CS 100 - Week 4, Lecture 1 - 9-11-12

What is a statement? (continued)

*   A STATEMENT is a sentence/phrase that can be viewed as either true
    or false

    *   often, you can reasonably precede a statement with,
        "It is true that..." or
	"It is false that..."

*   the course text also notes, with regard to statements:

    1.   A sentence may be used to express more than one statement

    2.   A statement can sometimes be expressed as a phrase or
         an incomplete clause

    3.   Not all sentences are statements

    4.   Statements CAN be about subjective matters of personal
         experience as well as objectively verifiable matters of
         fact

*   is the point of something to assert or deny that
    something is the case?
    ...if not, it is probably not a statement;

A few problematic types:

rhetorical question

*   A rhetorical question is a sentence that has the grammatical
    form of a question BUT is MEANT to be understood as a statement
    (the speaker/writer is trying to make a point)

*   example adapted from the text:
    "John, you should quit smoking. Don't you realize how bad it
     is for your health?"

ought imperative

*   an ought imperative is a sentence/phrase that has the form
    of an imperative or command BUT it is INTENDED to assert
    a value or "ought" judgment about what is good or bad or
    right or wrong

*   implication: the statement is something along the lines of
    (intended!) It is true/false that you should/should not/ought/ought not
    ...

    ...stronger when there is given a reason intended to support
    that ought/should statement;

*   SO -- imperative phrases/sentences are NOT statements IF they
    are intended as orders, suggestions, proposals, or exhortations;

    they ARE statements if they are intended as PIECES of ADVICE or
    VALUE JUDGMENTS about what someone ought or ought not to do

What is an ARGUMENT? (in the logic sense)

*   An argument is a group of statements,
    one or more of which (called PREMISES) are intended to prove or support
    another statement (the CONCLUSION)

*   some common premise indicators:

    since                      for     seeing that      inasmuch as     
    in view of the fact that   because as               on account of
    judging from               considering that
    ... 

*   some common conclusion indicators

    therefore      thus       hence        so
    consequently   accordingly
    for this reason
    wherefore
    as a result    this suggests that      we may infer that
    ...

*   an argument does not have to include premise or conclusion indicators,
    and they can be used in non-arguments as well -- but they can be helpful
    indicator/suggestors in many cases;