Arguments (Part 1) - Critical Reading, Writing, and Thinking

Arguments (Part 1)

What is an Argument?

  • In critical thinking, an argument is a claim defended with reasons that are supported by evidence.
  • Arguments consist of one or more premises and a conclusion.
  • Premises are statements offered as evidence or reasons to accept the conclusion.
  • The conclusion is the statement that the premises are intended to prove or support.
  • An argument is a group of statements where premises aim to prove or support a conclusion.

What is a Statement?

  • A statement is a sentence that can be viewed as either true or false.
  • Examples:
    • Red is a color.
    • Canada is in South America.
    • God does not exist.
    • Abortion is morally wrong.

Identifying Premises and Conclusions

  • Indicator words often help in identifying premises and conclusions.

Common Premise Indicators:

  • since
  • because
  • for
  • given that
  • seeing that
  • considering that
  • inasmuch as
  • as
  • in view of the fact that
  • as indicated by
  • judging from
  • on account of
  • Examples:
    • “Having fun can be the spice of life but not its main course, because when it is over, nothing of lasting value remains.” (Harold Kushner)
    • “Women are not by any means to blame when they reject the rules of life, which have been introduced into the world, seeing that it is men who have made them without their consent.” (Michel de Montaigne)

Common Conclusion Indicators:

  • therefore
  • as a result
  • hence
  • this being so
  • so
  • thus
  • it follows that
  • consequently
  • that is why
  • accordingly
  • wherefore
  • for this reason
  • which shows that
  • this suggests that
  • Examples:
    • “Your life is what your thoughts make it. That is why it is important for all of us to guard our minds from unhealthy habits of thinking, habits that hold us back from what we could be accomplishing.” (Tom Morris)
    • “Rapid economic improvements represent a life-or-death imperative throughout the Third World. Its people will not be denied that hope, no matter the environmental costs. As a result, that choice must not be forced upon them.” (Al Gore)

What is NOT an Argument?

  • An argument requires:
    1. A group of two or more statements.
    2. A claim that one statement (the conclusion) is supported by the others (the premises).
  • Five types of nonargumentative discourse:
    • Reports
    • Unsupported assertions
    • Conditional statements
    • Illustrations
    • Explanations

Reports

  • The purpose of a report is to convey information about a subject.
  • Example: Sweeping changes occurred in demographics, economics, culture, and society during the last quarter of the 20th century. The nation aged, and more of its people gravitated to the Sunbelt. Sprawling “urban corridors” and “edge cities” challenged older central cities as sites for commercial, as well as residential, development. Rapid technological change fueled the growth of globalized industries, restructuring the labor force to fit a “postindustrial” economy.
  • This passage aims to narrate and inform, not to offer reasons why one statement should be accepted.

Unsupported Assertions

  • Unsupported assertions are statements about what a speaker or writer believes.
  • 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.
  • Example: I believe that it is not dying that people are afraid of. Something else, something more unsettling and more tragic than dying frightens us. We are afraid of never having lived, of coming to the end of our days with the sense that we were never really alive, that we never figured out what life was for.
  • Because there is no claim that any of these statements follow from, or imply, any other statements, this is not an argument.

Conditional Statements

  • A conditional statement is an if-then statement.
  • Examples:
    • If it rains, then the picnic will be canceled.
    • You must speak French if you grew up in Quebec.
    • If at first you don’t succeed, don’t try skydiving.
  • Conditional statements are not arguments, because there is no claim that any statement follows from any part of a conditional statement.
  • The statement is not asserting either that it will rain or that the picnic will be canceled. The statement only assets that if the first statement is true, the second statement will also be true.
  • Because there is no claim that any statement follows from, or supports, this conditional statement, no argument has been given.

Illustrations

  • Illustrations are intended to provide examples of a claim, rather than prove or support the claim.
  • Example: Many wildflowers are edible. For example, daisies and day lilies are delicious in salads.
  • Even though the second statement does provide some evidence for the first, this passage is an illustration rather than an argument.
  • Its purpose is not to provide convincing evidence for a conclusion but merely to provide a few notable or representative examples of a claim.

Explanations

  • An explanation tries to show why something is the case, not to prove that it is the case.
  • Example:
    • Titanic sank because it struck an iceberg. (NOT AN ARGUMENT)
    • Capital punishment should be abolished because innocent people may be mistakenly executed. (AN ARGUMENT)
  • The statement "Titanic sank because it struck an iceberg" is an explanation. The speaker is not trying to argue that Titanic sank — everybody already knows that. Instead, he is trying to explain why it sank.
  • Example: Dinosaurs became extinct because of the impact of a large asteroid. The purpose of the passage is not to argue that dinosaurs became extinct, but to explain why they became extinct.
  • Four basic tests to distinguish arguments from explanations:
    • The Common-Knowledge Test
    • The Past-Event Test
    • The Author’s Intent Test
    • The Principle of Charity Test
The Common-Knowledge Test
  • Is the statement that the passage seeks to prove or explain a matter of common knowledge?
  • If it is, the passage is probably an explanation. There’s usually little point in trying to prove something that is already a well-known fact.
  • Example: The Philippines has English as one of its official languages because it was colonized by the United States for 48 years. This is clearly an explanation because it is common knowledge that English is one of our official languages.
The Past-Event Test
  • Is the statement that the passage is seeking to prove or explain an event that occurred in the past?
  • If so, the passage is probably an explanation. It is much more common to try to explain WHY past events have occurred rather than to prove THAT they occurred.
  • Example: Mel flunked out because he never went to class. This is clearly an explanation because the speaker is referring to a past event, and we usually try to explain such events than prove that it happened.
The Author’s Intent Test
  • Is the speaker’s or writer’s intent to prove or establish that something is the case— that is to provide reasons or evidence for accepting a claim as true?
  • If so, the passage is an argument.
  • Is the speaker’s or writer’s intent to explain why something is the case— that is to offer an account of why some event has occurred or why something is the way it is?
  • If so, the passage is an explanation.
  • Example: Kevin is majoring in political science because he wants to go to law school. The author or speaker is trying to explain why Kevin is majoring in political science, than prove that Kevin is majoring in political science.
The Principle of Charity
  • When interpreting an unclear passage, always give the speaker/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 attribute a passage as a bad argument when the evidence reasonably permits us to interpret it as not an argument at all.
  • "The principle of charity, roughly, requires that we try to find the best - the most reasonable or plausible - (rather than the worst) possible interpretation of what we read and hear, i.e. of what other people say.“ (Rosalind Hursthouse)
  • We always interpret unclear passages generously.
  • Example: Jeremy won’t come to the frat party tonight because he has an important exam tomorrow.
  • This claim about Jeremy is not a common knowledge, nor does it refer to a past event. Thus, neither the common-knowledge test nor the past-event test is applicable to this example. The author’s intent test also yields no clear answer.
  • Interpreting the passage as an argument will make it a weak argument. So, we could either interpret the passage as a weak argument or a satisfactory explanation.
  • In these circumstances the principle of charity dictates that we interpret the passage as an explanation.