Thursday, February 10, 2011

Strong vs. Valid Arguments

In chapter 3's reading, it was explained that valid arguments are only valid if the statement is presumed true as well as its conclusion. On the other hand, a strong argument is such that there is a reason to believe there is some truth to its premise, but falseness in its conclusion.
An example of a strong argument is:
All fruits have seeds.
So a cucumber is a fruit.
This is an example of a strong argument because the statement provided is a plausible claim; however, there is a possibility that this conclusion can be false because realistically not all fruits have seeds like bananas. An example of a valid argument is:
The government is facing a horrible budget crisis.
So they have to close schools and increase tuition fees to suffice.
The premise in this scenario is considered a plausible claim; the conclusion “follows from the premise”, as well as the conclusion being true. This deems this argument good and valid because it passes the 3 tests needed for a good argument.

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