Chapter 6 is full of important concepts such as compound claims, conditional claims, false dilemmas, and contradictions of specific claims. For the first discussion question this week, I'm going to focus on compound "or/"and" claims along with their contradictions, as well as talking about conditionals.
A compound claim is viewed as a single claim, but it's made up of more than one individual claim. They are separated by a specific indicator word, such as "or" along with "and".
For example:
"Jerry will go to the football game or go to lunch with his friends".
The two claims within this compound claim are "Jerry will go to the football game" and "Jerry will go to lunch with his friends". These invidivual claims are known as "alternatives"; when combined these form a compound claim.
Contradictory of a claim: Contradictions of specific claims, such as an "or" claim, are pretty simple. The contradiction is simply just the opposite of the original claim. For example, if we're using the reasoning of an "or" claim which is "A or B", then the contradictory of that claim is "not A and not B".
"Or" claim: Little Johnny can't stay home alone, or else he needs a baby-sitter.
Contradictory "or" claim: Little Johnny can stay home alone, and he does not need a baby-sitter.
Conditionals at first glance look to be tricky, but they're easy to understand. A conditional claim is a claim that can be rewritten using an "if, then" format that still retains the original claim. When broken down in the A/B format, we can see the line of reasoning of "If A, then B", where A is the antecendent and B is the consequent of the claim.
For example:
Your parent might say, "If you pass your drivers test, I'll buy you a car".
Just like the example in the book about the professor, conditionals only give a conditional promise for the fulfillment of the claim. If the requirement (the antecedent) is not reached, then the "promise" (the consequent) isn't given. This conditional of the parent example is giving the claim that if you do well and pass your drivers test, you'll get a car. However, if you fail your drivers test, you will not get a car.
Nice post. I like how you explained everything about this chapter so clearly. Although chapter six cover a lot of materials, I also made post about compound claims and contradictory of a claim as well. I guess it stand out more than the other material that was being cover. Anyways, I like your example for a compound claim it simple and straight forward. I also find your contradictory claim to be interesting as well. It was stronger and more simpler than the example I made in my post. Read this post was helpful for me because I helps me understand about the contradictory claim more thoroughly.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you explain your material from chapter 6 using examples. You showed that understood the concepts such as compound claims and contradictory claims. I also posted a blog on contradictory claim and compound claim for my blog. But yeah compound claim is basically like two idea form into one sentence or one claim. I like the example you use for compound claim for anyone who doesn't understand this subject the example will make it easier to understand. I did not talk about conditionals in my post but nice example using the drivers test made sense after I read your example. Overall nice job with this post.
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