Wordsmith collection

Ideas & Arguments

by Wordsmith @wordsmith

The language of critical reasoning and essays: 64 words for making, weighing and refuting arguments — premise, cogent, fallacy, rebuttal.

• devil's advocate One who debates from a viewpoint which one may not actually hold, usually to determine its validity or simply for the sake of argument.
• objective Of or relating to a material object, actual existence or reality.
• plausible Seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or acceptable; conceivably true or likely.
• stance The manner, pose, or posture in which one stands.
• dogma An authoritative principle, belief or statement of opinion, especially one considered to be absolutely true and indisputable, regardless of evidence or without evidence to support it.
• tangible Touchable; able to be touched or felt; perceptible by the sense of touch.
• subjectivity The state of being subjective.
• ideology Doctrine, philosophy, body of beliefs or principles belonging to an individual or group.
• paradox An apparently self-contradictory statement, which can only be true if it is false, and vice versa.
• objectivity The state of being objective, just, unbiased, and not influenced by irrational emotions or personal prejudices.
• dialectic Dialectical (of or relating to dialectic)
• consensus A process of decision-making that seeks widespread agreement among group members.
• contend To be in opposition; to contest; to dispute; to vie; to quarrel; to fight.
• substantiate To verify something by supplying evidence; to authenticate or corroborate.
• imply To have as a necessary consequence; to lead to (something) as a consequence.
• coherent Unified; sticking together; making up a whole.
• anecdotal Of the nature of or relating to an anecdote.
• subjective Formed, as in opinions, based upon a person's feelings or intuition, rather than upon observation or purely logical reasoning; coming more from within the observer than from observations of the external environment.
• justify To provide an acceptable explanation for.
• dissent Disagreement with the ideas, doctrines, decrees, etc. of a political party, government or religion.
• ambiguous Open to multiple interpretations.
• unequivocal Unambiguous; without equivocation or ambiguity; singularly clear, unmistakable, or unquestionable
• perspective Of, in or relating to perspective.
• assumption The act of assuming, or taking to or upon oneself; the act of taking up or adopting.
• rhetorical Part of or similar to rhetoric, the use of language as a means to persuade.
• contradiction The act of contradicting.
• causal Of, relating to, or being a cause of something; causing.
• infer To introduce (something) as a reasoned conclusion; to conclude by reasoning or deduction, as from premises or evidence.
• evidence Facts or observations presented in support of an assertion.
• data plural of datum
• extrapolate To infer by extending known information.
• fallacious Characterized by fallacy; false or mistaken.
• causation The act of causing.
• indicative Serving as a sign, indication or suggestion of something.
• fallacy Deceptive or false appearance; that which misleads the eye or the mind.
• equivocal Having two or more equally applicable meanings; capable of double or multiple interpretation.
• observation The act of observing, and the fact of being observed (see observance)
• generalize To speak in generalities, or in vague terms.
• validate Valid, validated.
• abstract Derived; extracted.
• assertion The act of asserting; positive declaration or averment.
• dichotomy A separation or division into two; a distinction that results in such a division.
• counterargument An argument that is opposed to another argument.
• rebuttal The act of contradicting something by making a contrary argument, or presenting contrary evidence.
• inductive Of, or relating to logical induction, by generalizing a universal claim or principle from the observed particular instances.
• correlation A reciprocal, parallel or complementary relationship between two or more comparable objects.
• bias Inclined to one side; swelled on one side.
• credible Believable or plausible.
• nuance A minor distinction.
• refute To prove (something) to be false or incorrect.
• hypothesis A tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem and that can be tested by further observation, investigation, or experimentation.
• cogent Reasonable and convincing; based on evidence.
• rationale An explanation of the basis or fundamental reasons for something.
• empirical Pertaining to or based on experience, as opposed to theory.
• argumentation Inference based on reasoning from given propositions.
• framework A support structure comprising joined parts or conglomerated particles and intervening open spaces of similar or larger size.
• deduce To reach (a conclusion) by applying rules of logic or other forms of reasoning to given premises or known facts.
• significant Signifying something; carrying meaning.
• premise A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition.
• analogous Having analogy, the status of an analogue; corresponding to something else; bearing some resemblance or similar proportion (often followed by "to".)
• skepticism The practice or philosophy of being a skeptic.
• criterion A standard, test, or requirement by which individual things or people may be compared and judged; a gauge.
• concede To yield or suffer; to surrender; to grant
• logical In agreement with the principles of logic; sequacious.

Definitions from Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0) and Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).