Informal logic
Informal logic studies and evaluates arguments expressed in ordinary language, emphasizing context, relevance, and standards of good reasoning.
Argument: A set of claims in which some statements are offered as reasons to accept another. Informal logic treats arguments, rather than isolated sentences, as its central objects.
Argument reconstruction: The process of clarifying an argument's premises, conclusion, and inferential structure. Ordinary speech often leaves argument structure implicit, so evaluation starts by making it explicit.
Critical thinking: The disciplined evaluation of claims, evidence, assumptions, and reasoning. Informal logic supplies tools for the broader practice of assessing beliefs and arguments.
Formal logic: The study of valid inference through abstract symbolic systems and formal languages. Unlike formal logic, informal logic evaluates arguments in ordinary language and context.
Premise: A statement offered as support for a conclusion in an argument. Evaluating an argument begins by identifying the claims offered as reasons.
Enthymeme: An argument with a premise or conclusion left unstated but understood from context. Recovering omitted claims can reveal whether everyday reasoning depends on a questionable assumption.
Media literacy: The ability to interpret and evaluate information presented through media. News and online media make argument assessment necessary amid persuasion and selective evidence.
Rhetoric: The study and practice of using language to inform, persuade, or move an audience. Rhetoric emphasizes persuasive communication, while informal logic focuses on argument quality.
Conclusion: The claim that an argument's premises are intended to support. Informal analysis distinguishes the claim being defended from its supporting reasons.
Relevance: A relation in which information bears on the question or claim under consideration. A premise can be true yet fail to support a conclusion if it is irrelevant.