People make lots of claims. In order to support their claims (statements) they offer arguments, which are supposed to be a logical line of reasoning. If the argument is constructed properly it supports the validity of the statement. More likely than not though we are faced with bad arguments which are offered to support some claim. It is our duty as skeptics to destroy as many bad arguments as we possibly can, whenever, wherever! This first entry in the "How not to argue" series will go over arguments and their structure. Later entries will deal with popular fallacies, and how to dispose of them.
A claim/statement is a proposition which has a truth value. It is either true or not.
Example : It is 5:00 PM.
I am a human being.
Example of non-claims: Think about what I just said above.
Close the door when you leave please.
Don't let bullshit go past you unquestioned.
An argument has various parts.
1-One or more premises. These are claims whose truth value is assumed to be known (either true of false)
2-A conclusion. This is reached by some sort of logical analysis of the premises. You could say that the logical analysis itself is a separate part of the argument's structure.
That is really all there is to arguments.
Argument = Premises -->Logical Analysis --> Conclusion
So the first step when presenting an argument is to ensure that all the necessary ingredients are there. You can't leave any out. For example without premises, you can't apply logical analysis, therefore you can't reach a conclusion. You also cannot jump from a premise to a conclusion without offering a logical reason, why that specific conclusion would flow from the premise. And obviously, you must have a conclusion. Without it all you are doing is making claims and claiming them to be true or not. That is not an argument. That is generally known as dogma.
So if someone walks up to you and says "There is a God, because in my heart I KNOW that he exists", that person may think he's giving you a convincing argument why you as well should believe in God. However, after today's short entry you should be able to see that he is only making a statement or a claim, and assuming it to be true, and stopping there. There is no logical analysis to support the conclusion ( There is a God) . He "knows there is a God" (premise) therefore "there is a God" (conclusion). That is not an argument. It is sometimes referred to as circular reasoning or assuming the conclusion, or begging the question. Basically you assume something is true, then you use this assumption to prove it is in fact true. But we'll get into more detail in later posts. For now, this should suffice.
Links of interest
So the first step when presenting an argument is to ensure that all the necessary ingredients are there. You can't leave any out. For example without premises, you can't apply logical analysis, therefore you can't reach a conclusion. You also cannot jump from a premise to a conclusion without offering a logical reason, why that specific conclusion would flow from the premise. And obviously, you must have a conclusion. Without it all you are doing is making claims and claiming them to be true or not. That is not an argument. That is generally known as dogma.
So if someone walks up to you and says "There is a God, because in my heart I KNOW that he exists", that person may think he's giving you a convincing argument why you as well should believe in God. However, after today's short entry you should be able to see that he is only making a statement or a claim, and assuming it to be true, and stopping there. There is no logical analysis to support the conclusion ( There is a God) . He "knows there is a God" (premise) therefore "there is a God" (conclusion). That is not an argument. It is sometimes referred to as circular reasoning or assuming the conclusion, or begging the question. Basically you assume something is true, then you use this assumption to prove it is in fact true. But we'll get into more detail in later posts. For now, this should suffice.
Links of interest
0 comments:
Post a Comment