PHI332 : The Class : Argument Evaluation : Objection & Replies

Topic 1: Objection and Replies

You will be pleased to know that you don't need to learn any new diagramming technique in order to learn to raise objections. The basic idea is simple. Any argument is always built of premises leading to conclusions.

There are only two places to raise an objection: either the premise is false or the conclusion does not follow from the premise. In other words, we can raise objections either to the truth of the premise or the inference to the conclusion.

Notice-and this will surprise many of you-that our judgment about the truth of the conclusion is almost completely irrelevant to our evaluation of the argument for it. On the one hand, our judgment that a conclusion is true tells us nothing as to whether the argument for it is any good, since it is common in ethics to find bad arguments for true conclusions. On the other hand, our judgment that a conclusion is false means there must be some mistake in any argument for that conclusion, but it does not indicate where or how such an argument is bad.

1. Are the premises true?--In practice, this means: Can you raise objections to the premise?
2. Does the conclusion follow from the premises? (Not: "Is the conclusion true?")-In practice, this means: can you think of situations where the premise is true but the conclusion might be false?

The best way to learn argument evaluation is to practice with examples.

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:

Once you have completed this excercise you should:

Go on to Topic 2: Arguments from Analogy
or
Go back to Argument Evaluation

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

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