CHAPTER 2

Recognizing Arguments
Distinguishing
Fact & Opinion
Fact and Opinion

 Fact = Can be proved or

disproved
 Opinion = Personal Belief
 Fact

 Tell who, what, when, where, or how

much.
 Have a verifiable truth value. "A fact is a thing that is
 Can be quantified and is specific. occurred, to exist, or to
be true."
 Are supported by evidence.

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 Opinion

 Tend to be vague. An opinion is a view about a particular

 Are personal beliefs issue.
or value judgments. It is what the person believes or thinks, and
is not necessarily the truth.

Fact Opinion
Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam Hanoi is the best city in the world.

HCMUT is a University in I love studying at HCMUT.

Vietnam.

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What is an Argument?

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 What is an argument?

A Claim Defended with Reasons.

Argument - A form of thinking in which certain statements (reasons)

are offered in support of another statement (a conclusion).

Arguments are composed of one or more premises and a conclusion.

Premises are statements offered as reasons for accepting another
statement. A conclusion is a statement supported by reasons.

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 Argument- Example

 Lawyers earn a lot of money. (Premise)

 I want to earn a lot of money. (Premise)
 I should become a Lawyer. (Conclusion)

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 Identifying Statements

 A statement is a sentence that can be

viewed as either true or false.

 Put otherwise, a statement is a sentence

that makes good grammatical sense when it
is prefaced with the words "It is true that…"
or "It is false that…“.

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 Identifying Statements

Here are some examples of statements:

Paris is the capital of France.
The South won the American Civil War.
Ford makes better trucks than Chevy.
Same-sex marriage should be legalized.
I wish Ashley would call.
I'm shocked!
Each of these sentences is a statement, because each
makes an assertion that is either true or false.
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 Identifying Statements

Not all sentences are statements, i.e., sentences that

assert that something is true or false.
Here are some examples of sentences that are not statements:
How was your summer? (question)
Pick up your room! (command)
Hi! (greeting)
Let's go to the ball game tonight. (proposal)
None of these are statements, because none can sensibly be
preceded by the phrases "It is true that…" or "It is false
that…"
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 Identifying Statements

A statement can be expressed by a phrase or a dependent clause

rather than as a complete sentence.
Example: Considering Ian's near-perfect SAT scores, he
should be able to get into an Ivy League college.
In this sentence, the phrase "considering Ian's near-perfect SAT
scores" is a dependent clause that is not capable of standing alone as
a complete sentence. Nevertheless, the intent of the speaker or writer
is clearly to defend one claim ("Ian should be able to get into an Ivy
League college") on the basis of another ("Ian made nearly perfect
SAT scores"). For critical thinking purposes, therefore, it's important
to recognize that there are two statements in this passage, rather than
one.
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 Identifying Statements
Rhetorical questions should be regarded as statements.
Rhetorical questions are sentences that have the grammatical form of
questions but are meant to be understood as assertions.
Here are some examples of rhetorical questions:
Alyssa, you should quit smoking. Don’t you realize how bad
that is for your health?

The point of such "questions" is not to ask for information, but to

make a positive assertion that the speaker or writer expects at least
some of his readers or listeners to agree with. For that reason,
rhetorical questions should be treated as statements rather than as
questions.
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 Identifying Statements
Ought imperatives should be regarded as statements.
Ought imperatives are sentences that have the grammatical form of
imperatives (i.e., commands) but are intended to be understood as “ought
statements,” i.e., statements that express a judgment about what ought to be
done.
Here is an example of a passage that contains an ought imperative:
Do not read beauty magazine. They will only make you feel ugly.

“You shouldn’t read beauty magazine.” advice or value judgments

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 Identifying Premises and Conclusions

 Look for premise indicators that provide clues when premises

are being offered.
Examples: because, since, for, given that, as, judging from,
and seeing that.

 Look for conclusion indicators that provide clues when

conclusions are being offered.
Examples: therefore, thus, hence, so, as a result,
accordingly, consequently, and which shows that.

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 Identifying Premises and Conclusions

TIPS
 If the passage contains no indicator words, try
these two strategies:
⚫ Ask yourself, "What claim is the writer or
speaker trying to prove?" That claim will be
the conclusion.
⚫ Try putting the word "therefore" before each of
the statements in turn. The statement it fits best
will be the conclusion.
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 Identifying Premises and Conclusions

 1. No one under eighteen-years-old can vote.

 2. Jen is under eighteen-years-old.
 3. Therefore, Jen cannot vote.

Arguments are composed of one or more premises and a

conclusion. Premises are statements offered as reasons
for accepting another statement. A conclusion is a
statement supported by reasons.

In this example, statements 1 and 2 are premises, and

statement 3 is the conclusion.

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 Example

Make a will. Otherwise, the state will determine

who gets your stuff.

(Andrew Tobias, "Isn't It Time You Faced the

Future?" 2001)

Identify the premise(s) and conclusion in this argument.

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 Example

Premise: If you don't make a will, the state will determine

who gets your stuff.

Conclusion: You ought to make a will.

The word otherwise often functions--as it does here--as

premise indicator. Notice that both the premise and the
conclusion have been rephrased slightly. The premise
has been rephrased in order to make it a complete
sentence. The conclusion has been restated in order to
make clear that it is intended as a statement rather than
as a command.
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 What Is Not an Argument?

An argument is a claim defended with reasons.

 More precisely, a passage is an argument if and only if:

 It is a group of two or more statements.

 One of those statements (the conclusion) is claimed or

intended to be supported by the other(s) (the premises).

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 What Is Not an Argument?

 Notice three important things that follow from this definition:

⚫ Arguments consist entirely of statements (sentences that it
makes sense to regard as either true or false). Questions,
commands, and other kinds of non-statements cannot be
parts of arguments (Keep in mind, however, that rhetorical
questions should be treated as statements.).
⚫ No single statement is an argument. Arguments always
consist of at least two statements.
 Nothing counts as an argument unless it is claimed or intended
that one statement follows from one or more other statements
in the passage. In other words, a passage is an argument only
if the speaker or writer intends to offer evidence or reasons
why another statement should be accepted as true.

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 What Is Not an Argument?
 Five kinds of passages that are sometimes confused with
arguments are:
Reports A statement or group of statements intended simply to
convey information about a subject.
Unsupported Is a statement or set of statements in which the speaker or
statements of belief writer expresses his or her personal opinion, but offers no
or opinions reasons or evidence to back up that opinion.
Illustrations Is a passage intended to provide examples that illustrate
or support a claim, not to provide convincing evidence that
the claim is true.
Conditional Is an if-then statement. It is an assertion that such-and-
Statements such is true if something else is true.
Explanations Is a statement or set of statements that seeks to provide
an account of why something has occurred or why
something is the case.

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Report

 A statement or group of statements intended

simply to convey information about a subject.
 The authors are simply reporting a series of
events, not to offer reasons why one statement
should be accepted on the basic of others.
 Reports about arguments.
Unsupported Assertions

 Is a statement or set of statements in which the

speaker or writer expresses his or her personal
opinion, but offers no reasons or evidence to
back up that opinion.
 EX: I believe that it is not ….
Conditional Statements

 If ………. then ……..

Illustrations

 Is a passage intended to provide examples that

illustrate or support a claim, not to provide
convincing evidence that the claim is true.
Explanations

The common-knowledge test: is the statement

that the passage seeks to prove or explain a
matter of common knowledge. If it is, the
passage is probably an explanation rather than
an argument. (There’s usually little point in
trying to prove something that is already a well-
known fact.)

EX: The North won the American Civil War

because it had a larger population and a
greater industrial base
Explanations

 Is a statement or set of statements that seeks to

provide an account of why something has
occurred or why something is the case.

 The common-knowledge test:

 The past-event test
 The author’s intent test
 The principle of charity test
Explanations

 The past-event test: is the statement that the

passage is seeking to prove or explain an event
that occurred in the past. If so, the passage is
probably an explanation rather than an
argument because it is much more common
and try to explain why past events have
occurred than to prove that they occurred.

Explanations

 The author’s intent test: is it the speaker’s or

writer’s intent to prove or establish that
something is the case – that is, to provide
reasons or evidence for accepting a claim as
true? Or is it his intent to explain why something
is the case – that is, to offer an account of why
some event has occurred or why something is
the way it is?
Explanations

 The principle of charity test: requires that we

interpret unclear passages generously and, in
particular, that we never interpret a passage as
a bad argument when the evidence reasonably
permits us to interpret it as not an argument as
all.

 Interpret = understand
Examples

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 Summary
1. Distinguishing Fact = Can be proved or disproved
Fact & Opinion Opinion = Personal Belief
2. What is an An argument is a claim defended with reasons.
Argument?
3. Identifying Look for premise indicators that provide clues when premises
Premises are being offered (e.g. because, since, for).
& Conclusions Look for conclusion indicators that provide clues when
conclusions are being offered (e.g. therefore, thus, hence, so).
If the passage contains no indicator words, try these two
strategies: 1) Ask yourself, "What claim is the writer or speaker
trying to prove?" That claim will be the conclusion. 2)Try putting
the word "therefore" before each of the statements in turn. The
statement it fits best will be the conclusion.

4. What Is Not Five kinds of passages that are sometimes confused with
an Argument? arguments are: Reports, Unsupported statements of belief or
33 opinions, Illustrations, Conditional Statements, and Explanations
Any Questions?

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References