The Role of Argument

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    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-


REFERENCES: -

❖ Wikipedia for the definitions.
❖ Public speaking principle. Chapter 6. Logic and the role of argument. Logic and the Role of Arguments | Principles of Public Speaking (lumenlearning.com)
❖ Tought.com. The validity of the arguments. Definition and Examples of Valid Arguments (thoughtco.com)
❖ Philosophy critical thinking (2016). Retrieved on April 06 from Valid and invalid arguments – Philosophy and critical thinking (philosophycriticalthinking.com)
❖ Course materials.

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