumstance and an outcome vary together in degree, the two are causally connected in some way — which may be either direction, or through a third thing.

See also Mill's methods, Correlation, Dose-response gradient

Used in Concomitant Variation

ConditionalTier III1 lesson
also conditionalsA statement of the form "if P then Q". It asserts neither P nor Q, only the connection between them.

See also Antecedent, Consequent, Biconditional

Used in Antecedent and Consequent

Conditional probabilityTier V1 lesson
The probability of one event given that another holds.

See also Base rate

Used in Conditional Probability

Conditional proofTier V1 lesson
Proving a conditional by assuming its antecedent, deriving its consequent, and then discharging the assumption.

See also Discharge, Natural deduction, Reductio ad absurdum

Used in Conditional Proof

Confidence intervalTier V1 lesson
An interval computed from a sample by a procedure that, applied repeatedly, would produce intervals containing the true value a stated proportion of the time. The stated proportion is a property of the procedure; whether it can be read as a probability about the particular interval in front of you is exactly what the two statistical frameworks disagree about.

See also Margin of error, Credible interval, Sampling error

Used in Margin of Error and the Confidence Interval

ConfirmatioTier IV1 lesson
The proof — the speaker's own case, argued.

See also Refutatio, The parts of an oration

Used in Confirmatio and Refutatio

ConfoundingTier V2 lessons
A third factor associated with both the supposed cause and the effect, which could account for their association.

See also Correlation, Simpson's paradox

Used in Confounding, Correlation, Causation, and Simpson's Paradox

Congressional debateTier IVNo lesson yet
A format replacing the two-sided round with a chamber, in which students act as legislators, speak for and against a docket of bills, and vote.

See also Deliberative, Parliamentary debate

ConjunctionTier V2 lessons
The operator true exactly when both of its parts are true.

See also Truth-functional connective, Disjunction, De Morgan's laws

Used in Negating a Compound, Simplification, Conjunction, Addition

Conjunction fallacyTier VNo lesson yet
Judging a conjunction more probable than one of its conjuncts, usually because the added detail makes the story more representative. A conjunction can never be more probable than either part.

See also Conditional probability

ConsequentTier III3 lessons
The "then" part of a conditional.

See also Antecedent, Contrapositive

Used in Antecedent and Consequent, Modus Ponens, Affirming the Consequent

Constructive dilemmaTier III2 lessons
From "if P then Q" and "if R then S", together with "P or R", the conclusion "Q or S". Where Q and S are the same, the conclusion is simple.

See also Dilemma, Destructive dilemma

Used in The Constructive Dilemma, Constructive and Destructive Dilemma

ContentionTier IV2 lessons
also contentionsA claim offered in support of the resolution, together with the reasoning and evidence holding it up.

See also Subpoint, Tagline, Framework

Used in Contention and Subpoint, The Stock Issues

ContingencyTier V1 lesson
also contingent, contingencyA sentence true under some assignments and false under others. Most sentences are contingent, and only contingent sentences are settled by finding things out.

See also Tautology, Contradiction

Used in Tautology, Contradiction, Contingency

ContradictionTier V1 lesson
A sentence false under every assignment of truth values to its parts.

See also Tautology, Contingency

Used in Tautology, Contradiction, Contingency

ContradictoriesTier III4 lessons
also contradictoryTwo propositions that cannot both be true and cannot both be false. A and O are contradictories, as are E and I.

See also Contraries, Subcontraries, Square of opposition

Used in The Four Corners, Contradictories, Indirect Refutation, Consistency and Contradictoriness

ContrapositionTier III4 lessons
Replacing the subject with the complement of the predicate and the predicate with the complement of the subject. It preserves truth for A and O.

See also Obversion, Conversion, Complement, Contrapositive

Used in An Inference From One Premise, Contraposition, Which Moves Preserve Truth, The Contrapositive

ContrapositiveTier III3 lessons
From "if P then Q," the statement "if not-Q then not-P." It is equivalent to the original; the converse and inverse are not.

See also Antecedent, Consequent

Used in The Contrapositive, Denying the Antecedent, On Its Own, Transposition and Material Implication as Rules

ContrariesTier III2 lessons
also contraryTwo propositions that cannot both be true but may both be false. A and E are contraries on the traditional reading, which assumes the subject class has members.

See also Contradictories, Subcontraries, Existential import

Used in The Four Corners, Contraries

Contributory causeTier V1 lesson
A condition that raises the chance of an effect without being either necessary or sufficient for it. Most causes worth arguing about are of this kind.

See also Necessary cause, Sufficient cause

Used in Contributory Causes

Control groupTier V1 lesson
The group not given the treatment, against which the treated group is compared.

See also Randomization, Experimental evidence

Used in Which One Is This?

Convergent supportTier V1 lesson
Two premises that each support the conclusion on their own, so that removing one weakens the case without destroying it.

See also Linked support, Serial support

Used in Linked and Convergent Support

ConverseTier III3 lessons
From "if P then Q", the statement "if Q then P". It does not follow from the original, and treating it as though it did is a common error.

See also Contrapositive, Inverse, Affirming the consequent

Used in Conversion, The Converse, Transposition and Material Implication as Rules

Converse accidentTier III1 lesson
Building a general rule out of a case that is exceptional, and then applying it to ordinary cases.

See also Accident, Hasty generalization

Used in Accident and Converse Accident

ConversionTier III3 lessons
also convert, convertingSwapping subject and predicate. It preserves truth for E and I. It fails for O, and for A it holds only by limitation.

See also Conversion by limitation, Obversion, Contraposition

Used in An Inference From One Premise, Conversion, Which Moves Preserve Truth

Conversion by limitationTier III1 lesson
Converting an A proposition to the corresponding I with the terms swapped — from "all S are P" to "some P are S". It is available only on the traditional reading, since it needs the subject class to have members.

See also Conversion, Existential import

Used in Conversion

CopulaTier III1 lesson
The part of a standard-form categorical proposition joining subject to predicate — some form of "are" or "are not".

See also Subject term, Predicate term, Standard form

Used in Subject, Copula, Predicate

CorrelationTier V2 lessons
A statistical association between two variables. It constrains causal explanations without selecting one.

See also Confounding, Simpson's paradox

Used in False Cause More Broadly, Correlation, Causation, and Simpson's Paradox

Counter-interpretationTier IV1 lesson
The rival reading of a disputed word, offered by the side answering a topicality argument.

See also Interpretation, Topicality

Used in Topicality

CounterexampleTier III4 lessons
also counterexamplesA case with true premises and a false conclusion, which shows an argument form invalid.

See also Validity

Used in Valid, True, and Sound, Refuting by Counterexample, Affirming the Consequent, Proving Invalidity by Counterexample

CounterplanTier IV2 lessons
also counterplansA rival proposal the negative defends instead of the plan. It must compete, so that the two cannot simply both be adopted, and it must be better than the plan in some stated respect.

See also Disadvantage, Plan text, Fiat

Used in The Stock Issues, Counterplans, Fiat, and the Kritik

Coverage errorTier V1 lesson
The gap between the target population and the sampling frame — those who could never have been selected at all.

See also Sampling frame, Nonresponse

Used in Population, Sample, and Sampling Frame

Credible intervalTier V1 lesson
An interval constructed within the framework that treats an unknown quantity as something a person holds a probability distribution over, defined so that the posterior probability of the value lying inside it is the stated figure. It supports the sentence a confidence interval does not, because it was built to, and it requires a prior.

See also Confidence interval, Posterior probability, Prior probability

Used in Margin of Error and the Confidence Interval

CriterionTier IVNo lesson yet
In a value round, the standard by which the value premise is measured — the respect on which the comparison is actually conducted.

See also Value premise, Value clash, Framework

Critical questionsTier VI1 lesson
The standard questions attached to an argumentation scheme, which shift the burden back to the arguer when raised.

See also Argumentation scheme, Burden of proof

Used in Argumentation Schemes and Their Critical Questions

Cross-applicationTier IV1 lesson
Using an answer given on one part of the flow against an argument on another.

See also Flow, Extending an argument

Used in Extending and Cross-Applying

Cross-examinationTier III2 lessons
Questioning an opponent to secure admissions that can be used later, rather than to make an argument in the questioning itself.

See also Closed question, Elenchus

Used in What Cross-Examination Is For, The Stock Issues

Cross-sectional studyTier V1 lesson
A design measuring exposure and outcome at one moment, which leaves the order of events unsettled.

See also Cohort study, Reverse causation

Used in Observational Studies

CrossfireTier IV1 lesson
also grand crossfireThe period of public forum in which both sides question each other directly rather than one asking and one answering.

See also Public forum, Cross-examination

Used in Public Forum

CurrencyTier IV1 lesson
Whether a source is recent enough for what it is being used to show. A figure can be accurate and superseded.

See also Interest and bias, Primary source

Used in Currency

D30 terms

De Morgan's lawsTier V1 lesson
The equivalences between the negation of a conjunction and the disjunction of negations, and between the negation of a disjunction and the conjunction of negations.

See also Truth table

Used in De Morgan's Laws

DeductionTier V1 lesson
also deductiveArgument offered as leaving no gap — if the premises are true the conclusion cannot be false. It is judged by validity.

See also Induction, Validity

Used in Deduction and Induction, Distinguished

DefeaterTier VI2 lessons
also defeatersA consideration that removes the support a reason gave. A rebutting defeater argues against the conclusion; an undercutting defeater attacks the connection without denying the conclusion.

See also Non-monotonic, Warrant

Used in Argumentation Schemes and Their Critical Questions, Dung's Abstract Argumentation Frameworks

Defense or attack of a lawTier IV1 lesson
The last exercise of the sequence — arguing for or against a proposed measure, which is a policy round in everything but name.

See also Thesis, The Progymnasmata

Used in The Ladder

DefiniendumTier III1 lesson
The term being defined.

See also Definiens, Genus and differentia

Used in What a Definition Has

DefiniensTier III1 lesson
The words doing the defining.

See also Definiendum, Genus and differentia

Used in What a Definition Has

Definite descriptionTier V1 lesson
also definite descriptionsA phrase of the form "the so-and-so". It looks like a name and carries claims a name does not — that there is such a thing, and that there is only one.

See also Identity, Existential quantifier

Used in Definite Descriptions

DeliberativeTier IV2 lessons
The genre of speech about what to do, addressed to a body that will decide, and turning on what is advantageous.

See also Forensic, Epideictic, Special topics

Used in The Three Genres, Running the Topics on a Motion

DeliveryTier IV2 lessons
The canon of voice and body — rate, projection, articulation, the pause, and what the speaker does while speaking.

See also The five canons, Memory, Rate

Used in Five Canons as a Sequence of Work, Memory and Delivery

Denying the antecedentTier III4 lessons
The invalid move from "if P then Q" and not-P to not-Q.

See also Affirming the consequent, Antecedent

Used in The Inverse, Affirming the Consequent, Denying the Antecedent, On Its Own, Counterexamples to a Form

DerivationTier V1 lesson
also derivations, proofA numbered sequence of lines, each a premise, an assumption, or the result of a rule applied to earlier lines, ending in the conclusion.

See also Natural deduction, Discharge

Used in What a Derivation Is

DescriptionTier IV1 lesson
also ekphrasis, ecphrasisThe exercise of setting out a thing so that the audience seems to see it.

See also The Progymnasmata, Impersonation

Used in Description

Design effectTier V1 lesson
The ratio of a survey's actual variance to the variance a simple random sample of the same size would have. Where it exceeds one, the survey behaves like a smaller sample.

See also Effective sample size, Clustering, Stratification

Used in Random Sampling and Sampling Error

Destructive dilemmaTier III2 lessons
From "if P then Q" and "if R then S", together with "not-Q or not-S", the conclusion "not-P or not-R".

See also Dilemma, Constructive dilemma

Used in The Destructive Dilemma, Constructive and Destructive Dilemma

DilemmaTier III2 lessons
also dilemmasAn argument offering a disjunction of alternatives and drawing the same or an equally unwelcome conclusion from each.

See also Constructive dilemma, Destructive dilemma, Taking the dilemma by the horns

Used in The Shape of a Dilemma, The Freeport Question

Direct refutationTier IIINo lesson yet
Answering an argument by denying a premise or showing that the conclusion does not follow.

See also Indirect refutation, Counterexample

DisadvantageTier IV2 lessons
also disadvantagesAn argument that grants the plan works and says it produces something worse. It carries four claims — uniqueness, link, internal link, and impact — and fails if any one of them fails.

See also Link, Impact, Counterplan, Stock issues

Used in The Stock Issues, The Disadvantage

DisagreementTier II1 lesson
A case where two people mean the same claim and one accepts it while the other does not. One of them is wrong.

See also Misunderstanding, Concession

Used in Is This a Disagreement, or a Mix-Up?

DisanalogyTier V1 lesson
also disanalogiesA respect in which two compared cases differ, offered to show that what carries in one does not carry to the other.

See also Argument from analogy

Used in Argument by Analogy

DischargeTier V1 lesson
To close a stretch of a derivation made under an assumption and draw a conclusion no longer depending on it. What is drawn is a new line about the relation between the assumption and what followed from it.

See also Conditional proof, Derivation

Used in Assuming for the Sake of Argument

DisjunctTier III1 lesson
also disjunctsOne of the alternatives in a disjunction.

See also Disjunction, Affirming a disjunct

Used in Either–Or

DisjunctionTier III2 lessons
A statement of the form "P or Q".

See also Disjunct, Disjunctive syllogism, Inclusive "or"

Used in Either–Or, Constructive and Destructive Dilemma

Disjunctive syllogismTier III2 lessons
The valid move from "P or Q" and not-P to Q.

See also Disjunction, Affirming a disjunct

Used in Either–Or, Hypothetical and Disjunctive Syllogism

DistributionTier III2 lessons
also distributed, undistributedA term is distributed in a proposition when the proposition says something about every member of the class that term names. A distributes its subject, E both terms, I neither, O its predicate.

See also Undistributed middle, Illicit process, The four categorical forms

Used in What Distribution Means, The Middle Term Must Be Distributed

Distribution (replacement rule)Tier V1 lesson
The equivalence relating a conjunction with an inner disjunction to a disjunction of conjunctions, and the same with the operators exchanged.

See also Replacement rules, De Morgan's laws

Used in Distribution and Redundancy

DivisionTier III1 lesson
Arguing from a property of the whole to the same property of its parts, where the property does not travel that way.

See also Composition

Used in A Part Is Not the Whole

Dose-response gradientTier V1 lesson
A pattern in which more of the supposed cause goes with more of the effect. It strengthens a causal reading without settling it, since a confounder may vary in the same graded way.

See also Concomitant variation, Confounding

Used in Observational Studies

Double negationTier V1 lesson
The equivalence between a sentence and the negation of its negation.

See also Replacement rules, Negation

Used in Double Negation, Commutation, Association

Double turnTier IV1 lesson
Running a link turn and an impact turn on the same argument, which together say the proposal causes a good thing and the reverse of it. The other side may extend the result as their own argument.

See also Link turn, Impact turn

Used in Link Turn and Impact Turn

Dropped argumentTier IVNo lesson yet
An argument the other side did not answer. Naming it requires pointing at the place on the flow where the answer would have been.

See also Flow, Burden of rejoinder, Extending an argument

E33 terms

Effect sizeTier V1 lesson
How large an effect is, as distinct from how confidently it has been detected. Raw effect sizes are in the units of the thing measured; standardized ones are in units of variability.

See also Practical significance, Power, Standard deviation

Used in Effect Size and Power

Effective sample sizeTier V1 lesson
The size of the simple random sample that would give the same precision as the survey actually run. A stated sample size is not by itself a statement about precision.

See also Design effect, Margin of error

Used in Random Sampling and Sampling Error

ElenchusTier III1 lesson
also Socratic elenchusRefutation conducted entirely from the other party's own admissions, the questioner asserting nothing.

See also Cross-examination, Indirect refutation

Used in The Socratic Elenchus

Eliminative inductionTier V1 lesson
Reaching a conclusion by ruling out the alternatives rather than by piling up favourable instances. It depends entirely on the candidates having been listed.

See also Enumerative induction, Mill's methods, Abduction

Used in Eliminative Induction

EncomiumTier IV1 lesson
The exercise of praise, worked through a fixed set of heads — origin, upbringing, deeds, comparison.

See also Vituperation, Epideictic

Used in Encomium and Vituperation

EnthymemeTier III1 lesson
also enthymemesAn argument with a premise or a conclusion left unstated because it is taken as understood.

See also Assumption, Syllogism, Sorites

Used in The Argument With a Piece Missing

Enumerative inductionTier V1 lesson
Moving from observed cases to a generalization covering the unobserved ones.

See also Eliminative induction, Sample, Hasty generalization

Used in Enumerative Induction

EpicheiremeTier III1 lesson
A syllogism with a reason attached to one or both of its premises, so that the premise arrives already supported.

See also Syllogism, Premise

Used in The Sorites

EpideicticTier IV2 lessons
The genre of speech that praises or blames, addressed to an audience present as an audience, and turning on what is honourable.

See also Deliberative, Forensic, Encomium

Used in The Three Genres, Running the Topics on a Motion

Epistemic peerTier VII1 lesson
Someone equally well placed on a question — comparable evidence and comparable competence.

See also Reflective equilibrium

Used in Peer Disagreement: Conciliationism and Its Discontents

EpistropheTier IV1 lesson
Repeating the same words at the end of successive clauses.

See also Anaphora, Antimetabole

Used in Anaphora and Epistrophe

EquivocationTier III2 lessons
Using a word in two senses within one argument, so that it appears to connect what it does not.

See also Validity

Used in Exactly Three Terms, Equivocation

ErotemaTier IV1 lesson
also rhetorical questionA question asked for effect, with no answer expected because the answer is taken as settled.

See also Hypophora, Figure of thought

Used in Erotema and Hypophora

Escaping between the hornsTier III3 lessons
Answering a dilemma by denying that its alternatives exhaust the possibilities.

See also Dilemma, Taking the dilemma by the horns, False dilemma

Used in Three Ways to Answer One, Constructive and Destructive Dilemma, The Freeport Question

EthosTier IVNo lesson yet
Persuasion drawn from the speaker's character and standing.

See also Pathos, Logos

EvidenceTier II2 lessons
Facts offered in support of a reason or a claim.

See also Claim, Reason

Used in Evidence Is Not the Same as a Reason, The Toulmin Warrant

ExampleTier II3 lessons
also examplesOne case. It shows that a thing can happen. It does not show how often.

See also Sample, Generalization

Used in One Example Is Not a Sample, Logos, Example and Maxim

Exclusive "or"Tier III1 lesson
An "or" satisfied by exactly one alternative, so that both holding makes it false. Ordinary speech does not mark which is meant, and an argument may turn on the difference.

See also Inclusive "or", Disjunction

Used in Two Senses of "Or"

Existential fallacyTier III2 lessons
Drawing a particular conclusion from two universal premises, and so claiming that something exists where the premises claimed no such thing. It is a fallacy without exception on the modern reading; the traditional reading permits the step where the terms are known to have members.

See also Existential import, Subalternation

Used in Six Rules, One Test, The Existential Fallacy

Existential generalizationTier V1 lesson
The rule taking a statement about a named individual to the claim that something has the property.

See also Universal generalization, Existential quantifier

Used in Existential and Universal Generalization

Existential importTier III2 lessons
A proposition carries existential import when asserting it commits you to saying its subject class has at least one member. Both readings agree that the particular forms carry it; whether the universal forms do is exactly what the traditional and modern readings disagree about, and neither is simply the correct answer.

See also Subalternation, Existential fallacy, The four categorical forms

Used in Existential Import, The Four Categorical Forms in Notation

Existential instantiationTier V1 lesson
The rule taking an existentially quantified statement to an instance named by a fresh symbol, one that has not appeared before. The restriction is what keeps the rule honest.

See also Universal instantiation, Existential generalization

Used in Existential Instantiation

Existential quantifierTier V1 lesson
The symbol saying that what follows holds of at least one thing in the domain.

See also Universal quantifier, Existential import

Used in The Existential Quantifier

ExordiumTier IV1 lesson
The opening of a speech, whose work is to put the audience into a state in which the rest of the speech can act on them.

See also The parts of an oration, Peroratio

Used in The Exordium

Expected valueTier V1 lesson
The sum of each outcome's value weighted by its probability. It is the right guide where the choice will be repeated, and a poor one where a single bad outcome ends the sequence.

See also Interpretations of probability

Used in Expected Value

Experimental evidenceTier V1 lesson
also experimental, randomized experimentEvidence from a study in which the investigator assigned the conditions. Assignment is what licenses the causal reading.

See also Observational evidence, Randomization

Used in Observational Studies

Explanatory virtuesTier V1 lesson
also explanatory virtueThe features by which explanations are compared — scope, simplicity, fit with what else is known, and not requiring too much to be assumed. They are not agreed to be ranked, and they can pull in opposite directions.

See also Inference to the best explanation, Abduction

Used in Where This Is Doubted

ExportationTier V1 lesson
The equivalence between a conditional with a conjunctive antecedent and a nested conditional taking the two conditions in turn.

See also Replacement rules, Material implication

Used in Exportation and Material Equivalence

ExtemporaneousTier IV1 lesson
Delivery from notes rather than from a written text, the wording chosen as the speaker goes.

See also Manuscript, Impromptu, Delivery

Used in Extemporaneous, Manuscript, Impromptu

Extending an argumentTier IV2 lessons
also extension, extendCarrying an argument into a later speech so that it is still live. The bad version repeats the tagline; the good version repeats the reason.

See also Flow, Dropped argument, Cross-application

Used in Tracking an Argument Across Speeches, Extending and Cross-Applying

ExtensionTier III1 lesson
also denotationThe things a term applies to. The extension of "planet" is the planets themselves.

See also Intension, Definiendum

Used in Extension and Intension

External validityTier V1 lesson
Whether what a study established about its units carries to the population an argument wants to apply it to.

See also Internal validity, Target population

Used in What Randomization Buys

EyewitnessTier II2 lessons
also eyewitnessesSomebody who saw a thing happen with their own eyes.

See also Testimony, Evidence

Used in Seeing It Yourself, or Being Told, Putting It Together

F21 terms

FableTier IVNo lesson yet
The first exercise of the Progymnasmata — a short invented story told to make a point, retold and expanded to a set of demands.

See also The Progymnasmata, Narrative

FabricationTier IV1 lesson
Presenting as evidence something the source does not say, or does not exist to say.

See also Card, Clipping

Used in Clipping and Fabrication

FactTier II2 lessons
also factsA claim about how things are, which something in the world could settle.

See also Opinion, Preference

Used in Fact and Opinion, Named, Sorting All Three

FallacyTier II1 lesson
also fallaciesA mistake in reasoning that turns up often enough to have been given a name.

See also Ad hominem, Bandwagon, Straw man

Used in Name-Calling Instead of Arguing

Fallacy of ambiguityTier III1 lesson
also fallacies of ambiguityA fallacy that draws its apparent force from a shift of meaning rather than from any connection between the premises and the conclusion.

See also Equivocation, Amphiboly, Accent

Used in Equivocation

Fallacy of presumptionTier III1 lesson
also fallacies of presumptionA fallacy that smuggles in an unstated assumption the argument is not entitled to.

See also Begging the question, Loaded question, False dilemma

Used in Assuming What You Set Out to Prove

Fallacy of relevanceTier III1 lesson
also fallacies of relevanceA fallacy whose premises, whatever their truth, do not bear on the conclusion drawn.

See also Relevance, Red herring, Ad hominem

Used in Missing the Point

Fallacy of the beardTier III1 lesson
also continuum fallacy, sorites paradoxArguing from the absence of a sharp line to the absence of a difference. That no one grain makes a heap does not show there are no heaps.

See also Vagueness, Slippery slope

Used in The Fallacy of the Beard

FalseTier I1 lesson
Said of a statement that does not match how things are.

See also True, Statement

Used in Statements, Questions, and Commands

False balanceTier V1 lesson
Presenting positions as evenly supported when the evidence is lopsided, so that the format itself misrepresents the state of the question without any sentence being false.

Used in False Balance

False causeTier IIINo lesson yet
Naming as a cause something the evidence does not support as one — because it merely came first, because it merely accompanies the effect, or because the direction of the connection has been reversed.

See also Post hoc, Correlation, Confounding

False dilemmaTier III2 lessons
also false dichotomyPresenting two alternatives as though they exhausted the possibilities when they do not.

See also Dilemma, Escaping between the horns

Used in False Dilemma, Which Presumption Was Made?

FiatTier IV1 lesson
The convention that the plan is taken as enacted, so that a round is about whether it should be done rather than whether it would pass. It settles nothing about whether the plan then works.

See also Plan text, Solvency, Counterplan

Used in Counterplans, Fiat, and the Kritik

Field-dependenceTier IV1 lesson
Toulmin's observation that the shape of an argument stays constant across fields while the standards applied to its parts do not. What counts as adequate backing in law is not what counts in medicine.

See also Warrant, Backing

Used in Field-Dependence

FigureTier III1 lesson
also figuresThe arrangement of the middle term across a syllogism's two premises. There are four figures, according to whether the middle term stands as subject or predicate in each.

See also Mood, Middle term, Standard form

Used in Figure

Figure of thoughtTier IV1 lesson
also figures of thoughtA figure operating over a whole passage rather than a word or a clause. The category is drawn differently by different writers, and several devices are placed here by some and among the tropes by others.

See also Scheme, Trope, Irony

Used in Scheme and Trope

FlowTier IVNo lesson yet
also flowing, flow sheetThe sheet a round is recorded on, one column per speech and one row per argument, so that an answer sits across from what it answers.

See also Dropped argument, Extending an argument, Tagline

ForensicTier IV2 lessons
The genre of speech about what was done, addressed to a body that will judge, and turning on what is just.

See also Deliberative, Epideictic

Used in The Three Genres, Running the Topics on a Motion

Four termsTier III2 lessons
The fallacy of a syllogism that uses four terms rather than three, usually because one word has been read in two senses.

See also Equivocation, Middle term

Used in Six Rules, One Test, Exactly Three Terms

FrameworkTier IV2 lessons
What a speaker asks a judge to decide the round by — what question is really being answered, what would count as answering it, and how competing answers are compared. Some formats call it the standard or the decision rule.

See also Criterion, Impact calculus, Contention

Used in Framework, Counterplans, Fiat, and the Kritik

Free variableTier V1 lesson
An occurrence of a variable not bound by any quantifier. A formula with one says nothing until the variable is bound or replaced.

See also Bound variable, Open formula

Used in Bound and Free

G6 terms

Gambler's fallacyTier V1 lesson
Expecting an independent process to correct itself — that a run of one outcome makes the other more likely next time.

See also Independence, Regression to the mean

Used in The Gambler's Fallacy

GeneralizationTier II1 lesson
also generalizations, generalizationA claim about a whole group, made from looking at some of its members.

See also Sample, Counterexample, Overclaiming

Used in Generalization, Named

Genetic fallacyTier III1 lesson
Judging a claim by where it came from rather than by what can be said for it. The origin of a belief may be worth knowing and is not by itself a reason against it.

See also Ad hominem, Poisoning the well

Used in The Genetic Fallacy

Genus and differentiaTier III1 lesson
A definition giving the kind a thing belongs to and what distinguishes it within that kind.

Used in Genus and Differentia

Grounded extensionTier VII1 lesson
The least complete extension of an argumentation framework — the skeptical position it licenses.

See also Argumentation framework, Admissible set

Used in Dung's Abstract Argumentation Frameworks

GroundsTier IVNo lesson yet
also dataIn the Toulmin model, the facts a claim is rested on — what a speaker would point to if asked what they were going on.

See also Warrant, Backing, Claim

H6 terms

HarmsTier IV1 lesson
The stock issue of whether there is a problem at all.

See also Significance, Stock issues

Used in Harms and Significance

Hasty generalizationTier III3 lessons
Drawing a general conclusion from cases too few, or too much alike, to support it.

See also Generalization, Sample, Converse accident

Used in Accident and Converse Accident, Which Presumption Was Made?, Judging a Sample

HyperboleTier IV1 lesson
Deliberate overstatement, not meant to be taken at its size.

See also Litotes, Amplification

Used in Litotes and Hyperbole

HypophoraTier IV1 lesson
Asking a question and then answering it yourself, which lets a speaker choose which objection gets raised.

See also Erotema, Figure of thought

Used in Erotema and Hypophora

HypostatizationTier III1 lesson
also reificationTreating an abstraction as though it were a thing that acts, decides, or knows — the market deciding, history teaching.

See also Fallacy of ambiguity

Used in Hypostatization

Hypothetical syllogismTier III2 lessons
also chain argument, pure hypothetical syllogismThe chain argument — from "if P then Q" and "if Q then R" to "if P then R". A syllogism is purely hypothetical when all three of its propositions are conditionals.

See also Conditional, Modus ponens

Used in The Chain Argument, Hypothetical and Disjunctive Syllogism

I33 terms

IdentityTier V1 lesson
The relation a thing bears to itself and to nothing else. Adding it to predicate logic is what makes counting, and the analysis of "the", available.

See also Definite description, Relational predicate

Used in Identity

Illicit processTier III2 lessons
also illicit major, illicit minorThe fallacy of distributing a term in the conclusion that was not distributed in its premise. Illicit major and illicit minor name the two cases.

See also Distribution, Major term, Minor term

Used in Six Rules, One Test, Illicit Process

Immediate inferenceTier III1 lesson
also immediate inferencesA step from one proposition to another with no second premise. Conversion, obversion, and contraposition are the three worked here.

See also Conversion, Obversion, Contraposition

Used in An Inference From One Premise

ImpactTier IV2 lessons
also impactsThe thing an argument says will follow, and the reason it matters.

See also Link, Impact calculus, Impact turn

Used in Harms and Significance, The Disadvantage

Impact calculusTier IV1 lesson
The comparison of two impacts on stated dimensions — how large, how likely, how soon, and whether it can be undone. It is not arithmetic, and the four questions do not combine by a rule.

See also Impact, Voting issue, Significance

Used in Impact Calculus

Impact turnTier IV2 lessons
A turn attacking the impact — the thing is caused, and it is not bad.

See also Turn, Link turn, Double turn

Used in The Disadvantage, Link Turn and Impact Turn

ImpersonationTier IV1 lesson
also ethopoeia, prosopopoeiaThe exercise of composing the speech another person would give, in their situation and with their knowledge.

See also The Progymnasmata, Description

Used in Impersonation

Implicit premiseTier V1 lesson
A premise a map has to add for the argument's steps to connect. Supplying it makes the argument answerable, which is the point of supplying it.

See also Enthymeme, Assumption, Warrant

Used in Implicit Premises

ImpromptuTier IV1 lesson
Delivery with little or no preparation, the structure supplied from habit rather than from notes.

See also Extemporaneous, Manuscript, Delivery

Used in Extemporaneous, Manuscript, Impromptu

Improper burden-shiftingTier III1 lesson
also shifting the burdenDemanding that the other side disprove a claim you have not supported. Asking for the evidence behind an assertion is not this.

See also Burden of proof, Appeal to ignorance

Used in Prove Me Wrong

Inclusive "or"Tier III2 lessons
An "or" satisfied when both alternatives hold. It rules out only the case where neither does.

See also Exclusive "or", Disjunction

Used in Two Senses of "Or", Hypothetical and Disjunctive Syllogism

IndependenceTier V1 lesson
Two events are independent when learning that one occurred does not change the probability of the other. Independence has to be argued for, not assumed from the events being separate.

See also Conditional probability, Gambler's fallacy

Used in Independence

Indicator wordTier II1 lesson
also indicator words, indicatorA word that marks which part of a passage is doing which job. "Because", "since", and "for" usually introduce a premise; "so", "therefore", and "it follows that" usually introduce a conclusion.

See also Premise, Conclusion, Argument

Used in Premise and Conclusion

Indirect refutationTier III1 lesson
Answering an argument by granting its premises and drawing out a consequence the arguer must reject.

See also Direct refutation, Reductio ad absurdum

Used in Indirect Refutation

Indirect truth tableTier VNo lesson yet
A shortened test that assumes the premises true and the conclusion false and looks for a consistent assignment. Finding one shows invalidity; being forced into a contradiction shows validity.

See also Truth table, Invalidating row, Validity

Individual constantTier V1 lesson
A symbol naming one particular thing.

See also Individual variable, Predicate, Singular statement

Used in Names, Predicates, and Variables

Individual variableTier V1 lesson
A symbol holding a place for a thing without naming one, so that a quantifier can bind it.

See also Individual constant, Bound variable, Free variable

Used in Names, Predicates, and Variables

InductionTier V1 lesson
also inductiveArgument offered as making its conclusion likely rather than certain, so that adding a premise can weaken it. It is judged by strength, not validity.

See also Deduction, Inductive strength, Cogency

Used in Deduction and Induction, Distinguished

Inductive strengthTier V2 lessons
also strong, weakHow probable an inductive argument's premises make its conclusion. Strength comes in degrees, and it is a claim about the relation between premises and conclusion, not about whether the premises are true.

See also Cogency, Induction

Used in Strength Comes in Degrees, Cogency

Inference to the best explanationTier V1 lesson
Accepting a hypothesis because it explains the evidence better than the rivals considered. Whether it is a distinct form of inference, and how far explaining better is a reason to think something true, are both live disputes.

See also Abduction, Explanatory virtues

Used in A Third Kind of Inference

InherencyTier IV1 lesson
The stock issue of whether something in the present arrangement prevents the harm from being addressed already. A barrier may be structural, attitudinal, or a matter of what is presently absent.

See also Stock issues, Status quo

Used in Inherency

IntensionTier III1 lesson
also connotationThe properties a thing must have for a term to apply to it. The intension of "planet" is what makes something one.

See also Extension, Genus and differentia

Used in Extension and Intension

Interest and biasTier IV1 lesson
also bias, interestWhat a source stands to gain from the answer coming out one way. Interest does not make a source wrong; it tells you what to check.

See also Reliable source, Argument from authority, Currency

Used in Interest

Internal validityTier V1 lesson
Whether a study establishes what it claims about the units it studied.

See also External validity, Randomization

Used in What Randomization Buys

InterpretationTier IV1 lesson
In a topicality argument, what a disputed word of the resolution is said to mean. It is offered as an argument, not reported as a fact.

See also Counter-interpretation, Topicality

Used in Topicality

Interpretations of probabilityTier VNo lesson yet
The rival accounts of what a probability is about — a proportion of equally possible cases, a long-run frequency, a physical propensity, a degree of belief, or a degree of evidential support. The calculus is settled; the interpretation is not, and each account faces a standing objection.

See also Conditional probability, The reference class problem, Credible interval

Interquartile rangeTier V1 lesson
The distance covering the middle half of the data, from the first quartile to the third.

See also Range, Median

Used in Describing a Distribution

Interrupted time seriesTier V1 lesson
A design comparing the trend before a change with the trend after it, in the same units. Its weakness is anything else that changed at the same moment.

See also Natural experiment, Regression to the mean

Used in Observational Studies

Invalidating rowTier V1 lesson
A row of a truth table on which every premise is true and the conclusion false. One such row is enough to show an argument form invalid.

See also Truth table, Counterexample, Validity

Used in What a Table Decides

InventionTier IV1 lesson
The canon of finding what to say — the search for the available arguments before any of them is arranged or worded.

See also The five canons, The topics, The common topics

Used in Five Canons as a Sequence of Work

InverseTier III3 lessons
From "if P then Q", the statement "if not-P then not-Q". Like the converse, it does not follow from the original.

See also Converse, Contrapositive, Denying the antecedent

Used in The Inverse, Denying the Antecedent, On Its Own, Transposition and Material Implication as Rules

IronyTier IV2 lessons
Saying one thing and meaning something at odds with it, the audience being trusted to see the gap. Some catalogues class it among the tropes and others among the figures of thought, because it can govern a whole passage rather than a single word.

See also Trope, Figure of thought

Used in Scheme and Trope, Irony and Apostrophe

IsocolonTier IV1 lesson
Successive clauses of matching length and structure.

See also Tricolon, Anaphora

Used in Isocolon, Tricolon, and Parallelism

J1 term

Joint method of agreement and differenceTier V1 lesson
Applying both methods together — the circumstance is present wherever the outcome is and absent wherever it is not.

See also Method of agreement, Method of difference

Used in The Joint Method

K2 terms

KairosTier IV1 lesson
The right moment — the opening at which an argument will work that would not have worked before and will not work after.

See also Rhetorical situation

Used in Kairos

KritikTier IV1 lesson
also kritiksAn argument against the assumptions, language, or method behind a case rather than against the consequences of enacting it. Its standing in the activity is disputed and varies by circuit and by judge.

See also Framework, Disadvantage

Used in Counterplans, Fiat, and the Kritik

L11 terms

Levels of styleTier IV1 lesson
The classical three registers — plain for teaching, middle for pleasing, grand for moving — with the choice among them governed by subject, audience, and occasion.

Used in The Three Levels of Style

Lexical definitionTier III1 lesson
also lexicalA definition reporting how a word is actually used. It can be right or wrong, because there is a usage it is reporting.

See also Stipulative definition, Precising definition

Used in Five Kinds

Likelihood ratioTier V1 lesson
How much likelier the evidence is if the hypothesis holds than if it does not. It is the whole of what a piece of evidence contributes, and a ratio near one contributes nothing however striking the evidence looks.

See also Bayes' theorem, Prosecutor's fallacy

Used in Bayes' Theorem

LinkTier IV1 lesson
The step from a proposal to the thing it is said to cause.

See also Impact, Link turn

Used in The Disadvantage

Link turnTier IV2 lessons
A turn attacking the link — the proposal does not cause the thing, it causes the reverse.

See also Turn, Impact turn, Double turn

Used in The Disadvantage, Link Turn and Impact Turn

Linked supportTier V1 lesson
Two premises that work only together, so that removing one leaves the other supporting nothing.

See also Convergent support, Serial support

Used in Linked and Convergent Support

LitotesTier IV1 lesson
Affirming something by denying its opposite, which understates and thereby often emphasizes.

See also Hyperbole, Irony

Used in Litotes and Hyperbole

Loaded questionTier III3 lessons
also complex question, loaded questionA question built so that any direct answer concedes something never established.

See also Begging the question, Fallacy of presumption

Used in The Loaded Question, Which Presumption Was Made?, The Question That Traps and the Question That Clarifies

Logical equivalenceTier III5 lessons
also logically equivalent, equivalentTwo propositions are logically equivalent when neither can be true without the other. Each may replace the other anywhere without change of truth value.

See also Contrapositive, Obversion, Tautology

Used in Logical Equivalence, The Contrapositive, Logical Equivalence, Consistency and Contradictoriness, Replacing a Part

LogosTier IVNo lesson yet
Persuasion drawn from the argument itself.

See also Ethos, Pathos

Loose sentenceTier IV1 lesson
A sentence whose main clause comes first, with modifiers trailing after; the sense is complete early and each addition refines it.

See also Periodic sentence

Used in The Periodic and the Loose

M31 terms

Main operatorTier V1 lesson
The operator applied last in building a formula — the one whose scope is the whole formula rather than a part of it. It fixes what kind of statement the formula is.

See also Well-formed formula, Quantifier scope

Used in Well-Formed Formulas and the Main Operator

Major premiseTier III2 lessons
The premise of a syllogism containing the major term. In standard form it is written first.

See also Minor premise, Major term, Standard form

Used in Reading a Syllogism, Major, Minor, and Middle

Major termTier III1 lesson
The predicate term of a syllogism's conclusion.

See also Minor term, Middle term, Major premise

Used in Major, Minor, and Middle

ManuscriptTier IV1 lesson
Delivery from a written text, word for word. It buys precision and costs responsiveness.

See also Extemporaneous, Impromptu, Delivery

Used in Extemporaneous, Manuscript, Impromptu

Margin of errorTier V1 lesson
The half-width of a confidence interval, got by multiplying the standard error by a factor set by the confidence level chosen. It describes sampling error alone and says nothing about coverage or nonresponse.

See also Confidence interval, Sampling error, Design effect

Used in Margin of Error and the Confidence Interval

Material equivalenceTier V1 lesson
The truth-functional biconditional, true exactly when its two parts have the same truth value.

See also Biconditional, Material implication, Truth-functional connective

Used in Exportation and Material Equivalence

Material implicationTier V2 lessons
The truth-functional conditional, false only when the antecedent is true and the consequent false. A conditional with a false antecedent counts as true.

See also Truth table, Antecedent, Consequent

Used in Truth Tables and Material Implication, Transposition and Material Implication as Rules

MaximTier IV1 lesson
also gnomeA general statement about conduct offered without its reasoning.

See also Proverb, Chreia

Used in Example and Maxim

MeanTier V1 lesson
The arithmetic average. It uses every value and is therefore moved by an extreme one.

See also Median, Mode, Outlier

Used in Describing a Distribution

MedianTier V1 lesson
The middle value when the data are put in order. It is unmoved by how extreme the extremes are.

See also Mean, Mode, Skew

Used in Describing a Distribution

MediatorTier V1 lesson
A variable lying on the causal path between cause and effect. Holding it fixed removes part of the very effect being measured.

See also Confounding, Collider

Used in Confounding

MemoryTier IV2 lessons
The canon of holding a speech without reading it, and the techniques that make that possible.

See also The five canons, Method of loci, Delivery

Used in Five Canons as a Sequence of Work, Memory and Delivery

MetaphorTier IV1 lesson
Naming one thing as another. Every metaphor carries a claim about which respects transfer, and that claim is answerable.

See also Simile, Trope, Argument from analogy

Used in Metaphor and Simile as Argument

Method of agreementTier V1 lesson
Where cases sharing an outcome share only one antecedent circumstance, that circumstance is a candidate for the cause.

See also Method of difference, Mill's methods

Used in The Method of Agreement

Method of differenceTier V1 lesson
Where two cases differ in outcome and in only one antecedent circumstance, that circumstance is a candidate for the cause.

See also Method of agreement, Joint method of agreement and difference, Experimental evidence

Used in The Method of Difference

Method of lociTier IV1 lesson
A memory technique that stores the items of a speech in the remembered places of a familiar route, and recovers them by walking it.

See also Memory

Used in The Method of Loci

Method of residuesTier V1 lesson
Subtracting from a complex effect the parts already accounted for, and assigning the remainder to the remaining antecedent.

See also Mill's methods

Used in Residues

MetonymyTier IV1 lesson
Naming a thing by something associated with it — the crown for the monarchy, Wall Street for the firms.

See also Synecdoche, Trope

Used in Metonymy and Synecdoche

Middle termTier III1 lesson
The term appearing in both premises of a syllogism and not in its conclusion. It is what connects the other two.

See also Major term, Minor term, Undistributed middle

Used in Major, Minor, and Middle

Mill's methodsTier VNo lesson yet
Five patterns for drawing a causal conclusion by comparing cases — agreement, difference, the joint method, concomitant variation, and residues. They set out what comparing cases can and cannot show.

See also Method of agreement, Method of difference, Joint method of agreement and difference

Minor premiseTier III2 lessons
The premise of a syllogism containing the minor term. In standard form it is written second.

See also Major premise, Minor term, Standard form

Used in Reading a Syllogism, Major, Minor, and Middle

Minor termTier III1 lesson
The subject term of a syllogism's conclusion.

See also Major term, Middle term, Minor premise

Used in Major, Minor, and Middle

Missing the pointTier III1 lesson
also ignoratio elenchi, irrelevant conclusionArguing well for a conclusion other than the one at issue, and presenting it as though the point had been settled.

See also Red herring, Relevance

Used in Missing the Point

MisunderstandingTier II1 lesson
What looks like a disagreement but is not. The two people are not talking about the same claim, so neither has to be wrong.

See also Disagreement, Clarifying question

Used in Is This a Disagreement, or a Mix-Up?

Misuse of authorityTier IIINo lesson yet
also appeal to authority, misuse of authorityOffering the word of someone as evidence where they have no standing on the question, or where the relevant experts do not agree. Citing a genuine authority within their field is not a fallacy.

See also Fallacy of relevance, Reliable source

ModeTier V1 lesson
The most frequent value.

See also Mean, Median

Used in Describing a Distribution

Modus ponensTier III4 lessons
also affirming the antecedentThe valid move from "if P then Q" and P to Q. Also called affirming the antecedent.

See also Modus tollens, Affirming the consequent, Conditional

Used in Modus Ponens, Affirming the Consequent, Counterexamples to a Form, Modus Ponens and Modus Tollens as Rules

Modus tollensTier III4 lessons
also denying the consequentThe valid move from "if P then Q" and not-Q to not-P. Also called denying the consequent.

See also Modus ponens, Denying the antecedent, Contrapositive

Used in Modus Tollens, Affirming the Consequent, Counterexamples to a Form, Modus Ponens and Modus Tollens as Rules

MoodTier III1 lesson
The three letters naming a syllogism's forms in order — major premise, minor premise, conclusion. Mood and figure together fix the argument's shape.

See also Figure, The four categorical forms, Standard form

Used in Mood

Motte-and-baileyTier V1 lesson
Advancing a bold claim, retreating under pressure to a modest one presented as the same claim, and reoccupying the bold one when the pressure lifts. Named by Nicholas Shackel after the medieval fortification.

See also Equivocation

Used in The Motte and the Bailey

Moving the goalpostsTier IIINo lesson yet
Raising the standard of proof once the standard first named has been met.

See also No true Scotsman, Burden of proof

N13 terms

NarratioTier IV1 lesson
The statement of facts — what happened, told before the arguing begins. It looks neutral and is where much of the argument is quietly settled.

See also The parts of an oration, Partitio

Used in The Narratio

NarrativeTier IV1 lesson
The exercise of setting out what happened clearly, briefly, and plausibly, without arguing.

See also The Progymnasmata, Fable, Narratio

Used in Narrative

Natural deductionTier VNo lesson yet
A proof system in which a conclusion is reached by applying stated rules one line at a time, rather than by testing every assignment.

See also Derivation, Rules of inference, Conditional proof

Natural experimentTier V1 lesson
A comparison exploiting a circumstance that assigned people to conditions in a way unrelated to the outcome. Nobody assigned anything, so the name promises more than the design delivers, but the argument it offers is specific and checkable.

See also Observational evidence, Interrupted time series

Used in Natural Experiments

Necessary causeTier V1 lesson
A condition without which the effect does not occur.

See also Sufficient cause, Necessary condition, Contributory cause

Used in Necessary Causes

Necessary conditionTier III3 lessons
A condition without which the thing cannot hold.

See also Sufficient condition

Used in A Condition Without Which Not, Telling the Two Apart in Ordinary Prose, Symbolizing English II

NegationTier VNo lesson yet
The operator reversing a sentence's truth value.

See also Truth-functional connective, De Morgan's laws

Negative definitionTier III1 lesson
A definition saying only what a thing is not. It is a fault except where the term itself is a term of absence.

See also Obscure definition, Definiens

Used in Obscure, and Needlessly Negative

Negative propositionTier III1 lesson
also negativeA categorical proposition that excludes the subject class, wholly or partly, from the predicate class. The E and O forms are negative.

See also Affirmative proposition, Quality

Used in Quality

No true ScotsmanTier IIINo lesson yet
Saving a general claim from a counterexample by redefining the term so that the counterexample no longer counts.

See also Moving the goalposts, Counterexample, Persuasive definition

Non-monotonicTier VI1 lesson
Said of a consequence relation in which adding a premise can withdraw a conclusion previously licensed.

See also Defeater

Used in Dung's Abstract Argumentation Frameworks

NonresponseTier V1 lesson
The gap between those selected and those who answered. It matters when the reason for not answering is related to what is being measured, and a larger sample does not repair it.

See also Coverage error, Sampling frame

Used in Population, Sample, and Sampling Frame

Null hypothesisTier V1 lesson
The hypothesis a test is conducted against, usually that there is no effect. It has to be specified before the data are examined, because everything the test reports is computed on the assumption that it is true.

See also Alternative hypothesis, P-value

Used in The Null Hypothesis

O11 terms

ObjectionTier V1 lesson
also objectionsAn argument aimed at a claim or at a step, rather than in support of one. Which node it attacks is what a map records, and it settles what a reply has to do.

See also Defeater, Linked support

Used in Rendering an Argument as a Structure

Obscure definitionTier III1 lesson
also obscureA definition whose words are harder to understand than the term being defined.

See also Definiens, Negative definition

Used in Obscure, and Needlessly Negative

Observational evidenceTier V1 lesson
also observationalEvidence from a study in which the conditions were not assigned but recorded as they arose. Whatever determined who received what may also determine the outcome.

See also Experimental evidence, Confounding, Natural experiment

Used in Observational Studies

ObversionTier III3 lessons
also obvert, obvertingChanging a proposition's quality and replacing the predicate with its complement. It preserves truth for all four forms.

See also Conversion, Contraposition, Complement

Used in An Inference From One Premise, Obversion, Which Moves Preserve Truth

Open formulaTier V2 lessons
A formula containing a free variable. It has no truth value, because nothing has been said about anything in particular.

See also Closed formula, Free variable

Used in Names, Predicates, and Variables, Bound and Free

Open questionTier III1 lesson
A question inviting an answer of any length or shape. It is the right instrument for finding out what someone means and the wrong one for pinning them down.

See also Closed question, Clarifying question

Used in The Closed Question

OpinionTier II2 lessons
also opinionsA judgment a person holds, which may be supported by reasons but is not settled by observation alone.

See also Fact, Preference

Used in Fact and Opinion, Named, Sorting All Three

OppositeTier INo lesson yet
also oppositesA word that stands against another, like hot and cold. Not every word has one.
Ostensive definitionTier III1 lesson
also ostensiveA definition given by pointing at examples rather than by stating properties.

See also Extension, Lexical definition

Used in Five Kinds

OutlierTier V1 lesson
An observation far from the rest. Whether to exclude one is a decision about the data, and it should be stated rather than made silently.

See also Mean, Skew, P-hacking

Used in Describing a Distribution

OverclaimingTier II1 lesson
Making a general claim wider than the cases behind it will carry — saying "all" when only a few were looked at.

See also Generalization, Sample, Hasty generalization

Used in Overclaiming, Named

P43 terms

P-hackingTier VNo lesson yet
Trying analyzes until one crosses the threshold, and reporting that one. Each choice may be defensible on its own, and the reported p-value no longer means what it says because it does not count the analyzes not reported.

See also Cherry-picking, Publication bias, P-value

P-valueTier V1 lesson
The probability of getting a result at least as extreme as the one observed, computed on the assumption that the null hypothesis is true. It is a probability of data given a hypothesis, never of a hypothesis given data.

See also Null hypothesis, Statistical significance, Prosecutor's fallacy

Used in What a p-Value Is

ParaphraseTier IV1 lesson
Reporting a source in your own words. It is honest when the source is named and the wording is not doing work the source would refuse.

See also Card, Secondary source

Used in Paraphrase

Parliamentary debateTier IVNo lesson yet
A family of formats borrowing the manners of a legislature — a motion before the house, a government side and an opposition, and motions usually released shortly before the round. The branches differ enough that a debater must learn their own circuit's rules.

See also World schools, Point of information

Particular propositionTier III1 lesson
also particularA categorical proposition about at least one member of its subject class, saying nothing about the rest. The I and O forms are particular.

See also Universal proposition, Quantity, The four categorical forms

Used in Quantity

PartitioTier IV2 lessons
also divisioThe announced division — the short passage saying what is agreed, what is in dispute, and what the speaker will prove.

See also The parts of an oration, Narratio

Used in The Partitio, Roadmap and Signposting

PathosTier IVNo lesson yet
Persuasion drawn from the disposition the audience is brought into.

See also Ethos, Logos

Periodic sentenceTier IV1 lesson
A sentence whose sense completes only at the end, holding the reader in suspense until the main clause lands.

See also Loose sentence

Used in The Periodic and the Loose

PeroratioTier IV1 lesson
The close — the part an audience is most likely to remember and least likely to examine.

See also Exordium, The parts of an oration

Used in The Peroratio

Persuasive definitionTier III1 lesson
also persuasiveA definition that carries a favourable or unfavourable attitude into the term while appearing only to report its meaning, so that a contested claim is settled by the wording.

See also Begging the question, Lexical definition

Used in The Persuasive Definition

Plan textTier IV1 lesson
The affirmative's proposal stated exactly — who acts and what they do. Because it is exact, it can be held to.

See also Solvency, Topicality

Used in The Stock Issues

Point of informationTier IV1 lesson
A brief question offered to a speaker while they hold the floor, which the speaker may take or wave away.

See also Point of order, Parliamentary debate

Used in Parliamentary

Point of orderTier IV1 lesson
An interruption claiming that a rule of the format has been broken, addressed to the chair rather than to the opponent.

See also Point of information, Point of personal privilege

Used in Parliamentary

Point of personal privilegeTier IV1 lesson
An interruption about the conditions of the room or about a personal remark, rather than about the argument.

See also Point of order

Used in Parliamentary

Poisoning the wellTier III1 lesson
Discrediting a source in advance, so that whatever it goes on to say has already been answered.

See also Ad hominem, Genetic fallacy

Used in Poisoning the Well

PolysyllogismTier III1 lesson
A chain of syllogisms in which each conclusion is stated and then serves as a premise of the next.

See also Sorites, Syllogism

Used in The Sorites

PolysyndetonTier IV1 lesson
Putting a conjunction between every item, which makes a list read as slower and as though each item were weighed separately.

See also Asyndeton

Used in Asyndeton and Polysyndeton

Post hocTier III1 lesson
also post hoc ergo propter hocTreating one thing following another as though it showed the first caused the second.

See also False cause, Correlation

Used in After Is Not Because

Posterior probabilityTier V1 lesson
also posterior, posterior oddsThe probability of a hypothesis after the evidence has been taken into account.

See also Prior probability, Bayes' theorem

Used in Bayes' Theorem

PowerTier V2 lessons
The probability that a test detects an effect of a specified size if it is really there. It is always power against a stated effect size, never in the abstract.

See also Type II error, Effect size

Used in Type I and Type II Error, Effect Size and Power

Practical significanceTier V1 lesson
Whether an effect is large enough to matter for the decision in hand. A large study can make a trivial effect statistically significant, and a small one can miss an important effect entirely.

See also Statistical significance, Effect size, Power

Used in Statistical and Practical Significance

PraeteritioTier IV1 lesson
also paralipsis, occupatio, apophasisRaising a point by announcing that it will not be raised. Catalogues also call it paralipsis or occupatio, and the names vary more than the device does.

See also Irony, Figure of thought

Used in Praeteritio and Aporia

PrecedentTier IVNo lesson yet
A decided case offered as governing the present one, on the ground that the two do not differ in any respect the decision turned on.

See also A fortiori, Argument from analogy

Precising definitionTier III2 lessons
also precisingA definition that keeps established usage and draws a sharper line where usage leaves one vague — what a rule does when it fixes what counts as "late".

See also Vagueness, Lexical definition, Stipulative definition

Used in Five Kinds, Vagueness and Ambiguity

PredicablesTier III1 lesson
The ways a statement can bear on its subject. Porphyry counts five — genus, species, differentia, property, accident; Aristotle's Topics counts four, folding the differentia under genus.

See also Genus and differentia

Used in The Five Predicables

PredicateTier V1 lesson
In predicate logic, a symbol standing for a property or a relation, which takes one or more terms and yields a formula.

See also Relational predicate, Individual constant, Predicate term

Used in Names, Predicates, and Variables

Predicate termTier III1 lesson
The term a categorical proposition says something about the subject with — the class named after the copula.

See also Subject term, Copula, Categorical proposition

Used in Subject, Copula, Predicate

PreferenceTier II2 lessons
also preferencesA statement of what someone likes. It reports the speaker rather than the world.

See also Fact, Opinion

Used in Fact and Preference, Sorting All Three

PremiseTier II4 lessons
also premisesA statement offered in support of a conclusion.

See also Conclusion, Argument

Used in Premise and Conclusion, Indicator Words, All, Some, and None, Valid, True, and Sound

PresumptionTier VI4 lessons
The position that stands until someone displaces it, fixing who must argue.

See also Burden of proof

Used in Presumption, Presumption and the Prima Facie Case, Argumentation Schemes and Their Critical Questions, Presumption and the Burden of Proof

Prima facie caseTier IV2 lessons
also prima facieA case complete enough that a judge could vote for it if the other side said nothing — not unanswerable, but missing nothing the resolution requires.

See also Stock issues, Burden of proof

Used in Presumption and the Prima Facie Case, Building a Prima Facie Case

Primary sourceTier IV1 lesson
A record produced by someone in a position to know at first hand — the study itself, the minutes, the testimony.

See also Secondary source, Interest and bias

Used in Primary and Secondary

Principle of charityTier III2 lessons
The practice of interpreting an argument in its strongest reasonable form before answering it.

See also Straw man, Steelmanning

Used in The Principle of Charity, Reconstruction

Prior probabilityTier V1 lesson
also prior, prior oddsThe probability assigned to a hypothesis before the evidence in question is taken into account.

See also Posterior probability, Base rate, Bayes' theorem

Used in Bayes' Theorem

PropositionTier III1 lesson
also propositionsWhat a statement says, considered as the thing that is true or false. Two sentences may express one proposition.

See also Statement, Categorical proposition

Used in Proposition

Proposition of factTier IV1 lesson
A resolution asserting that something is or was the case, decided by evidence about the world.

See also Proposition of value, Proposition of policy

Used in Propositions of Fact

Proposition of policyTier IV1 lesson
A resolution asserting that something ought to be done, decided by weighing what the action would produce against what it would cost.

See also Proposition of fact, Proposition of value, Stock issues

Used in Propositions of Policy

Proposition of valueTier IV1 lesson
A resolution asserting that something is good, just, or preferable, decided by a standard the round has to settle on.

See also Proposition of fact, Criterion, Value premise

Used in Propositions of Value

Prosecutor's fallacyTier V1 lesson
Confusing the probability of the evidence given the hypothesis with the probability of the hypothesis given the evidence.

See also Base rate, Conditional probability

Used in The Prosecutor's Fallacy

ProverbTier IV1 lesson
A general saying with nobody named behind it. As an exercise, it is expanded and argued for in the same way as a chreia.

See also Maxim, Chreia, The Progymnasmata

Used in Proverb

Proximate causeTier V1 lesson
The nearest cause in a chain — the last step before the effect.

See also Remote cause, Contributory cause

Used in Proximate and Remote

Public forumTier IVNo lesson yet
A two-a-side format built around a judge who is not assumed to be a debater, so that jargon has to be paid for in plain words.

See also Parliamentary debate, World schools, Crossfire

Publication biasTier V1 lesson
The distortion arising because studies finding an effect are likelier to be written up and printed than studies finding none, so the published record overstates the effect.

See also P-hacking, Effect size

Used in Publication Bias

Q6 terms

QualifierTier IV2 lessons
In the Toulmin model, the word marking the force with which a claim is advanced — "presumably," "almost certainly."

See also Warrant, Claim

Used in The Toulmin Warrant, The Qualifier

QualityTier III1 lesson
Whether a categorical proposition affirms or denies — whether it puts the subject class inside the predicate class or shuts it out.

See also Quantity, Affirmative proposition, Negative proposition

Used in Quality

QuantifierTier II2 lessons
also quantifiersA word saying how much of a group a claim covers — all, most, some, none.

See also Generalization, Counterexample

Used in "Most" Is Not "All", Subject, Copula, Predicate

Quantifier scopeTier V1 lesson
also scopeHow much of a formula a quantifier governs. Two quantifiers in the other order, or a negation on the other side of one, make a different claim.

See also Main operator, Bound variable, Change of quantifier

Used in Scope

QuantityTier III1 lesson
Whether a categorical proposition is universal or particular — whether it speaks of every member of the subject class or only of some.

See also Quality, Universal proposition, Particular proposition

Used in Quantity

QuestionTier I1 lesson
also questionsA sentence that asks for something rather than saying how things are. A question is neither true nor false.

See also Statement, Command

Used in Statements, Questions, and Commands

R22 terms

RandomizationTier V1 lesson
Assigning units to conditions by chance, so that known and unknown differences between the groups are matters of chance rather than of selection.

See also Experimental evidence, Control group, Confounding

Used in What Randomization Buys

RangeTier V1 lesson
The distance from the smallest value to the largest. It is fixed entirely by the two most extreme observations.

See also Interquartile range, Standard deviation

Used in Describing a Distribution

RateTier IVNo lesson yet
How fast a speaker speaks. It is an instrument rather than a setting, and the thing that decides the round should be slower than the rest.

See also Delivery

ReasonTier I3 lessons
also reasonsWhat someone offers in support of something they have said. The word "because" usually introduces one.

See also Claim, Premise

Used in Because: Giving a Reason, Claim and Reason, Named, Rendering an Argument as a Structure

Rebuttal conditionsTier IV1 lesson
also rebuttal, conditions of rebuttalIn the Toulmin model, the circumstances under which the warrant would not carry — the exceptions stated in advance rather than discovered by an opponent.

See also Warrant, Qualifier

Used in The Rebuttal

Red herringTier II2 lessons
Something brought into a discussion that leads it away from the question being settled.

See also Relevance, Straw man

Used in The Red Herring, The Red Herring

Reductio ad absurdumTier III1 lesson
also reductioAssuming a position, deriving from it something false or contradictory, and concluding that the position must be given up.

See also Indirect refutation, Counterexample

Used in Indirect Proof

RedundancyTier V1 lesson
also tautology ruleThe equivalences between a sentence and its conjunction with itself, and between a sentence and its disjunction with itself.

See also Replacement rules

Used in Distribution and Redundancy

Reference classTier V1 lesson
The class a particular case is treated as a member of when a proportion is applied to it.

See also The reference class problem, Statistical syllogism

Used in The Statistical Syllogism

Reflective equilibriumTier VIINo lesson yet
A state reached by adjusting principles and particular judgments against one another until they cohere.
RefutatioTier IV1 lesson
The answer — the other side's case, met.

See also Confirmatio, The parts of an oration

Used in Confirmatio and Refutatio

Regression to the meanTier V2 lessons
The tendency of an extreme measurement to be followed by one nearer the average, for no other reason than that the extreme was partly chance. Any treatment applied to the extreme cases will appear to work.

See also Interrupted time series, Sampling error

Used in Regression to the Mean, The Gambler's Fallacy

Relational predicateTier V1 lesson
A predicate taking two or more terms, so that it says how things stand to one another rather than how one thing is.

See also Predicate, Quantifier scope

Used in Relational Predicates

RelevanceTier II2 lessons
The property of bearing on the claim at hand. A reason can be true and still irrelevant.

See also Claim, Reason

Used in On the Point, Off the Point

Reliable sourceTier II1 lesson
also reliable sourcesSomebody in a position to know the thing they are telling you — near enough to see it, paying attention, and not depending on the answer coming out one way.

See also Testimony, Eyewitness

Used in Who's Telling You This?

Remote causeTier V1 lesson
A cause further back in the chain. Which link an argument selects is often the argument, and a retreat to the proximate cause can be a way of avoiding responsibility.

See also Proximate cause

Used in Proximate and Remote

Replacement rulesTier V1 lesson
also replacement rule, rules of replacementEquivalences licensing the exchange of one expression for another anywhere it occurs, including inside a larger formula. They run in both directions, which the rules of inference do not.

See also Rules of inference, Logical equivalence, De Morgan's laws

Used in Replacing a Part

Restating charitablyTier II1 lesson
also restating charitably, charitable restatementPutting the other person's point in a form they would accept, before answering it.

See also Principle of charity, Straw man

Used in Restating Charitably, Named

Reverse causationTier V1 lesson
The possibility that the supposed effect is producing the supposed cause. Ruling it out usually requires knowing which came first.

See also Correlation, Confounding

Used in Reverse Causation

Rhetorical situationTier IVNo lesson yet
The occasion a speech answers to — the audience, the question in front of them, the constraints of the forum, and the moment.

See also Kairos, Deliberative

RoadmapTier IVNo lesson yet
A short statement at the start of a speech saying what will be covered and in what order, so that a judge's pen is in the right place.

See also Signposting, Flow

Rules of inferenceTier V1 lesson
also rule of inference, implication rulesArgument forms that license a whole line from whole earlier lines. They apply only to complete lines, which is what distinguishes them from the replacement rules.

See also Replacement rules, Natural deduction, Modus ponens

Used in What a Derivation Is

S49 terms

SampleTier II2 lessons
also samplesA group of cases looked at together, chosen to stand for a whole group.

See also Example, Generalization, Overclaiming

Used in One Example Is Not a Sample, Putting It Together

Sampling errorTier V2 lessons
The variation in an estimate that arises from having sampled rather than counted. It is not a mistake, and it is the only error a margin of error describes.

See also Standard error, Margin of error, Nonresponse

Used in Population, Sample, and Sampling Frame, Random Sampling and Sampling Error

Sampling frameTier V1 lesson
The list a sample is actually drawn from, which is not the population and may differ from it in ways that matter.

See also Target population, Coverage error

Used in Population, Sample, and Sampling Frame

SchemeTier IV1 lesson
also schemesA figure that changes the shape of a passage — its order, its repetitions, its balance — while leaving the words in their ordinary senses. The boundary with trope is drawn differently by different handbooks.

See also Trope, Figure of thought

Used in Scheme and Trope

Secondary sourceTier IV1 lesson
An account of a primary source. It may be more readable and is at one remove, and what it leaves out is not visible in it.

See also Primary source, Paraphrase

Used in Primary and Secondary

Selection biasTier V1 lesson
A distortion arising because the cases examined were reached by a process related to the outcome, so the sample differs systematically from the population it stands for.

See also Survivorship bias, Collider, Sampling frame

Used in Selection Bias

Serial supportTier V1 lesson
A chain in which one premise supports a second, which supports the conclusion. It is no stronger than its weakest link, and shorter chains are harder to break.

See also Linked support, Convergent support, Hypothetical syllogism

Used in Serial Support

SignificanceTier IV2 lessons
How much a claim, if granted, changes. A refutation can be fully supported and completely insignificant.

See also Harms, Impact calculus, Stock issues

Used in Harms and Significance, The Four Steps

SignpostingTier IVNo lesson yet
Saying, as you go, which argument you have arrived at. The order announced must be the order delivered.

See also Roadmap, Flow

SimileTier IV1 lesson
Comparing one thing to another with "like" or "as", which marks the comparison as a comparison.

See also Metaphor, Trope

Used in Metaphor and Simile as Argument

SimplificationTier V1 lesson
The rule taking a conjunction to either of its parts.

See also Rules of inference, Addition, Conjunction

Used in Simplification, Conjunction, Addition

Simpson's paradoxTier V1 lesson
A trend that holds within every subgroup and reverses when the subgroups are combined.

See also Confounding, Correlation

Used in Correlation, Causation, and Simpson's Paradox

Singular statementTier V1 lesson
A statement about one named individual rather than about all or some of a class.

See also Individual constant, Universal proposition

Used in Names, Predicates, and Variables

SkewTier V1 lesson
also skewedAn asymmetry in a distribution, which pulls the mean away from the median in the direction of the longer tail.

See also Mean, Median

Used in Describing a Distribution

Slippery slopeTier III1 lesson
Arguing against a step by claiming it leads to an unacceptable end, without showing that each move in the chain actually follows.

See also Fallacy of the beard, False cause

Used in The Slippery Slope

SolvencyTier IV1 lesson
The stock issue of whether the proposal would actually fix the harm it names.

See also Stock issues, Plan text

Used in Solvency

SoritesTier III1 lesson
A chain of syllogisms with the intermediate conclusions left out, so that only the first premises and the last conclusion are stated.

See also Polysyllogism, Enthymeme

Used in The Sorites

SoundnessTier III3 lessons
also soundA property of an argument that is both valid and has true premises.

See also Validity

Used in Valid, True, and Sound, Soundness Is Two Questions, Cogency

Special pleadingTier III1 lesson
Claiming an exception for one's own case without offering a principle that would cover anyone else in the same position.

See also Accident, No true Scotsman

Used in Special Pleading

Special topicsTier IV1 lesson
Lines of argument belonging to one genre of speech — the advantageous for deliberation, the just for forensic speech, the honourable for praise and blame.

See also The topics, The common topics, Deliberative

Used in Invention Is a Search

Square of oppositionTier III1 lesson
The diagram setting out how A, E, I, and O stand to one another. Contradictories hold on any reading; contraries, subcontraries, and subalternation hold only where the subject class is taken to have members.

See also Contradictories, Contraries, Subcontraries, Subalternation, Existential import

Used in The Four Corners

Standard deviationTier V1 lesson
A measure of how far the values typically lie from the mean, in the units of the data.

See also Mean, Standard error, Effect size

Used in Describing a Distribution

Standard errorTier V1 lesson
The standard deviation of an estimate across the samples the procedure might have drawn.

See also Sampling error, Margin of error

Used in Random Sampling and Sampling Error

Standard formTier III2 lessons
The regimented shape a proposition or syllogism is put into before it is tested — quantifier, subject term, copula, predicate term, with the premises in a fixed order.

See also The four categorical forms, Copula, Figure, Mood

Used in Subject, Copula, Predicate, Standard Form

StasisTier IV1 lesson
The point at which a disagreement actually rests — whether something happened, what to call it, whether it was justified, or whether this is the right forum.

Used in Stasis: Finding the Real Question

Stasis of conjectureTier IV1 lesson
The stasis at which the dispute is whether something happened at all.

See also Stasis, Stasis of definition

Used in Stasis: Finding the Real Question

Stasis of definitionTier IV1 lesson
The stasis at which the facts are agreed and the dispute is what to call them.

See also Stasis, Stasis of conjecture

Used in Stasis: Finding the Real Question

Stasis of procedureTier IV2 lessons
also stasis of jurisdiction, translativeThe stasis at which the dispute is whether this is the right forum, the right time, or the right party to decide.

See also Stasis, Stasis of quality

Used in Stasis: Finding the Real Question, Topicality

Stasis of qualityTier IV1 lesson
The stasis at which the act and its name are agreed and the dispute is whether it was justified.

See also Stasis, Stasis of procedure

Used in Stasis: Finding the Real Question

StatementTier I2 lessons
also statementsA sentence that says how things are, and so can be true or false.

See also Question, Command, True, False

Used in Statements, Questions, and Commands, Because: Giving a Reason

Statistical significanceTier V1 lesson
The p-value falling below a chosen threshold. The threshold is a convention, and the choice is arguable.

See also P-value, Practical significance, Type I error

Used in Statistical and Practical Significance

Statistical syllogismTier V1 lesson
Reasoning from a proportion in a class to a particular member of it — most F are G, this is an F, so this is probably G.

See also Reference class, The reference class problem, Induction

Used in The Statistical Syllogism

Status quoTier III5 lessons
The way things presently stand. In many disputes it holds presumption, so that the party proposing a change carries the burden.

See also Presumption, Burden of proof

Used in The Status Quo, The Stock Issues, Inherency, The Disadvantage, Counterplans, Fiat, and the Kritik

SteelmanningTier V2 lessons
Strengthening an opponent's argument as far as it will honestly go before answering it.

See also Principle of charity, Straw man

Used in The Limit of Charity, Steelmanning

Stipulative definitionTier III1 lesson
also stipulativeA definition assigning a meaning to a term for the purposes at hand. It cannot be wrong about usage, but it can be useless or misleading.

See also Lexical definition, Precising definition

Used in Five Kinds

Stock issuesTier IV1 lesson
The standing questions a policy case must answer — topicality, inherency, harms and significance, and solvency.

See also Topicality, Inherency, Harms, Solvency

Used in The Stock Issues

StratificationTier V1 lesson
Dividing a population into groups and sampling within each, which can make an estimate more precise than simple random sampling of the same size.

See also Clustering, Design effect

Used in Random Sampling and Sampling Error

Straw manTier II2 lessons
Answering a weakened or distorted version of someone's position rather than the position itself.

See also Principle of charity, Ad hominem

Used in The Scarecrow, Spotting All Six

StyleTier IV2 lessons
The canon of wording — the choice of words and of the shapes sentences are put into.

See also The five canons, Scheme, Trope

Used in Five Canons as a Sequence of Work, Style

SubalternTier III1 lesson
also superalternThe particular proposition standing under a universal of the same quality. I is the subaltern of A; the universal above it is the superaltern.

See also Subalternation

Used in Subcontraries

SubalternationTier III2 lessons
The step down from a universal to the corresponding particular — from A to I, from E to O. It holds on the traditional reading and fails on the modern one, because it requires the subject class to have members.

See also Subaltern, Existential import, Square of opposition

Used in The Four Corners, Subalternation

SubcontrariesTier III2 lessons
also subcontraryTwo propositions that cannot both be false but may both be true. I and O are subcontraries on the traditional reading.

See also Contraries, Contradictories, Existential import

Used in The Four Corners, Subcontraries

Subject termTier III1 lesson
The term a categorical proposition is about — the class named before the copula.

See also Predicate term, Copula, Categorical proposition

Used in Subject, Copula, Predicate

SubpointTier IV1 lesson
also subpointsA division inside a contention.

See also Contention

Used in Contention and Subpoint

Sufficient causeTier V1 lesson
A condition whose presence is enough to produce the effect.

See also Necessary cause, Sufficient condition

Used in Sufficient Causes

Sufficient conditionTier III3 lessons
A condition whose holding is enough to guarantee the thing.

See also Necessary condition

Used in A Condition That Is Enough, Telling the Two Apart in Ordinary Prose, Symbolizing English II

Survivorship biasTier V1 lesson
The special case of selection bias in which the cases that did not last are the ones missing from view, so a study of what remains describes survival rather than the process.

See also Selection bias

Used in Survivorship Bias

SyllogismTier II3 lessons
also syllogismsAn argument with two premises and a conclusion.

See also Premise, Conclusion, Validity

Used in Two Premises, One Conclusion, Valid, True, and Sound, Three Terms, Three Propositions

SynecdocheTier IV2 lessons
Naming a thing by a part of it, or a part by the whole. Some authorities count it as a trope of its own and others as a species of metonymy, since a part is one more kind of associated thing.

See also Metonymy, Trope

Used in Scheme and Trope, Metonymy and Synecdoche

T28 terms

TaglineTier IV1 lesson
also taglines, tagThe one line a judge writes down for an argument. Choosing it yourself is better than letting somebody unpersuaded choose it for you.

See also Contention, Flow

Used in The Tagline

Taking the dilemma by the hornsTier III2 lessons
also grasping a horn, grasping the hornsAnswering a dilemma by denying one of its conditionals — granting the alternative but refusing the consequence drawn from it.

See also Dilemma, Escaping between the horns

Used in Three Ways to Answer One, Constructive and Destructive Dilemma

Target populationTier V1 lesson
The group a survey means to describe, as distinct from the frame it drew from and the people who answered.

See also Sampling frame, Nonresponse, External validity

Used in Population, Sample, and Sampling Frame

TautologyTier V2 lessons
A sentence true under every assignment of truth values to its parts.

See also Truth table

Used in Truth Tables and Material Implication, Tautology, Contradiction, Contingency

TestimonyTier II2 lessons
What you have when somebody tells you a thing rather than your seeing it yourself. You are trusting the person as well as the report.

See also Eyewitness, Reliable source, Evidence

Used in Seeing It Yourself, or Being Told, Putting It Together

The common topicsTier IV1 lesson
The lines of argument available on any subject — definition, comparison, relation, circumstance, testimony, and the like.

See also The topics, Special topics

Used in Invention Is a Search

The five canonsTier IVNo lesson yet
The division of the art into invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery — five things a speech needs, each with its own discipline.

See also Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, Delivery

The four categorical formsTier III1 lesson
also A proposition, E proposition, I proposition, O propositionA, E, I, and O — all S are P, no S are P, some S are P, some S are not P. Every categorical proposition can be put into one of them.

See also Categorical proposition, Quantity, Quality, Standard form

Used in The Four Categorical Forms in Notation

The parts of an orationTier IVNo lesson yet
The classical division of a speech into exordium, narratio, partitio, confirmatio, refutatio, and peroratio. The names vary between handbooks; the jobs do not.

See also Exordium, Narratio, Partitio, Confirmatio, Refutatio, Peroratio

The ProgymnasmataTier IV1 lesson
A graded sequence of composition exercises, each adding one demand to the last. The surviving handbooks differ on how many exercises there are and in what order, so no single numbered list is canonical.

See also Fable, Chreia, Thesis

Used in The Ladder

The reference class problemTier V1 lesson
Every case belongs to many classes with different proportions, and no rule fixes which one an argument should use. Two impeccable statistical syllogisms about the same case can reach opposite conclusions on true premises.

See also Reference class, Statistical syllogism

Used in The Statistical Syllogism

The rhetorical enthymemeTier IV2 lessons
An argument whose unstated premise is supplied by the audience. Its force comes from the audience already holding what was left out.

See also Enthymeme, Warrant, Assumption

Used in Logos, The Enthymeme

The Texas sharpshooterTier V1 lesson
Finding a pattern in data and then treating the same data as evidence for it, as though the hypothesis had been specified first.

See also P-hacking, Cherry-picking

Used in The Texas Sharpshooter

The topicsTier IV1 lesson
also topos, topoiStanding places to look for arguments, worked through in order so that invention is a search rather than a wait.

See also The common topics, Special topics, Invention

Used in Invention Is a Search

Theoretical definitionTier III1 lesson
also theoreticalA definition that places a term within a body of theory, so that accepting it means accepting the account it belongs to.

See also Genus and differentia, Lexical definition

Used in Five Kinds

ThesisTier IV2 lessons
The exercise of arguing a general question with no named parties, dates, or particular circumstances — the ancestor of a debate motion.

See also The Progymnasmata, Defense or attack of a law, Proposition of policy

Used in The Ladder, Thesis

Too broadTier III2 lessons
Said of a definition that lets in things the term does not cover.

See also Too narrow, Extension

Used in Too Broad, Too Narrow, Circular, Obscure, and Needlessly Negative

Too narrowTier III2 lessons
Said of a definition that shuts out things the term does cover.

See also Too broad, Extension

Used in Too Broad, Too Narrow, Circular, Obscure, and Needlessly Negative

TopicalityTier IV3 lessons
In policy debate, the stock issue of whether the affirmative plan falls within the resolution.

Used in Stasis: Finding the Real Question, Procedure, Topicality

TranspositionTier V1 lesson
The equivalence between a conditional and its contrapositive.

See also Contrapositive, Replacement rules

Used in Transposition and Material Implication as Rules

TricolonTier IV1 lesson
A series of three parallel members. The third position carries an unearned air of completeness, which is what makes the figure worth examining.

See also Isocolon

Used in Isocolon, Tricolon, and Parallelism

TropeTier IV1 lesson
also tropesA figure that turns a word away from its ordinary sense. Which devices count as tropes rather than schemes is disputed between handbooks, and synecdoche and irony are the usual flashpoints.

See also Scheme, Figure of thought, Metaphor

Used in Scheme and Trope

TrueTier I1 lesson
Said of a statement that matches how things are.

See also False, Statement

Used in Statements, Questions, and Commands

Truth tableTier V1 lesson
A complete enumeration of the truth values a compound sentence takes under every assignment to its parts.

See also Material implication, Tautology

Used in Truth Tables and Material Implication

Truth-functional connectiveTier VNo lesson yet
also connectives, truth-functional connectivesAn operator whose output truth value is fixed by the truth values of its inputs and nothing else — negation, conjunction, disjunction, the material conditional, and material equivalence.

See also Truth table, Material implication, Negation

TurnTier IV3 lessons
also turnsA reply that does not merely block an argument but converts it into a reason to decide the other way.

See also Link turn, Impact turn, Double turn

Used in Harms and Significance, The Disadvantage, The Turn

Type I errorTier V1 lesson
Rejecting a null hypothesis that is true. Its rate is the threshold chosen.

See also Type II error, Statistical significance

Used in Type I and Type II Error

Type II errorTier V1 lesson
Failing to reject a null hypothesis that is false. Its rate is not chosen but follows from the threshold, the size of the true effect, the variability, and the size of the study.

See also Type I error, Power

Used in Type I and Type II Error

U6 terms

UnderdeterminationTier VINo lesson yet
The situation in which the available evidence is compatible with more than one theory.
Undistributed middleTier III2 lessons
The fallacy of a syllogism whose middle term is distributed in neither premise, so that the two premises may be about different parts of the middle class.

See also Distribution, Middle term

Used in Six Rules, One Test, The Middle Term Must Be Distributed

Universal generalizationTier V1 lesson
The rule taking a statement about an arbitrary individual to a universally quantified statement, permitted only where nothing particular was assumed about that individual.

See also Universal instantiation, Existential generalization

Used in Existential and Universal Generalization

Universal instantiationTier V1 lesson
The rule taking a universally quantified statement to an instance of it, for any name at all.

See also Existential instantiation, Universal generalization

Used in Universal Instantiation

Universal propositionTier III1 lesson
also universalA categorical proposition about every member of its subject class. The A and E forms are universal.

See also Particular proposition, Quantity, The four categorical forms

Used in Quantity

Universal quantifierTier V1 lesson
The symbol saying that what follows holds of everything in the domain.

See also Existential quantifier, Quantifier scope, Predicate

Used in The Universal Quantifier

V8 terms

VaguenessTier III2 lessons
also vagueA term is vague when there are cases where it is unsettled whether the term applies, not because we lack information but because the term draws no sharp line.

See also Ambiguity, Precising definition, Fallacy of the beard

Used in Vagueness and Ambiguity, The Fallacy of the Beard

ValidityTier III4 lessons
also validA property of an argument's form — if the premises were true, the conclusion would have to be true. A valid argument may have false premises.

See also Soundness, Syllogism, Counterexample

Used in Valid, True, and Sound, A Valid Argument With False Premises, What a Table Decides, Cogency

Value clashTier IVNo lesson yet
A genuine conflict between two value premises, where satisfying one costs something of the other. Two values that can both be met, or one that contains the other, do not clash.

See also Value premise, Criterion

Value premiseTier IVNo lesson yet
In a value round, the good a case says the resolution should be judged by.

See also Criterion, Value clash, Proposition of value

Venn diagramTier IIINo lesson yet
also Venn diagramsOverlapping circles for the classes an argument names, shaded where a region is empty and marked where it has a member, used to test a proposition or a syllogism by inspection.

See also Categorical proposition, Distribution

Verbal disputeTier III1 lesson
A disagreement in which the parties mean different things by the same word, so that no fact is actually in contest. Dissolved by splitting the senses; whatever survives the split is the real dispute.

See also Ambiguity, Equivocation

Used in The Verbal Dispute

VituperationTier IV1 lesson
The exercise of blame, worked through the same heads as encomium with the conclusions reversed. Some handbooks treat the two as a single exercise.

See also Encomium, Epideictic

Used in Encomium and Vituperation

Voting issueTier IV1 lesson
The package a last speech offers a judge — what the round comes down to, why that side wins it, and why it decides the round.

See also Impact calculus, Framework

Used in The Voting Issue

W4 terms

WarrantTier IV4 lessons
also warrantsIn the Toulmin model, the principle licensing the step from grounds to claim. It is usually left unstated.

See also Backing, Claim

Used in The Toulmin Warrant, Solvency, Choosing the Register the Format Wants, Reading a Text as an Argument

Weak analogyTier V1 lesson
An argument whose analogy fails at the point the conclusion needs it — the likeness is real but does not hold where the weight rests. Refuted by naming the relevant disanalogy.

Used in Weak Analogy, Named

Well-formed formulaTier V1 lesson
also wff, well-formed formulasA string built by the formation rules of the language, so that it has a definite structure and a definite truth value under an assignment.

See also Main operator, Truth-functional connective

Used in Well-Formed Formulas and the Main Operator

World schoolsTier IVNo lesson yet
A format with three speakers a side and a reply speech, points of information throughout, and a spoken style that assumes an audience rather than a specialist.

See also Parliamentary debate, Point of information