RECOGNIZING ARGUMENTPrepared by: Diane Candido

NOT ALL PASSAGES CONTAIN ARGUMENTS.

•Two conditions are required for the occurrence of an argument:•1. At least one of the statements in the passage must present evidence (premises).•2. There must be a claim that something follows from the evidence (conclusion).

• It is not necessary,' of course, that the premises present good evidence – the argument may not be a good argument; •But at the very least, there must be some kind of evidence and some kind of claim that something follows from the evidence.

INDICATORS

•One of the most important tasks in the analysis of arguments is being able to distinguish premises from conclusion.

• Frequently, arguments contain certain indicator words that provide clues in identifying premises and conclusion.

CONCLUSION INDICATORS

therefore hence whencewherefore thus soaccordingly consequently it follows thatentails that it must be that as a resultwe may conclude we may infer implies that

PREMISE INDICATORS

since in that seeing thatbecause as inasmuch asfor given that owing toas indicated by for the reason thatmay be inferred from

EXAMPLES

•This pen is out of ink. Consequently, it will not write.•“it will not write” is the CONCLUSION•This locket is worth a lot of money, since it is made of platinum.•“it is made of platinum” is the PREMISE

SOMETIMES AN ARGUMENT CONTAINS NO INDICATORS.

•When this occurs, the reader/listener must ask himself or herself such questions as: What single statement is claimed (implicitly) to follow from the others? What is the arguer trying to prove? What is the main point in the passage? The answers to these questions should point to the conclusion.

•The water in Laguna Lake is not as pure as it looks. Biologists recently took water samples from the lake, and subsequent analysis of the samples disclosed high levels of contamination by insecticides.

•The space program deserves increased expenditures in the years ahead. Not only does the national defense depend upon it, but the program will more than pay for itself in terms of technological spinoffs. Furthermore, at current funding levels the program cannot fulfill its anticipated potential.

•1. Catherine most likely will not be going to the concert tonight because her car has a dead battery and she has no other means of transportation.

•2. This wine tastes sweet, so it can't be Cabernet.

•3. The California condor is threatened with extinction inasmuch as the condor population has been decreasing yearly and fewer than fifty birds are alive at this time.

•4. Chicago is either in Illinois or Wisconsin. But it's not in Wisconsin. It follows that Chicago is in Illinois.•  •5. No incompetent businessmen are corporate officers. Hence, no shareholders are corporate officers since all shareholders are incompetent businessmen.

NONARGUMENTS

• In distinguishing Passages that contain arguments from those that do not, it helps to be familiar with typical kinds of nonarguments.

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT1. WARNINGS“Watch out that you don't slip on the ice“2. PIECE OF ADVICE“I suggest you take accounting during your first semester”kinds of discourse aimed at modifying someone’s behavior. If no evidence or reason is given to prove that someone should do something or avoid doing something, then there is no argument.

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

3. Statements of belief or opinion are expressions of what someone happens to believe or think at a certain time.

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

• I think a nation such as ours, with its high moral traditions and commitments, has a further responsibility to know how we became drawn into this conflict, and to learn the lessons it has to teach us for the future.(Alfred Hassler, Sargon, U.S.A.)

 • Because no evidence or reason is given to prove that

what the author thinks is in fact true, there is no argument.

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

4. A description consists of one or more statements that, taken together, cause a certain picture to appear in the mind of the reader or listener.

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

•At Paseo del Mar, a few hundred meters from the heart of the city, many people meet and celebrate occasions together. It has many food stall that offers many kinds of delicacies and lights that attract the people to come. Many did not notice that in this place a boy lays under a tall tree, alone and sad.

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

5. A report, which may be similar in many ways to a description, is a group of statements that conveys information about some situation or event. Like descriptions, reports do not claim to prove anything.

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

•The Soviet Union joined the West in denouncing the tiny Mediterranean island state of Malta for blocking final accord at the 35-nation European security conference in Madrid. Malta is holding up the formal conclusion of the conference to press its demand for a follow-up meeting on security in the Mediterranean.

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

6. Caution must also be exercised with certain types of ordinary expository passages. It often happens that an author will begin a paragraph with a topic sentence and then go on to develop it. The author’s aim is not to prove the topic sentence, but merely to expand it or elaborate on it. 

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

7. An illustration consists of a statement about a certain subject combined with a reference to one or more specific instances intended to exemplify that statement.

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

Several metals have a high melting point; the melting point of copper is 1083"C.•The purpose of this passage is not to prove that several metals have a high-melting point but merely to illustrate what "high melting point" means.

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

7. A conditional statement is an "if . . . then . . ." statement

•The component statement immediately following the “if” is called the antecedent, and the one following the "then” is called the consequent.

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

• If it rains, then the valley will flood.•This example asserts a causal connection between the rain and the flooding, but not all conditional statements involve causality• "If yellow fever is an infectious disease, then the Dallas cowboys are a football team"

KINDS OF NONARGUMENT

In an argument the premises are asserted to be true (at least hypothetically), and the conclusion, because it is claimed to follow from the premises, is also asserted to be true. • In a conditional statement, on the other hand, neither the antecedent nor the consequent is asserted to be true. •What is asserted is that if the antecedent is true, then the consequent is true.

• "If yellow fever is an infectious disease, then the Dallas Cowboys are a football team" does not assert that yellow fever is an infectious disease.” • It merely asserts that if it is, then the Dallas cowboys are a football team.

•Because neither the antecedent nor the consequent is asserted to be true, conditional statements are not arguments.

•The inferences expressed in conditional statements such as these may, however, be reexpressed in the form of arguments:

If both Smith and Jones are Americans, then Smith is an American.

Both Smith and Jones are Americans.Therefore, Smith is an American

If the electricity was shut off earlier today, then the clock in the kitchen is wrong.

The electricity was shut off earlier today.Therefore, the clock in the kitchen is wrong.

The relation between conditional statements and arguments may now be summarized as follows:

1. A single conditional statement is not an argument.

2. A conditional statement may serve as either the premise or the conclusion (or both) of an argument.

3. The inferential content of a conditional statement may be reexpressed in the form of an argument.

8. ExplanationThe sky appears blue from the earth's surface because light rays from the sun are scattered by particles in the atmosphere.

Margaret Harris looks so haggard this morning because she's suffering from a migraine headache.

•Every explanation is composed of two distinct components: the explanandum and the explanans.

• The explanandum is the statement that describes the event or phenomenon to be explained, and the explanans is the statement or group of statements that purport to do the explaining.

"All the houses in this neighborhood are missing their roofs," and the explanans is "a tornado swept through here yesterday."

• In an explanation the explanans is intended to show why something is the case, whereas in an argument the premises are intended to prove that something is the case.

• The inferences expressed in many explanations may, however, be reexpressed in the form of arguments. This is particularly true of the explanations found in science. For example, the inference expressed in the blue sky example may be reexpressed in the following argument:

Light rays from the sun are scattered by particles in the atmosphere.Therefore, the sky appears blue from the earth's surface.