Bel313 Recognizing Agmt

RECOGNIZING ARGUMENTS

ARGUMENT AND INFERENCE Critical reasoning is concerned with arguments. The study of critical reasoning is intended to improve our skills at recognizing, analyzing, and evaluating arguments that we read or hear and to help us apply the principles of good reasoning to arguments that we ourselves construct.

Definition: An argument is a set of statements, some of which are presented as providing good reasons for believing that the remaining statement is true or probably true. Definition: The statement being argued for in an argument – the statement for which reasons are provided – is called the conclusion of the argument. Definition: The statements presented as reasons for believing an argument’s conclusion are called the premises of the argument.

When we give an argument, we do not simply claim that all of the statements in our argument are true. Rather, we claim that our conclusion is true (or probably true) because our premises are true: we take the premises as providing proof of the conclusion or evidence in favor of it. Thus, we offer the premises of the argument as reasons for believing the conclusion. A statement that is taken to be true (or probable) because other statements are true is said to have been inferred from those other statements. Thus, when we give an argument, we make an inference: we assert the argument’s conclusion on the basis of its premises, and so we infer the conclusion from the premises. Every argument involves such an inference: where no statement has been inferred from others, no statements count as premises or conclusions, and the set of statements taken together does not constitute an argument. The key to determining whether a given set of statements does constitute an argument, then, is to determine whether an inference is present. Fortunately, in many cases (but, unfortunately, not all) the argument itself will make use of words that clue us in to the presence of an inference. We will call these “inference indicator words”. INFERENCE INDICATOR WORDS Some words typically function to indicate the presence of an inference in a passage, i.e., they indicate that some statements in the passage are being offered as evidence or reasons for some other statement in the passage. Words that indicate evidence or reasons are called premise indicators. Words that indicate conclusions inferred from evidence or reasons are called conclusion indicators.

2 Conclusion indicators are words or phrases that are usually placed directly in front of an intended conclusion. Consider this passage, for example: Sue missed the bus. Therefore, she will be late for school. Here the word ‘therefore’ serves to indicate that the statement “she [Sue] will be late for school” is a conclusion from other statements in the passage. The only other statement in the passage is “Sue missed the bus”, and it does seem to provide a reason for the claim that Sue will be late for school. The passage thus expresses an inference and so constitutes an argument. “Sue will be late for school” is the conclusion of the argument, and “Sue missed the bus” is the premise for that conclusion. Premise indicators are words or phrases that are usually placed directly in front of an intended premise. Here’s a different passage that results in the same argument as before: Sue will be late for school, since she missed the bus. Here the word ‘since’ indicates that the statement that follows it, “she [Sue] missed the bus”, is intended as a premise for some other statement. The only other statement in the passage is “Sue will be late for school”, and so we can take it to be the conclusion. You should notice that, although the two statements appear in a different order in the two passages, both passages express the very same argument. In each case, “Sue missed the bus” is the premise of the argument, and “Sue will be late for school” is the conclusion inferred from that premise. As a general rule, premise indicators introduce premises and conclusion indicators introduce conclusions. That is, a premise usually follows a premise indicator and a conclusion usually follows a conclusion indicator. Suppose, for example, that the second passage above is replaced with: Since Sue is late for school, she must have missed the bus. As before, the statement introduced by ‘since’ is the premise; but now that statement is “Sue is late for school”. In this passage, then, “Sue is late for school” is a premise and “Sue must have missed the bus” is a conclusion from that premise. So this is a different argument from that expressed by the first two examples. Be aware, however, that there are exceptions to these general rules. Consider this passage, for example: Sue missed the bus. So, since she has no other way to get to school, she’ll be late. Here ‘so’ introduces the conclusion “she’ll be late”, but that conclusion does not directly follow the conclusion indicator. In this instance, a premise indicator (‘since’) and the premise that it introduces (“she has no other way to get to school”) stands between the conclusion indicator and the conclusion that it introduces. As this example shows, a premise or conclusion indicator does not always stand directly in front of the premise or conclusion that it indicates, although usually it does.

3 CONCLUSION INDICATORS Here are some typical conclusion indicators. (“-C-” represents the conclusion being introduced by the conclusion indicator. “-P-” represents a premise (or premises) for the indicated conclusion.) -P-. -P-. -P-. -P-. -P-.

Therefore, -C-. -P-. Consequently, -C-. So, -C-. -P-. Accordingly, -C-. Thus, -C-. -P-. As a result, -C-. Hence, -CFor this (these, the preceding) reason(s), -C-.

-P-. It follows that -C-. -P-. We may conclude that -C-. -P-. We may infer that -C-.

-P-, from which it follows that -C-. -P-, from which we may conclude that -C-. -P-, from which we may infer that -C-.

-P- implies that -C-. -P- entails that -C-. -P- proves that -C-. -P- demonstrates that -C-.

-P- indicates that -C-. -P- shows that -C-. -P- means that -C-.

PREMISE INDICATORS Here are some typical premise indicators. (“-P-” represents the premise (or premises) being introduced by the premise indicator. “-C-” represents the conclusion that is drawn from the indicated premise(s).) -C-, since -P-. -C-, because -P-. -C-, given that -P-. -C-, inasmuch as -P-.

Since -P-, -C-. Because -P-, -C-. Given that -P-, -C. Inasmuch as -P-, -C-.

-C- follows from -P-. -C- may be concluded from -P-. -C- may be inferred from -P-.

It follows from -P- that -C-. It may be concluded from -P- that -C-. It may be inferred from -P- that -C-.

-C- is implied by -P-. -C- is entailed by -P-. -C- is proved by -P-. -C- is demonstrated by -P-. -C- is indicated by -P-. -C- is shown by -P-.

It is implied by -P- that -C-. It is entailed by -P- that -C-. It is proved by -P- that -C-. It is demonstrated by -P- that -C-. It is indicated by -P- that -C-. It is shown by -P- that -C-.

-C-, for -P-. -C-, for this (these, the following) reason(s). -P-.