An argument is expressed as an attempt to assure someone that a certain claim is true. In order to classify an argument as "good", it must first pass three tests. The first two tests are to determine whether the premises are plausible, and are more plausible than the conclusion. A claim can only be plausible of there is reason to believe that is true; which leads to the latter test, determining whether the argument is valid or strong. An important note that the book tells us to remember, is that every good argument is valid however; arguments that are invalid can be classified from strong to weak, exposing the possibility of the likelihood or unlikelihood of the conclusion being false and the premises true at the same time.
For example:
Jen left her phone at her boyfriend Blue’s house. Blue went through Jen’s phone and found messages between her another man.
Messages:
Jen: Hey Max!
Max: Hey Jen, how r u?
J: Fine, u?
M: Same, wats ur favorite movie?
J: Crash, u?
M: Toy Story, hahahahaha
J: I like that movie 2, but not my fave.
M: Oh, ok
J: :)
Blue’s Argument (to Jen): I saw text messages between you and Max. You two were flirting about movies. So you are cheating.
The premises in Blue’s argument give us reason to believe there was indeed a conversation between Jen and Max and are also more plausible than the conclusion because the physical evidence makes his source reliable, thus passing the first two tests. The only problem is that his conclusion of Jen cheating is false, which doesn’t make the argument valid, just weak because the possibility of Jen cheating in those few messages is not so unlikely. The two could have been planning a movie date and begin their affair. “Imagine the possibilities”.
Nice example of a good argument. For some reason I can never think of good examples for my posts. You made it very clear to me of what a good argument consists of. Blue's premises of his argument showed to be more plausible than his conclusion, like you stated. Therefore his argument was strong.
ReplyDeleteIt kind of seems like Blue would be a controlling boyfriend, seeing how he jumped to conclusions so quickly haha. But if you think about it, their conversation could turn into something else. So if I were Blue I would confront her without jumping to such conclusions. Very good example though.
See, I wanted to say the argument was strong but the way the book explained it, an argument like this would be weak. It took me a while to come up with it, but I was watching some dumb show on TV and this scenario showed up. It made me mad because in the end, the stupid girlfriend was convinced that her phone was blowing off the hook and he needed to silence it, thus seeing the texts.
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Great! There needs to be more men like you. Jumping to conclusions is a sure way to be single for the rest of your life. :)
~tahtah
Hey good example of a strong argument. Your example fit the three tests that make a good argument. Your argument can be considered plausible since it is a conversation between two people, the premises seem more of the truth than the actual conclusion of what Blue thought was happening with his girl. Also it reaches the third test that this argument can either be valid or strong. Your argument is the example of a strong argument because the premise could be true but the conclusion could be false. The two people could have been conversating as friends, it could have been an innocent getting to know someone. But, if anything Blue should have addressed his suspicion that she was cheating instead of jumping straight to the conclusion of cheating.
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