1. Constructing an Argument
Definitions
Distinctions
Conceptual Analyses
Thought Experiments

2. Definitions When should you define a term?
Technical term being used in a technical sense.
Where there are multiple interpretations of a term, and it is being used in one of those senses.
A term you have invented.

3. Distinctions
A proper distinction is exhaustive and mutually exclusive.
Exhaustive: Everything is in some category.
Mutually exclusive: Nothing is in more than one category.

4. Jorge Luis Borges
In an obscure Chinese encyclopedia, the following distinctions are made between animals:
(a) those that belong to the emperor,
(b) embalmed ones,
(c) those that are trained,
(d) suckling pigs,
(e) mermaids,
(f) fabulous ones,
(g) stray dogs,
(h) those that are  included  in  this  classification, 
(i)  those that  tremble  as  if  they were  mad, 
(j) innumerable ones, 
(k)  those  that  are  drawn  with  a very  fine  camel’s  hair  brush, 
(l) others, 
(m) those that  have  just broken a flower vase,
(n) those that resemble flies from a distance.

5. Conceptual Analysis
Providing a set of individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions
e.g. “X is dead if and only if:
1. X has lost bodily function
2. X has irreversibly lost consciousness”

6. Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
“X is necessary for Y” means:
Y cannot be the case unless X is the case.
“X is sufficient for Y” means:
If X is the case, then Y must also be the case.
“In order to access the library, you must have a library card.”
“People with a billion pounds are rich.”

7. Assessing Conceptual Analyses
An analysis is too strong if it excludes things it should include.
At least one condition is not necessary.
An analysis is too weak if it includes things it should exclude.
The conditions are not jointly sufficient.
An analysis can be both too strong and too weak.

8. The Chinese Room

9. Thought Experiments Make it clear and easy to visualise.
Ensure the person is in the right place within the scenario.