Arguing a case and testing objections

C2 · 100 entries · Five themes

Arguing a case and testing objections

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1. Premises and conclusions (20 entries)
  1. grant the premise for the sake of argument
  2. posit
  3. carry an argument to its logical conclusion
  4. a question-begging premise
  5. argue from first principles
  6. vindicate
  7. casuistry
  8. modus tollens
  9. motivated reasoning
  10. subsume
  11. axiom
  12. postulate
  13. deduction
  14. cut both ways
  15. reductio
  16. beg the very question at issue
  17. modus ponens
  18. give an argument a clear hinge
  19. the burden of rejoinder
  20. extant
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2. Circular and misleading arguments (20 entries)
  1. universality
  2. epistemology
  3. particularity
  4. fallacy
  5. appeal to ignorance
  6. argument from silence
  7. false dichotomy
  8. false equivalence
  9. question-begging
  10. non sequitur
  11. the fallacy of composition
  12. the fallacy of division
  13. a self-sealing argument
  14. category error
  15. underdetermined
  16. an unfalsifiable assertion
  17. a category mistake
  18. the excluded middle
  19. conjecture
  20. paradox
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3. Counterexamples and exceptions (20 entries)
  1. special pleading
  2. there is a case to answer
  3. the evidence cuts both ways
  4. not necessarily by the same token
  5. not stand up to close scrutiny
  6. the difficulty with that argument is
  7. reductio ad absurdum
  8. adduce
  9. argue in the alternative
  10. fly in the face of the evidence
  11. countervailing
  12. mistake absence of evidence for evidence of absence
  13. reason by contraposition
  14. anecdotal fallacy
  15. the comparison does not bear close examination
  16. deny the antecedent
  17. an adverse inference
  18. not hold water
  19. a false antithesis
  20. the exception proves the rule
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4. What follows from what (20 entries)
  1. bear out a contention
  2. fail to withstand scrutiny
  3. clear and convincing evidence
  4. the best available inference
  5. lend plausibility to
  6. an argument from ignorance
  7. a defeasible claim
  8. put a claim beyond doubt
  9. give credence to
  10. take something as read
  11. an inferential leap
  12. on the flimsiest of pretexts
  13. commensurate
  14. prescience
  15. not stand up to scrutiny
  16. strain credulity
  17. come under scrutiny
  18. put a claim to the test
  19. give the lie to
  20. defy belief
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5. Conceding or defending a point (20 entries)
  1. encapsulation
  2. contingency
  3. affirm the consequent
  4. concurrence
  5. constitutive
  6. steelman an argument
  7. tu quoque
  8. an argument by exhaustion
  9. ad nauseam
  10. turn an argument on its head
  11. counterposition
  12. in the face of something
  13. give ground on a point
  14. ad hominem
  15. rhetorical reversal
  16. in the last analysis
  17. coherence
  18. coherent
  19. for the sake of argument
  20. ad infinitum
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