Reasoning: Premises and Conclusions of Facts, Inferences, and Judgments

Reasoning: – Facts, Inferences, Judgments – Premises & Conclusion

A fact is information that is verifiable, or can be “proven” to be true. How do we verify it? We observe it for ourselves by - looking out the window to see if it’s raining - touching a snake to see that it’s not slimy - tasting the soup to find out if it is salty Or we trust other people to tell us facts - a friend who says the class has been canceled - a newspaper reporter who describes an earthquake in Japan - a book author who describes civil rights protests of the 1950s and 1960s

To believe something to be a fact requires that we trust our senses – our eyes, ears, etc. - or that we trust our source – the friend, the reporter, the author.

Fact:  “We’ve had a quiz almost every day there was reading due.”

Reasoning …
Is the process of coming to a conclusion (belief, opinion, prediction, explanation) about something by using information that we do know.

 “We’ve had a quiz almost every day there was reading due. More reading is due tomorrow, so we will probably have a quiz.”

An Inference … is another word for that conclusion arrived at through reasoning (the verb is to infer).

Inference:  “We will probably have a quiz tomorrow.”
Information we do have, known as evidence, is used to arrive at that conclusion or inference. Because we have had a quiz almost every day there was reading due, you may infer that there will probably be a quiz tomorrow.

Note: the difference between infer and imply:

We infer when we arrive at a conclusion about something or someone from what we heard, saw, read etc.  “The class may infer from what the professor said that there will be a quiz tomorrow.”
We imply when we suggest or hint at something to someone else.  “The professor implied to the class that there will be a quiz tomorrow.”

A Judgment … is an evaluative inference  “The professor likes given quizzes”