Feature
• Argument is a group of related statements which aims to prove something.
• A piece of writing can be an argument if it aims to prove something. If it does not do so, it is not an argument.
• To be an argument, at least one of the statements in the writing must present evidence for something and there is a claim which the evidence supports.
• A supporting statement which provides reason/evidence is premise.
• A supported statement/claim is conclusion.
Example
Due to the bomb blast in downtown Bangkok, the schools near the site must be closed.
All good employee should be promoted. Mr. Ken is a good employee.
Therefore he should be promoted.
All good employee should be promoted. Miss Barbie is not a good employee. Therefore she should not be promoted.
(premise 1) (premise 2) (conclusion)
(premise 1) (premise 2) (conclusion)
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If the premises really support the conclusion, in other words, if the conclusion is derived from the premises, the argument is said to be a good one.
One purpose of logic, as the science that evaluates arguments, is to develop methods and techniques for distinguishing good arguments from bad.
In argument analysis, the first thing to do is to identify premises from conclusion.
The ordinary arguments usually contain some words/phrases which are indicators for identifying the premises and the conclusion.
because
seeing that
since
may be inferred from much as
given that Nart
as
as indicated by
for the reason that in that
for owing to
Premise Indicators
therefore whence
thus accordingly
it follows that
it may infer that it entails that as a result
hence wherefore so
consequently
it may conclude that it implies that
it must be that that’s why
Conclusion Indicators
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Example: Non-Argument
Sentence/Statement/Conditional Statement
Everyone who works hard will be successful.
I think we should visit this place first.
Watch out that you don’t slip on the ice.
I suggest you take accounting during your first semester.
If he had studied logic, he must have been more reasonable. Turn off all electronic devices if the house is flooded.
Let’s play game today.
Example: Non-Argument
Description, Explanation, Illustration, Report
• At Rajghat, a few hundred feet from the river, a fresh pyre had been built on stone, brick and earth. It was eight feet square and about two feet high. Long, thin sandalwood logs sprinkled with incense were stacked on it. Mahatma Gandhi’s body lay on the pyre with his head to the north. In that position the Buddha had met his end.
• The Soviet Union joined the West in denouncing the tiny Mediterranean island state of Malta for blocking final accord at the 35-nation European security conference in Madrid. Malta is holding up the formal conclusion of the conference to press its demand for a follow-up meeting on security in the Mediterranean.
• Chemical elements, as well as compounds, can be represented by molecular 2
formulas. Thus, oxygen is represented by “O ,” sodium chloride by “NaCl,” etc.
Example: Argument
Statement / Paragraph
• John could answer all exam questions, so he deserved an A grade.
• It is not true that all imported phones are good, so some of them are not good
• Since ‘Harry Potter’ is published several times, it is a good story.
• The human eye can see a source of light that is as faint as an ordinary candle from a distance of 27 kilometres, through a non-absorbing atmosphere. Thus, a powerful search light directed from a new moon should be visible on earth with the naked eye.
• The price reduction [seen with the electronic calculator] is the result of a technological revolution. The calculator of the 1960s used integrate electronic circuits that contained about a dozen transistors or similar components on a single chip. Today, mass-produced chips, only a few millimetres square, contain several thousand such components.
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Pregnant woman should never smoke, since the toxics can jeopardise the development of the foetus.
Much as I had enjoyed my adventure it was good to be back.
Since the good, according to Plato, is that which furthers a person’s real interests, it follows that in any given case when the good is known, men will seek it.
When individuals voluntarily abandon property, they forfeit any expectation of privacy in it that they might have had. Therefore, a warrantless search or seizure of abandoned property is not unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
Exercise
• Women of the working class, especially wage workers, should not have more than two children at most. The average working man can support no more and the average working woman can take care of no more in decent fashion.
• Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.
• Socialised medicine is not recommended because it would result in a reduction