Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Conditionals

I found a couple things interesting in chapter 6. I thought the sections explaining conditionals were interesting. Conditionals in an argument may be a useful tool. In the book "Critical Thinking" by Richard L. Epstein, he discusses the matter of conditionals of an argument. As Epstein defines, a claim is conditional if the claim can be written over using the words "if...then..." The claim requires that it has the same truth-value to it. The antecedent in a rewritten claim "If A, then B" is A, and B is the consequent. Antecedent meaning prior and Consequent meaning following as a result of. Epstein explains that a contradictory of a conditional is, If A, then B has contradictory A but not B. An example may be...

If Ivan drives, Jay get to pick the music.

Conditional: Yes
Antecedent: Ivan drives
Consequent: Jay pick the music
Contradictory: Ivan drives, but Jay does not get to pick the music.

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3 comments:

  1. Conditionals was a really interesting part of chapter six. Though it might be kind of hard to understand. I think your example really broke it down and made it easier for people to understand. By showing the conditional, antecedent, consequent, and contradictory it made the method clear.

    I understood the concept of conditionals after reading your blog. At first it was kind of unclear to me but now I do understand it.
    Conditional is when one thing result of another. As B results from A. So if A happens then B will result.
    This is an interesting concept and would be useful in arguments.

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  2. I think that conditional is a really interesting concept. Conditional in a claim can be really important, it can make the claim more valid or weak. However, I still think that it might be a tricky concept to understand. The way that it was explained, it almost seem that B is a result because A happened. But I think that the real concept is that if A happen, than B have to happen. This is conditional. If B does not happen than A cannot work. However, B does not have to be the result of A. So, I think that this can be a very tricky subject sometime if people are not be careful when talking about it.

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  3. Hey! I liked reading your post! I found what you were saying very interesting. It made a lot of sense when I was trying to figure out what conditional was about. After understanding what conditionals mean, it is actually a really interesting concept in Chapter 6. In the beginning I have to admit the concept of it is pretty difficult but it made sense. I also enjoyed reading your example and how it relates back to the topic. It was simple and easy to understand. I liked how after your example you gave a small analysis of it by listing it out and giving a direct answer at the end.

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