Categorical Arguments

a. Move from broad to specific
i. Inductive move from specific to broad
ii. Important for making ideological arguments based on principle

b. Involve making connections with known information
i. Have to make particular formula to make connections
c. Connections require proper form to be valid

a. A partial evaluation
i. Not enough to tell you if an argument is cogent
b. Concerned with form, not content
i. Is this argument properly put together
c. Part of cogency

a. Categorical
i. Based on relationships between categories

b. Hypothetical
i. Based on possibilities
ii. If I do this then this will happen

c. Disjunctive
i. Based on alternatives
ii. Either or

a. Two premises and a conclusion

b. Three categories

i. 3 things that are put in relationship to each other

c. Linking verb
i. Any form “to be”
ii. To see if something is the same as something else or different

Universal positive
i. All A are B
ii. Distributed (A)/ not distribute (B)

Universal negative
i. No A are B (No zoos are bad)
ii. Distributed / distributed
iii. Most certain statement

= Particular positive
i. Some A are B (Some zoos are things that are bad)
ii. Not distributed/ not distributed
iii. Most uncertain statement

Particular negative
i. Some A are not B
ii. Not distributed / distributed

a. The middle term must be distributed once

b. A term distributed in the conclusion must be distributed in a premise

c. If both premises are universal, the conclusion must be universal

d. The number of negative conclusions must equal the number of negative premises

e. No conclusion can be drawn from two particular premises