The Role of Argument
What is popping in your head when someone says the
word 'Argument'? Even for me before studying philosophy, I think the word
argument means a quarrel or conflict between people. A logical argument
should not be confused with the type of argument you have with your sister or
brother or any other person. Let’s look at a situation when my sister and I
were arguing.
Me
and my sister was arguing about whose turn it is to bring snacks from the
kitchen. I told my sister that she should do it because she is a girl and girls
are better at kitchen stuff. Sister responded that being a girl has nothing to
do with whose turn it is. She reminded me that according to our work chart, we
are responsible for our bearer work on alternate days. She told me she bought
the snacks last day; therefore, it is my turn that day. I was defeated,
finally, bought the snacks from the kitchen.
So, what is really mean by argument? The definition of
the argument in logic and philosophy, an argument is a series of statements (in
a natural language), called the premises or premises intended to determine the
degree of truth of another statement, the conclusion. Before going deeply
inside the arguments let us quickly revise about logic.
Logic in philosophy
According to Wikipedia, Logic is the systematic study
of valid rules of inference, i.e., the relations that lead to the acceptance of
one proposition (the conclusion) based on a set of other propositions
(premises). By studying logic and fallacies we can learn to formulate stronger
and a more cohesive argument.
Why do we need to study logic? Logic constraints
metaphysics. Logic Is not metaphysically neutral, that is why logic is
important if you want to do metaphysics Logic tells us what is good reasoning
and what is bad reasoning. It will help us to reason well. The study of logic can
help you when reasoning gets tough.
I think this video might have given you a vast idea about
logic and arguments.
SO, WHY DO WE NEED AN ARGUMENT?
The argument is made of sentences, statements,
proposition. People think we use argument to make other people believe what we
believe and what they did not believe before hearing or reading the argument.
The main purpose of the argument is to give reasons.
The utterance of the argument has the effect of changing our mind by getting us
to believe a conclusion that we didn't believe before.
Actually, we need arguments to find a good reason to
believe the conclusion. To fully understand the uses of arguments let us focus
on two exemplary purposes: justification and explanation.
JUSTIFICATION
One of the most prominent uses of arguments is to
justify a disputed claim. Justification plays the main role in argument than
explanation because in day-to-day life we can see people use the word argument
instead of justification. So, you can sense that we are blindly covered in a
society. where everyone thinks that argument is only for justification.
Justification is more than a convincing thing. Not only to persuade but also to
make you justified in believing our conclusion. For that argument should be
good and it should give a reason.
EXPLANATION
An explanation is a set of statements usually
constructed to describe a set of facts which clarifies the causes, context, and
consequences of those facts. A different but equally important use of arguments
is to provide explanations. Not like justification, the purpose of explanations
is not to prove that something happened, but to make sense of things.
WHAT IS A GOOD ARGUMENT?
A good argument is one in which the premises give good
reasons to believe the conclusion is true. A good argument is one that presents
a conclusion and then gives good reasons for accepting it. An argument should
satisfy two important qualities in order to become a good argument. Which are
validity and strength.
The standard form: - The standard form is a specific type of presenting an argument. By this form, you can easily identify the validity and the strength of the argument. To write in the standard form first identify all the premises and the conclusion. Then label it. Finally, write down the argument in a vertically arranged form.
Validity: - When the truth
of an argument’s premises fails to guarantee the truth of its conclusion, we
will say that the argument is invalid. When the truth of an argument’s
premises does guarantee the truth of its conclusion, we will say that the argument is valid.
Strength: - A strong argument
is an inductive argument that succeeds in providing probable, but not
conclusive, logical support for its conclusion. A weak argument is an inductive argument that fails to provide probable support for its
conclusion.
Therefore, Logic is the systematic study of valid
rules of inference. The study of logic can help you when reasoning gets tough. The
argument is made of sentences, statements, proposition which reason to believe
the conclusion. Major uses of the arguments are justification and explanation.
The main branches of the arguments are deductive, valid and strong arguments and inductive, invalid arguments which can be strong or weak.
“Lower your voice and strengthen your argument.”
-Lebanese proverb-
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