Arguments and Explanation

DURATION

3 Hours

OBJECTIVES

a) Define and identify arguments.

b) Differentiate arguments from explanation..
c) Apply the different techniques in recognizing arguments.

READINGS AND VIDEOS (Please see the digital copies of the materials.)

Reading 3.1 Van Cleave, M. (2016). Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking. Retrieved from
https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/introduction-to-logic-and-critical
thinking

Reading 3.2 Copi, I., Cohen, C & McMahon, K. (2014). Introduction to Logic Fourteenth
Edition. London: Pearson Education Limited

Video 3.1 Arguments vs Explanation in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEWTwbSRsaw

3. Arguments and Explanation

3.1 What is an argument?

Both logic and critical thinking centrally involve the analysis and assessment of arguments.
“Argument” is a word that has multiple distinct meanings, so it is important to be clear from the
start about the sense of the word that is relevant to the study of logic. In one sense of the word,
an argument is a heated exchange of differing views as in the following:
Sally: Abortion is morally wrong and those who think otherwise are seeking to justify murder!
Bob: Abortion is not morally wrong and those who think so are right-wing bigots who are seeking
to impose their narrow-minded views on all the rest of us!

Sally and Bob are having an argument in this exchange. That is, they are each expressing
conflicting views in a heated manner. However, that is not the sense of “argument” with which
logic is concerned. Logic concerns a different sense of the word “argument.” An argument, in this
sense, is a reason for thinking that a statement, claim or idea is true. For example:
Sally: Abortion is morally wrong because it is wrong to take the life of an innocent human being,
and a fetus is an innocent human being. In this example Sally has given an argument against the
moral permissibility of abortion. That is, she has given us a reason for thinking that abortion is
morally wrong. The conclusion of the argument is the first four words, “abortion is morally wrong.”
But whereas in the first example Sally was simply asserting that abortion is wrong (and then
trying to put down those who support it), in this example she is offering a reason for why abortion
is wrong.
We can (and should) be more precise about our definition of an argument. But before we can do
that, we need to introduce some further terminology that we will use in our definition. As I’ve
already noted, the conclusion of Sally’s argument is that abortion is morally wrong. But the reason
for thinking the conclusion is true is what we call the premise. So we have two parts of an
argument: the premise and the conclusion. Typically, a conclusion will be supported by two or
more premises. Both premises and conclusions are statements. A statement is a type of
sentence that can be true or false and corresponds to the grammatical category of a “declarative
sentence.” For example, the sentence,The Nile is a river in northeastern Africa is a statement.
Why? Because it makes sense to inquire whether it is true or false. (In this case, it happens to
be true.) But a sentence is still a statement even if it is false. For example, the sentence, The
Yangtze is a river in Japan is still a statement; it is just a false statement (the Yangtze River is in
China). In contrast, none of the following sentences are statements:
Please help yourself to more casserole
Don’t tell your mother about the surprise
Do you like Vietnamese pho?

The reason that none of these sentences are statements is that it doesn’t make sense to ask
whether those sentences are true or false (rather, they are requestsor commands, and questions,
respectively).

So, to reiterate: all arguments are composed of premises and conclusions, which are both types
of statements. The premises of the argument provide a reason for thinking that the conclusion is
true. And arguments typically involve more than one premise. A standard way of capturing the
structure of an argument is by numbering the premises and conclusion. For example, recall
Sally’s argument against abortion:
Abortion is morally wrong because it is wrong to take the life of an innocent
human being, and a fetus is an innocent human being.
We could capture the structure of that argument like this:
1. It is morally wrong to take the life of an innocent human being
2. A fetus is an innocent human being
3. Therefore, abortion is morally wrong

By convention, the last numbered statement (also denoted by the “therefore”) is the conclusion
and the earlier numbered statements are the premises. This is what we call putting an argument
into standard argument form. We can now give a more precise definition of an argument. An
argument is a set of statements, some of which (the premises) attempt to provide a reason for
thinking that some other statement (the conclusion) is true. Although arguments are typically
given in order to convince or persuade someone of the conclusion, the argument itself is
independent of one’s attempt to use it to convince or persuade. For example, I have just given
you this argument not in an attempt to convince you that abortion is morally wrong, but as an
illustration of what an argument is.

3.2 Identifying arguments

The best way to identify whether an argument is present is to ask whether there is a statement
that someone is trying to establish as true by basing it on some other statement. If so, then there
is an argument present. If not, then there isn’t. Another thing that can help in identifying
arguments is knowing certain key words or phrases that are premise indicators or conclusion
indicators. Forexample, recall Sally’s abortion argument:

Abortion is morally wrong because it is wrong to take the life of an innocent human being,
and a fetus is an innocent human being.

The word “because” here is a premise indicator. That is, “because” indicates that what follows is
a reason for thinking that abortion is morally wrong. Here is another example:

I know that the student plagiarized since I found the exact same sentences on a website
and the website was published more than a year before the student wrote the paper.

In this example, the word “since” is a premise indicator because what follows it is a statement
that is clearly intended to be a reason for thinking that thestudent plagiarized (i.e., a premise).
Notice that in these two cases, the premise indicators “because” and “since” are interchangeable:
I could have used “because” in place of “since” or “since” in the place of “because” and the
meaning of the sentences would have been the same. In addition to premise indicators, there
are also conclusion indicators. Conclusion indicators mark that what follows is the conclusion of
an argument. For example,

Bob-the-arsonist has been dead for a year, so Bob-the-arsonist didn’t set the fire at the
East Lansing Starbucks last week.
In this example, the word “so” is a conclusion indicator because what follows it is a statement
that someone is trying to establish as true (i.e., a conclusion).

Here is another example of a conclusion indicator:

A poll administered by Gallup (a respected polling company) showed candidate x to be
substantially behind candidate y with only a week left before the vote, therefore candidate
y will probably not win the election.

In this example, the word “therefore” is a conclusion indicator because what follows it is a
statement that someone is trying to establish as true (i.e., a conclusion). As before, in both of
these cases the conclusion indicators “so” and “therefore” are interchangeable: I could have used
“so” in place of “therefore” or “therefore” in the place of “so” and the meaning of the sentences
would have been the same.

a list of some common premise and conclusion indicators:

Premise indicators Conclusion indicators

since therefore
because so
for hence
as thus
given that implies that
seeing that consequently
for the reason that it follows that
is shown by the fact that we may conclude that
Although these words and phrases can be used to identify the premises and conclusions of
arguments, they are not failsafe methods of doing so. Just because a sentence contains them
does not mean that you are dealing with an argument. This can easily be shown by examples
like these:
I have been running competitively since 1999.
I am so happy to have finally finished that class.

Although “since” can function as a premise indicator and although “so” can function as a
conclusion indicator, neither one is doing so here. This shows that you can’t simply mindlessly
use occurrences of these words in sentences to show that there is an argument being made.
Rather, we have to rely on our understanding of the English sentence in order to determine
whether an argument is being made or not. Thus, the best way to determine whether an argument
is present is by asking the question: Is there a statement that someone is trying to establish as
true or explain why it is true by basing it on some other statement? If so, then there is an argument
present. If not, then there isn’t. Notice that if we apply this method to the above examples, we
will see that there is no argument present because there is no statement that someone is trying
to establish as true by basing it on some other statement. For example, the sentence “I have
been running competitively since 1999” just contains one statement, not two. But arguments
always require at least two separate statements—one premise and one conclusion, so it cannot
possibly be an argument.

Another way of explaining why these occurrences of “so” and “since” do not indicate that an
argument is present is by noting that both premise indicators and conclusion indicators are,
grammatically, conjunctions. A grammatical conjunction is a word that connects two separate
statements. So, if a word or term is truly being used as a premise or conclusion indicator, it must
connect two separate statements. Thus, if “since” were really functioning as a premise indicator
in the above example then what followed it would be a statement. But “1999” is not a statement
at all. Likewise, in the second example “so” is not being used as a conclusion indicator because
it is not conjoining two separate statements. Rather, it is being used to modify the extent of
“happy.” In contrast, if I were to say “Tom was sleeping, so he couldn’t have answered the phone,”
then “so” is being used as a conclusion indicator. In this case, there are clearly two separate
statements (“Tom was sleeping” and “Tom couldn’t have answered the phone”) and one is being
used as the basis for thinking that the other is true.

If there is any doubt about whether a word is truly a premise/conclusion indicator or not, you can
use the substitution test. Simply substitute another word or phrase from the list of premise
indicators or conclusion indicators and see if the resulting sentence still makes sense. If it does,
then you are probably dealing with an argument. If it doesn’t, then you probably aren’t. For
example, we can substitute “it follows that” for “so” in the Bob-the-arsonist example:

Bob-the-arsonist has been dead for a year, it follows that Bob-the-arsonist didn’t set the
fire at the East Lansing Starbucks last week.

However, we cannot substitute “because” for “so” in the so-happy-I-finished that-class example:
I am because happy to have finally finished that class. Obviously, in the latter case the
substitution of one conclusion indicator for another makes the sentence meaningless, which
means that the “so” that occurred originally wasn’t functioning as a conclusion indicator.
3.3 Arguments vs. explanations

So far I have defined arguments in terms of premises and conclusions, where the premises are
supposed to provide a reason (support, evidence) for accepting the conclusion. Many times the
goal of giving an argument is simply to establish that the conclusion is true. For example, when
I am trying to convince someone that obesity rates are rising in the U.S. I may cite evidence
such as studies from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institute of Health
(NIH). The studies I cite would function as premises for the conclusion that obesity rates are
rising. For example:

We know that obesity is on the rise in the U.S. because multiple studies carried out by
the CDC and NIH have consistently shown a rise in obesity over the last four decades.

We could put this simple argument into standard form like this:

1. Multiple studies by the CDC and NIH have consistently shown a rise in obesity
over the last four decades.
2. Therefore, obesity is on the rise in the U.S.

The standard form argument clearly distinguishes the premise from the conclusion and shows
how the conclusion is supposed to be supported by the evidence offered in the premise. Again,
the goal of this simple argument would be to convince someone that the conclusion is true.
However, sometimes we already know that a statement or claim is true and we are trying to
establish why it is true rather than that it is true. An argument that attempts to show why its
conclusion is true is an explanation. Contrast the previous example with the following:

The reason that the rate of obesity is on the rise in the U.S. is that the foods we most
often consume over the past four decades have increasingly contained high levels of
sugar and low levels of dietary fiber. Since eating foods high in sugar and low in fiber
triggers the insulin system to start storing those calories as fat, it follows that people who
consume foods high in sugar and low in fiber will tend to store more of the calories
consumed as fat.
This passage gives an explanation for why obesity is on the rise in the U.S. Unlike the earlier
example, here it is taken for granted that obesity is on the rise in the U.S. That is the claim whose
truth we are trying to explain. We can put the obesity explanation into standard form just like any
other argument. In order to do this, I will make some paraphrases of the premises and conclusion
of the argument.

1. Over the past four decades, Americans have increasingly consumed foods high
in sugar and low in fiber.
2. Consuming foods high in sugar and low in fat triggers the insulin system to start
storing those calories as fat.
3. When people store more calories as fat, they tend to become obese.
4. Therefore, the rate of obesity is on the rise in the U.S.

Notice that in this explanation the premises (1-3) attempt to give a reason for why the conclusion
is true, rather than a reason for thinking that the conclusion is true. That is, in an explanation we
assume that what we are trying to explain (i.e., the conclusion) is true. In this case, the premises
are supposed to show why we should expect or predict that the conclusion is true. Explanations
often give us an understanding of why the conclusion is true. We can think of explanations as a
type of argument, we just have to distinguish two different types of argument: those that attempt
to establish that their conclusion is true (arguments), and those that attempt to establish why their
conclusion is true (explanations).