erstanding, agreement, focuses or constrains an experiment, reduces a hypothesis set, counters misinformation, or alleviates suffering or ignorance.
Relevancy –The quality of an argument such that it contains social value.
Reduction – a method of science wherein the process of induction or deduction is employed to falsify, or through consilience, render a hypothesis as false or more highly unlikely and therefore no longer salient or relevant.
Critical Path – the sequence of most highly effective argument tests which serve to falsify, eliminate, reduce or provide best consilience inside a set of plausible arguments. The most direct path from a salient question, to a sound answer.
Clarity – the ability of an argument to lend quality and locution capability to future critical path logic, and/or which allows such to be followed, replicated or understood more easily by another party.
Qualified Argument – a level of clarity and agreement which allows for a least set of differences, when full agreement is not achieved between expertise bearing parties.
Agreement – when two expertise bearing parties subsequent to an argument, agree on its basis, quality and outcomes.
Explanitude – the condition where a theory has been pushed so hard as authority, or is developed upon the basis of pseudoscience such as class struggle theory or psychology of sex, that it begins to become the explanation for, or possesses an accommodation for every condition which is observed or that the theory domain addresses. A theory which seems to be able to explain everything, likely explains nothing.
Notice that there are two forms of invalid outcome 1. an argument which lacks value and clarity in explaining nothing, and 2. an argument which lacks value and clarity in that it can explain everything. Both of these arguments are really invalid, the former being wrong, and the latter being non-sense.
Only nonsense can explain everything.
¹ These characteristics/definitions regarding argument stem from combining the input from a variety of resources too numerous to list and too convoluted to assign credit to one single source. The definitions are modified so that they all mutually reinforce each other, provide clarity and a commonality of language inside the contended definition framework. As such, these definitions are the work of The Ethical Skeptic, however may contain phrases common to similar definitions provided by other authors or resources. Therefore, as definitions in the public domain and in common use and understanding – they are not required to be reference sourced.
² Please note that the outcomes of Ethical Skepticism are value and clarity (see Ethical Skepticism – Part II)