Week 3 ; Ch.8 #3

In chapter 8 of Think, it tells you the three different types of deductive arguments. The first type is argument by elimination, where different possibilities of a situation are eliminated until there is only one conclusion that remains. The second type is argument based on mathematics, which means that the conclusion has to be calculated from a mathematical or geometrical situation. The last type is argument from definition, which is where the conclusion is true based on fact or a certain definition for a term. An example of the first type would be like Sherlock Holmes, trying to find out where the missing racehorse was by using logic to eliminate the other possible places the horse could've been. For the second type, an example of this would be trying to measure how much space you have in your room by taking several math steps. An example of the last type of deductive argument from the book is, "Paulo is a father. All fathers are men. Therefore, Paulo is a man" (Boss, 244). This is true because by definition, a father is a male parent. I personally like argument by elimination because I like to rule things out when trying to solve something, and you have to really use your logic to think about certain situations and the possibilities.