Highlight all Definite Descriptions
’The’
‘The’ is a common Definite Description that usually indicates that there is exactly one of X You can challenge this by stating that there is:
- Multiple Xs
- no Xs
’Right’
What is right is commonly believed to be one principle. In moral dilemmas, commonly there are can be:
- Several right actions
- No right actions
Contrast Key Nouns
If an argument is saying that the human visual system is poor, contrast the human visual system with that system of bears.
- Most notions of good are relative to something else.
Start with extreme counter-examples
The best counter-examples are those that are extreme cases.
- Politician telling you to never follow the advice of politicians (Self-referential Paradoxes)
- X do not independently of minds → minds do not exist independently of minds (Flipping the claim on its head)
Infinite Regress
- Showing that a claim depends on some other propositions until there is no end
- If the claim can be boiled down to reductio ad absurdum, then you have disproved it
Reductio Ad Absurdum Through ‘Proves too Much’
- Show that argument P resembles another argument A, and that A is absurd
- This is analogical reasoning, and not a formal claim
- St Anselm’s Proof of God can be compared to another similar absurd claim
- God’s Argument From Design can also be compared to similar absurd claim