Understanding Arguments: Premises, Conclusion, Validity, and Soundness, Slides of Psychology

Download Understanding Arguments: Premises, Conclusion, Validity, and Soundness and more Slides Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Arguments Minds and Machines Docsity.com Arguments • When people think of an argument, they usually think of a fight between two people (‘they’re having an argument’). • In contrast, in philosophy, an argument is a piece of reasoning for the truth of a certain claim. Thus, one person can give an argument for or against something. Docsity.com Deduction and Induction • A deductive argument is one where the truth of the conclusion is (claimed to be) guaranteed by the truth of the premises. – Mathematics is deductive • An inductive argument is one where the truth of the conclusion is (claimed to be) more likely given the truth of the premises. – Science (and most of real life) is inductive Docsity.com Attacking Arguments • You attack arguments by showing that it does not satisfy one (or both) of the criteria of a good argument. Thus, either you show that the premises are unacceptable, or you show that it is unreasonable to draw the conclusion as stated, even if the premises would be true. • You do not attack an argument by showing that its conclusion is false! Docsity.com Attacking Arguments II • As we saw, you can’t attack an argument by giving an argument for the opposite conclusion. However, the reverse holds as well: even if you do successfully attack an argument with a certain conclusion, you have thereby not given any argument in favor of the opposite conclusion. • In sum, attacking an argument for a certain conclusion is completely different from giving an argument in favor of the opposite conclusion. Docsity.com