Lec. 2. Recognizing Arguments-Updated with Examples.pdf

Lecture 2 Recognizing Arguments Learning Outcomes Understand the concept of an argument Define the basic structure of an argument. Distinguish arguments from nonarguments Identify the types of nonarguments. Critical Thinking 2 What is an Argument? An...

Lecture 2 Recognizing Arguments Learning Outcomes Understand the concept of an argument Define the basic structure of an argument. Distinguish arguments from nonarguments Identify the types of nonarguments. Critical Thinking 2 What is an Argument? An argument is simply a claim defended with reasons. Arguments are composed of one or more premises and a conclusion. Premises are statements in an argument offered as evidence or reasons why we should accept another statement, the conclusion. The conclusion is the statement in an argument that the premises are intended to prove or support. Critical Thinking 3 What is a Statement? A statement is a sentence that can be viewed as either true or false. A sentence may be used to express more than one statement. A statement can sometimes be expressed as a phrase or an incomplete clause, rather than as a complete declarative sentence. not all sentences are statements, that is, sentences that either assert or deny that something is the case. statements can be about subjective matters of personal experience as well as objectively verifiable matters of fact. Critical Thinking 4 EXAMPLES All humans are mortal. Brad Pitt is human. So, Brad Pitt is mortal. Sarah was not at the party. So, it couldn’t have been Sarah that Jack was dancing with. Critical Thinking 5 PREMISES Premises and conclusions are always propositions (statements) – they can be true or false. They are not questions, commands or exclamations. Test: “It is true / not true that P” where P = a premise or a conclusion Critical Thinking 6 EXAMPLE It is true that Sarah was not at the party. *It is true that Where was Sarah? *It is true that Don’t you dare do that again! Note: /*/ indicates that a statement is unacceptable. Exercise: Identifying statements. (ex. 2.1, p. 33) Critical Thinking 7 NOTE 1 At issue is the form of the statement, whether it CAN be true or false, not whether it IS true of false. These are PROPOSITIONS: Snow is green. I am Brad Pitt. These are NOT: *What color is snow? *Hey, look, there’s Brad Pitt! Critical Thinking 8 NOTE 2 Although the premises, by definition, provide evidence for the conclusion, this evidence may be good or not. You have to let me go to the party; everyone is going to be there. Critical Thinking 9 NOTE 3 In standard form, the conclusion appears at the end. In practice, the conclusion may appear anywhere. Jack could not have been the murderer. The victim was shot from 40 feet away. Jack is blind and paralyzed from the neck down. Exercise: Identify premises and conclusions of arguments. (ex. 2.2.1, p. 37) Critical Thinking 10  Inference Indicators Indicator words are words or phrases that provide clues that premises or conclusions are being put forward Premise indicators indicate that premises are being offered, e.g. since, for, because, given that, as,…etc. Conclusion indicators indicate that conclusions are being offered, e.g. therefore, thus, hence, as a result, so,…etc. it’s so important to consider the context when determining the meaning of an expression. Many arguments contain no indicator words at all. Critical Thinking 11 Inference Indicators Inference indicators: Indicate the role of a proposition in an argument. Conclusion indicators: There are no lights on. _____ no one is home. Therefore, Thus, Hence, So, For this reason, Consequently, It follows that, Which proves/means that, AS a result. Premise indicators: ____ there are no lights on, no one is home. Since, Because, Assuming that, Seeing that, Granted that, In view of the fact that, Inasmuch as Critical Thinking 12 CAUTION Conclusion and premise indicators don’t always indicate conclusions and premises: *It has been ages since I ate really good sushi. *She’s so cute! Exercise: Identify premise/conclusion indicators. (ex. 2.2.2, p. 37) Critical Thinking 13 Tips on Finding the Conclusion of an Argument Find the main issue and ask yourself what position the writer or speaker is taking on that issue. Look at the beginning or end of the passage; the conclusion is often (but not always) found in one of those places. Ask yourself, “What is the writer or speaker trying to prove?” That will be the conclusion. Critical Thinking 14  Tips on Finding the Conclusion of an Argument Try putting the word therefore before one of the statements. If it fits, that statement is probably the conclusion. Try the “because” trick. That is, try to find the most appropriate way to fill in the blanks in the following statement: The writer or speaker believes------- (conclusion) because ------------ (premise). The conclusion will naturally come before the word because. Critical Thinking 15  IMPLICIT STATEMENTS Sometimes arguments are not actually expressed or may be expressed incompletely. One of us will be cleaning the bird cage, and it won’t be me. Implicit conclusion: You will be cleaning the bird cage. Alisha wears Birkenstocks, which proves that you don’t have to be a tree-hugger to wear Birkenstocks. Implicit premise: Alisha is not a tree-hugger. Critical Thinking 16 IMPLICIT ARGUMENTS Rules governing reading propositions into an argument Do so only if it is required to complete the arguer’s thought. Do so only if the arguer would accept the proposition. Employ the principle of charity – give the arguer the benefit of the doubt and make the argument as strong as possible. Minimize misrepresentation. Critical Thinking 17 WHAT IS NOT AN ARGUMENT? Something counts as an argument when: it is a group of two or more statements and one of those statements (the conclusion) is claimed or intended to be supported by the others (the premises). Critical Thinking 18 NON-ARGUMENTS Five types of nonargumentative discourse that are sometimes confused with arguments: Reports Unsupported Assertions Conditional Statements Illustrations Explanations Critical Thinking 19 Reports In reports, authors are simply reporting a series of events; their aim is to narrate and inform, not to offer reasons why one statement should be accepted based on others. Caution is needed, however, with reports about arguments. They are not arguments because the author is merely reporting another person’s argument, not endorsing it or putting it forward as his own. Critical Thinking 20 Unsupported Assertions Unsupported assertions are statements about what a speaker or writer happens to believe. Such statements can be true or false, rational or irrational, but they are parts of arguments only if the speaker or writer claims that they follow from, or support, other claims. Because there is no claim that the statements follow from, or imply any other statements, this is not an argument. Critical Thinking 21 Conditional Statements A conditional statement is an if-then statement. Conditional statements are made up of two basic parts: The first part, the statement(s) following the word if, is called the antecedent. The second part, the statement(s) following the word then, is called the consequent. Critical Thinking 22  Conditional Statements Conditional statements need not be explicitly in if-then form; in fact, in modern usage, then is usually dropped. Antecedent and consequent sometimes implicit: Should it rain, the picnic will be cancelled. Pete will graduate provided he passes calculus. Critical Thinking 23  Conditional Statements Conditional statements are not arguments, because there is no claim that any statement follows from any part of a conditional statement. They can, however, be parts of arguments. In fact, arguments can be composed entirely of conditional statements.. Such arguments are sometimes called chain arguments because the antecedent (the if part) of the first statement is linked to the consequent (the then part) of the last statement by a chain of intervening conditional statements. Critical Thinking 24 Illustrations Illustrations provide examples of a claim but do not prove or support it. Many wildflowers are edible. For example, daisies and day lilies are delicious in salads. There are borderline cases between examples and evidence. Many of the world’s greatest musicians died at 27. for example, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Curt Cobain. Critical Thinking 25 EXPLANATIONS Explanations try to show why something is the case, not to prove that it is the case. Explanations have two parts. The statement that is explained is the explanandum. The statement that does the explaining is the explanans. The Titanic sank because it hit an iceberg. (Explanation) Capital punishment should be abolished because innocent people may be mistakenly executed. (Argument) Critical Thinking 26 How to distinguish arguments from explanations? There are four basic tests: The common knowledge test The past-event test The author’s intent test The Principle of Charity test It should be noted that none of these four tests is foolproof. Sometimes none of the four tests yields a clear answer. Critical Thinking 27 How to distinguish arguments from explanations? In real life, of course, passages don’t come neatly labeled as “argument” or “explanation.” And the truth is that sometimes we just can’t tell whether a passage is meant to be an argument or an explanation. Sometimes despite our best efforts we can’t be sure whether a passage is an argument or an explanation. Critical Thinking 28 COMMON KNOWLEDGE TEST Is the explanandum (what is being explained) a matter of common knowledge? (Why would you try to prove something that is widely accepted as fact?) Many musicians die young because they ‘live hard.’ Critical Thinking 29 PAST EVENT TEST Is the explanandum an event that occurred in the past? Mel flunked because he never went to class. Critical Thinking 30 AUTHOR’S INTENT TEST Is the author trying … To provide evidence for accepting the claim as true or To offer an account of why an event occurred or why something is as it is? Kevin is majoring in PoliSci because he wants to go to law school. Critical Thinking 31 PRINCIPLE OF CHARITY TEST When interpreting an unclear passage, always give the speaker or writer the benefit of the doubt. Never attribute to an arguer a weaker argument when the evidence reasonably permits us to attribute to him or her a stronger one. And never interpret a passage as a bad argument when the evidence reasonably permits us to interpret it as not an argument at all. Critical Thinking 32 CAUTION Not foolproof. No single shooter could have shot as quickly and as accurately as Oswald is alleged to have done in the Kennedy assassination. Therefore; Oswald was not the lone shooter. Exercise: Identify arguments and explanations (ex. 2.4.1, p. 48) Critical Thinking 33 SUMMARY An argument, is a claim defended with reasons. Arguments are composed of one or more premises and a conclusion. Premises are statements in an argument offered as evidence or reasons in support of another statement. A statement is a sentence that can be viewed as either true or false. A conclusion is the statement in an argument that the premises are intended to support or prove. Indicator words provide clues that premises or conclusions are being offered. Common indicator words include therefore, consequently, thus, because, and since. Premise indicators provide clues that premises are being offered, Conclusion indicators provide clues that conclusions are being offered. Indicator words, however, should be approached with caution because not all arguments contain indicator words, and sometimes indicator words are used in passages that are not arguments. Critical Thinking 34 SUMMARY It is important to distinguish arguments from various kinds of nonargumentative discourse, such as: Reports are statements that are intended simply to convey information about a subject. Unsupported assertions are statements that indicate what a person believes but don’t offer evidence for that belief. Conditional statements are if-then statements. They claim only that one statement is true if another statement is true. Illustrations are statements intended to provide examples of a claim, rather than evidence or proof for the claim. Explanations are statements intended to explain why something is the case, rather than to prove that it is the case. None of these types of passages is an argument because none is intended to prove a claim. Critical Thinking 35