AinA 130 – Issues primarily relating to sufficiency

For this part of the course the SQA lists the following:

Issues primarily relating to sufficiency:

• deductive validity, that is, an argument is valid when it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false
• inductive strength, including being aware that, unlike deductive validity, inductive strength is a matter of degree and, however strong the argument, the conclusion is never guaranteed in the same way that it is with deductive reasoning
• conductive strength, including being aware that in a conductive argument, although the premises are assessed individually with regard to acceptability and relevance, they are considered together with regard to sufficiency and that the addition of premises strengthens an argument and the removal of premises weakens an argument
• post hoc ergo propter hoc, including being able to discuss whether it is ever appropriate to take temporal order as a basis for having increased confidence in a causal link
• formal fallacies, including being able to explain the distinction between formal and informal fallacies:
  • denying the antecedent, that is, any argument that has the form:
         If P, then Q; Not P. Therefore, not Q 
    that is, the error of mistaking a sufficient condition for a necessary condition
  • affirming the consequent, that is, any argument that has the form:
         If P, then Q; Q. Therefore, P
    that is, the error of mistaking a necessary condition for a sufficient condition

Remember, to be sufficient the premises must be both acceptable and relevant and also able to engender a well-founded confidence in the conclusion.

We have already covered the topics in this list with the exception of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy which is covered on the next page.