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Philosophy arguments

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1. Arguments are inductive if they are invalid.
(True or false and Explain why??)

2. A valid argument can have a false conclusion.
(Explain why and If true, then give an example??)

3. The claim "The earth is round" is a valid statement.
(True or false and Explain why??)

4. A logically sound argument may be invalid.
(True or false and Explain why??)

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Hi There,
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<br>Here are your answers:
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<br>1. True. The difference between inductive and deductive argument is not an issue that is settled as easily as one might hope. There are those that think the difference between inductive and deductive arguments is dependent on what kind of argument the author intends. Nevertheless, this can't be the whole story. For sometimes an author intends an argument to be deductively valid; and sometimes an author intends an argument to be inductively strong; and sometimes an author doesn't know the difference. So, we will say that the main difference between an inductive argument and a deductive argument is by how much support the premises (reasons) give for the conclusion. In the case of deductive arguments, the premises, if true, guarantee the truth of the conclusion. Inductive arguments, however, do not provide such a guarantee. Since they don't guarantee the truth of the conclusion we need a new way to evaluate arguments instead of valid and sound.
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<br>Now it is true that all inductive argument are not valid (invalid); however, this is not a criticism of them because they are not designed to provide complete support for their conclusions. Or if one prefers the intention distinction between inductive and deductive arguments, then one could claim that they are not intended to be valid. Either way, one should not refer to an inductive argument as either valid or sound. When evaluating an inductive argument, we want to talk about how strong or weak the support of the premises is for the conclusion. So, we will evaluate inductive arguments as either strong or weak. Let's look at the difference between inductive and deductive arguments.
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<br>(Source of above info: http://mailer.fsu.edu/~cpynes/Inductive_Arguments.htm)
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<br>2. FALSE. Put most simply, if an argument is valid, the truth of the premises insures the truth of the conclusion. Otherwise put, if an argument is valid, there will be no case in which all the premises are true and the conclusion is false. The following argument, for example, is valid:
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<br>All A are B
<br>All B are C
<br>(therefore) All A are C (By convention, the horizontal line separates the premises from the conclusion.)
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<br>Think about the argument above. Could you substitute terms in for A, B, and C (substituting consistently, of course) such that the two premises come out true but the conclusion false? Experiment for a moment to see if you can do this. Eventually, you will be convinced that you can't. (And no, you cannot subsitute so as to have the same word but with two different meanings - e.g. "plant" - that's a particular kind of error called "equivocation".)
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<br>An informal way to gauge the validity of an argument is to ...

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