Topic 5: Premise Conclusion

PHI332 : The Class : Argument ID : Premise Conclusion

Topic 5: Premises Conclusion

Take a moment to reflect on what you are learning and the goals you have for this course.

Some of you, I know, will feel that this sort of nitpicking is too much trouble! I agree that it can be a lot of bother. I have only admiration for people who, without needing to trouble to understand their own or others' reasoning, nevertheless can become conscious of having strong opinions about what's right and wrong-that is, about ethics.

Others of you will find you actually enjoy developing your powers of argument analysis. You will feel you are developing a power to detect "horse feathers," "poppycock," "piffle," or what we vulgarly call bull [manure]! You are right, and I agree with you that this is a valuable power for any human being to have, especially one training to lead conversations in health care issues. It gets even better than this, for soon enough we will start, not only to identify arguments, but to evaluate them. I'm guessing that you have already been unable to resist evaluating some of the arguments we are identifying as better or worse. But for now let's just identify the arguments in diagrams. Now back to work!

It is not unusual for conclusions themselves to be premises, leading to other conclusions. Consider this example (from p. 64, the numbers are in the text):

Disclosure of information to the patient will sometimes increase the likelihood of depression and physical deterioration, or result in choice of medically inoptimal treatment.
Disclosure of information is therefore sometimes likely to be detrimental to the patient's health, perhaps even to hasten his death.
Health and prolonged life can be assumed to have priority among preferences for patients who place themselves under physicians' care.
Worsening health or hastening death can therefore be assumed to be contrary to patients' own true value orderings.
Paternalism is therefore justified: doctors may sometimes override patients' prima facie rights to information about risks and treatments or about their own conditions in order to prevent harm to their health.

To complete this topic successfully, do as many of the following exercises as you find necessary to acquire the relevant skill. You have acquired the relevant skill when your answers to exercises are reliably either the same as the given answers or are alternative answers you can explain and defend:

ASSIGNMENT 1: Exercise2.5.1

ASSIGNMENT 2: Exercise2.5.2

ASSIGNMENT 3: Exercise2.5.3

ASSIGNMENT 4: Exercise2.5.4

ASSIGNMENT 5: Exercise2.5.5

ASSIGNMENT 6: Exercise2.5.6

Once you have completed this module you should:

Go on to Topic 6: Logic Puzzle
or
Go back to Argument ID

E-mail George Rudebusch at George.Rudebusch@nau.edu
or call (520) 523-7091