Some Procedures in Argument (from Barnet and Bedau)
(Summarized/Paraphrased from Chapter 3)
DEFINITION: Answers the question, “What is it?” to “find, clarify, and develop ideas” (78).
Definition by synonym: a word that roughly means the same thing (although no two words are exactly alike).
Definition by example: showing what the thing being defined is.
Definition by stipulation: you limit the definition to your understanding of the term—the term is defined by your statement of what it means.
Definition by stating the essence: what is the essence of the thing being defined? Example: man is “'a rational animal'” (82).
Definition by using sufficient and necessary conditions: the definition is stated in “if and only if” form and is true.
ASSUMPTIONS: “One or more unexamined beliefs” (83)—may be stated (explicit) or unstated (implicit, tacit).
PREMISES: “Stated assumptions used as reasons” (84).
SYLLOGISM: “Joining two premises [ . . . ] to produce a conclusion" (84).
DEDUCTION: Moving mentally from one statement to another—the reasons or premises offered contain the conclusion within themselves.
Enthymeme: an abbreviated syllogism—contains one of the syllogism’s two premises and the conclusion.
Sound argument: all the premises of the syllogism must be true and the syllogism must be valid; that is, the conclusion follows from the premises. If the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true.
Unsound argument: one or both of the premises is not true or even if they are both true, they don’t lead to the conclusion.
INDUCTION: “Uses information about observed cases to reach a conclusion about unobserved cases” (89).
Generalization: based on observation that a certain result of an action occurs again and again, so we assume that result will happen the next time that action occurs.
Counterexamples: if situations can be found where that same action does not produce the same result, your example counters the generalization.
EVIDENCE:
Experimentation: “deliberately contrived situations [ . . . ] designed to yield particular observations” (90).
Examples: samples.
