| argument | A group of statements consisting of one or more premises and a conclusion that purportedly follows from the premises.
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| causal impossibility | Something is causally impossible if and only if it violates a law of nature.
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| cogent argument | A strong inductive argument that contains only true premises.
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| conclusion | The claim that an argument is trying to establish.
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| counterexample | An example that runs counter to or conflicts with a theory.
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| criteria of adequacy | The features that distinguish a good theory from a bad one: consistency (lack of contradictions), simplicity (quality of relying on only a small number of assumptions), scope (the amount of diverse phenomena explained), , conservatism (quality of fitting well with existing theory), and fruitfulness (the number of new facts predicted or problems.
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| law of noncontradiction | The principle that nothing can both have and lack a property at the same time and in the same respect.
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| logical impossibility | Something is logically impossible if and only if it violates the law of noncontradiction.
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| mind-body problem | The philosophical problem of explaining how it is possible for a material object to have a mind.
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| necessary condition | Something x is a necessary condition for something y if and only if it is impossible for y to exist without x.
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| premise | A reasongiven for accepting the conclusion of an argument.
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| problem of evil | The philosophical problem of explaining how it is possible for there to be evil in a world created by an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good being.
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| problem of free will | The philosophical problem of explaining how it is possible for a causally determined action to be free.
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| problem of moral relativism | The philosophical problem of explaining how it is possible for there to be absolute moral standards.
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| problem of personal identity | The philosophical problem of explaining how it is possible for a person to change and yet remain the same person.
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| problem of skepticism | The philosophical problem of explaining how it is possible for there to be knowledge.
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| sound argument | A valid deductive argument that contains only true premises.
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| strong argument | An inductive argument which would establish its conclusion with a gih degree of probability if its premises were true.
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| sufficient condition | Something x is a sufficient condition for something y if and only if it is impossible for x to exist without y.
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| test implication | A statement to the effect that if a theory is true, then a certain concept (event) should apply (occur) in a certain situation.
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| thought experiment | An imaginary situation designed to determine whether a claim is necessarily true.
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| valid argument | A deductive argument in which the conclusion logically follows from its premises.
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education