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BASIC CONCEPTS OF ARGUMENTS

BASIC CONCEPTS OF ARGUMENTS. What is an Argument?. To justify or defend a claim is to give reasons or arguments to support it. Reasoning (or inference) is a psychological process. When we express this process into words, we have arguments.

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BASIC CONCEPTS OF ARGUMENTS

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  1. BASIC CONCEPTS OF ARGUMENTS

  2. What is an Argument? • To justify or defend a claim is to give reasons or arguments to support it. • Reasoning (or inference) is a psychological process. • When we express this process into words, we have arguments. • An argument is set of STATEMENTS (or propositions) composed of PREMISES and CONCLUSION such that the former supports the latter.

  3. What is an Argument? • A STATEMENT is a sentence that is either T or F. • So questions, commands, requests are not statements.

  4. What is an Argument? • The structure of an argument: Premise 1 Premise 2 Premise 3 : : Premise n ----------------- Conclusion

  5. What is an Argument? • Example of argument: Either CY Leung was speaking the truth or he was lying. He was not speaking the truth. --------------------------------- Therefore, he was lying.

  6. What is an Argument? • Example of argument: Most new students took DSE. He is a new student. -------------------------------------------------------- He took DSE.

  7. What is an Argument? • Conclusion indicators: therefore, hence, thus, so, as a result, wherefore . . • Premise indicators: since, for , because, as, given that, owing to . . .

  8. What is an Argument? • SUB-CONCLUSION • Sometimes, one or more of the premises of an argument support a conclusion as a statement that in itself serves as a premise in the argument for the final conclusion. Such a statement is a sub-conclusion of the argument.

  9. What is an Argument? • E.g.: 1. Leon is a genius. (premise) 2. Geniuses are weird. (premise) 3. Therefore, Leon is weird. (sub-conclusion) 4. All weird people have problems in social relation. (premise) 5. Therefore, Leon has problems in social relation. (conclusion)

  10. What is an Argument? • IMPLICIT (OR UNSTATED) PREMISE • An implicit premise of an argument is a statement that is assumed but needs to be added to the premises if they are to support the conclusion.

  11. What is an Argument? • E.g.: What is the implicit premise in the following argument? All murder is immoral. Therefore, mercy killing is immoral.

  12. E.g.: What is the implicit premise in the following argument? Using pirate software violates the inventors’ property rights. Therefore, it is wrong to use pirate software.

  13. Passages Similar to Arguments • EXPLANATIONS • They have the same structure of arguments but the reasons given in an explanation are not used to prove a claim. Instead, they are used to make sense of a claim that has already been well accepted. • E.g., “I am late because there is a traffic congestion."

  14. Passages Similar to Arguments • Conditional propositions • They state that something will happen if certain conditions are fulfilled. • E.g., "if you work hard, you will pass the test."

  15. Passages Similar to Arguments • Statements of belief • They simply express someone's beliefs without providing any evidence to support those beliefs. • E.g., "I believe that he is guilty and should be put to jail."

  16. The Logical Strength of an Argument • The logical strength of an argument is the measure of how its premises, assumed to be true, support its conclusion. • We divide arguments into two types according to their logical strength: • Deductive arguments • Inductive arguments

  17. The Logical Strength of an Argument • Deductive argument • If all its premises are true, its conclusion is logically impossible to be false. • I.e.: The truth of its premises guarantees the truth of its conclusion. • E.g.: Either Albert or Bill is late. Albert is not late. Therefore, Bill is late.

  18. The Logical Strength of an Argument • Inductive argument • If all its premises are true, its conclusion is likely to be true but still possible to be false. • I.e.: The truth of its premises makes it reasonable to hold that the conclusion is true. • E.g.: Most people who are infected with HIV will develop AIDS, and he is infected with HIV. Therefore, he will develop AIDS.

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