Critical Thinking: Complex Arguments, Unstated Premises

so chapter 2 takes us through some of the same material that we've been looking at in Chapter one but now we're looking at it in greater details and in greater depth the same things that we've looked at before with two kinds of arguments deductive and inductive we're going to get that again what we're going to look at today are two main things about the arguments that complicates a little bit and these come up all the time in real life so you're going to want to pay very close attention to this because this will help you out when you're dealing with the transition from the sort of artificial arguments that we play with here to thinking about arguments in the workplace and advertising and politics in your personal life all those places where you make plans and then have support and the first thing we're going to talk about is what we call complex arguments now your book doesn't use this term your book talks about premises and pregnancies and if you haven't been following along you might say well wait a second you know conclusion is one kind of thing a premise is another kind of thing in an argument so how can something be a conclusion and each premise what's the answer today I you know how can think about it visible again a man be both a son and the father yeah can about getting a woman be a mother and a daughter so that's the same person no right well maybe if there's some sort of weird time-travel thing like they have in certain movies with involve incest I think it probably would have to quit so probably want to stay away from that you find somebody's son I'm somebody's son in relation to their being my parents parent is a relational term son is relational terms if I am somebody's father to him that's also a relational term and you know we also have ways of signifying the relationships between two parts of my mother her relationship to my son is Xi's grandmother right and every culture has the source of things these are what we call relational terms there's other relational terms too like boss-employee right how many of you have bosses how many of you are the boss an idiot there's just a few am i I have a blossom a few things but in general we all have bosses right do those blossoms have fossils yeah so it's the same sort of thing relational terms with arguments the components of arguments premises and conclusions so think about it like this you've got eight argument with some parentheses and those premises lead to that so here is argument that is impossible for that conclusion to be a premise in another argument yeah we do this all the time actually so that conclusion might be one promise and I might get another promise and then this leads to another conclusion and some arguments may go on like this quite ways they can have complicated chains think about when you're drawing inferences about somebody's character let's pick something that somebody does that makes you a little bit suspicious anything you like what puts you on your guard what's that cheating okay what's with that one let's put that one towards it yeah because that's pretty day let's say we want the really small things so what might clue you into the fact that somebody might get you what opens up that possibility okay so they start lying about small things things that really aren't that important that they don't gain anything lying about so let's say the argument establishes that liar so that's our and maybe it's an inductive are you noticed jim lying on five different occasions united part of it those are your premises now if he's lying eventually for no good reason I think that's mean by the window says why I write that can be a premise over here a liar and maybe you say something no I'm not saying this is a very good argument but this is just for practice let's say we say that if Jim was likely to cheat you probably agree to that somebody is lying a lot good chance their conclusion is Jim is she there now notice you've got two different arguments here you can also work back let's say for any friend that you criticize are actually any person that you criticize you can always find somebody to defend them can't you and when they're defending them quite often they'll say something like well how did you know that they're a liar how did you know that there is your way to get with the cheater the thing you could say well here's my project here's why I think so here's here's my claim that I want you to believe here's the support for let's say they don't accept the idea that Jim's a liar how do you know he's alive well what do you do that you work backwards and you give other argument so you notice this can work two different ways we can continue inferences and chains wake up and when somebody starts questioning whether we have good reason for the things we're beginning with the starting points the premises you can provide arguments for them this is what you do in ordinary life all the time don't you because you are challenged by other people when you make claims aren't you or any injury that disappeared of Oracle was never along and everybody says oh so it was so Senate must be trigger and if you have that that condition you can then be able wouldn't it many some of you will you know maybe some of you will attain the status of an Oprah someday you know people said Oprah says therefore must be right although you can still find people who have to criticize that and can't you pretty much anything that you claim somebody else may be just out of stubbornness can take exception to it and then what are you going to do well you want to trace your way back you want to be able to get further reasons why do you believe this well here's my reasons so you know backwards you need to go forwards with it you can also have arguments where the structure gets even more complex say we get rid of this is why our business you might have other arguments we have another argument where both of the conclusions in the earlier bits of the argument are functioning as premises when you write a research paper lose the weight of research to make this work if you're writing right you don't get it back with red ink where the professor or anybody have this happen in high school or your teacher says what is your evidence for this what's your support for this why are you saying this what they're asking you to do is to actually back up the claims that you're making those premises or our claims just like a conclusion was the claim so that premise might be a conclusion of another argument if you look at if you look at famous arguments that are made in history like one that I have I have done quite a bit of work with is Martin Luther King's letter from Berlin jail that's a complex argument see here's the thing you can you can use the word argument several senses this is an argument premises leading a conclusion this is an argument wisdom also an argument and this whole thing's all of this can also be called an artificial you may want to clarify when somebody starts talking about well my argument is this what exactly do you mean by an argument or do you mean this is peace just by its element arguments do you mean the whole thing if it's more complexity maybe being the first ten pages those are all ways of connecting claims together right think of it sort of like when you were kids you played with a variety of toys where you put things together right Legos what else take your toys Mega Bloks what also kids have if you didn't you actually missed out on some basic cognitive development that's why we give kids those toys because the act of actually putting things together is part of what helps you develop as named a the kind of animal that we are rational animals human beings that's why we give kids those toys part of the part of your development relies on you actually doing things with your hands and seeing connections so if you didn't get that sort of stuff that's unfortunate if you have kids and you're not doing them with them that's unfortunate too because that's just like this you know this is sort of like putting together a couple blocks and then those blocks can connect with other blocks this is what we do in a speech this is what we do with with thought and this is what many great works of literature one of the things that having this section of the class read this semester is Plato's credo right Plato's credo has this sort of structure of argument what is what is Socrates main claim in that the credo is the most absolute decision yeah I should not leave Athens even though they're gonna kill his claim is it would be wrong well it was famous I should not leave Athens and it would be wrong of me to do so why would it be wrong well he did some entire argument for that doesn't mean he brings in the laws and the laws are are criticizing him Socrates what are you thinking about running away for you're gonna hurt us and you us something there's a whole bunch of arguments there that's part of what I'm having to do this semester reading the credo is learning how to apply all this stuff about complex arguments that's the training ground for you guys so if you haven't started reading the credo yeah I'm thinking in terms of arguments you want to start doing that but that's not the only thing that he says he also says you know credo do you think that it would be a bad thing in other senses for for me to stay but actually would I be helping my children by leaving no I wouldn't actually be giving them a bad example wouldn't I that's a different reason for him to say he has some other reasons in there should we care about what the the many think or should we care about what those who actually know things think that's a question this is the answer to that is why but we don't know we do know where to Plato's it's because it's not for Jesus saying that's that's play-doh basically the Platonism show his hand directly puts it in Socrates Socrates thing should we care about what the main thing really no credo says yeah we have to care about what than anything Socrates says I thought we agreed that we don't have to the many don't know what they're talking about that is if we have a complex argument like this the I should say that's a claim there isn't a whole reason there's another each one is supported by more art ultimately the main reason he's saying is because he thinks it's the right thing to do but how does he get to that point you see them unveiling this in his discussion with with credo and Socrates already knows this as a matter of fact what's going out of the dialog is a leading credo who is in doubt about this credo is very upset isn't he he thinks that it's not the right thing for Socrates to say it's too stained and why does he come into the jail he's bright the gars he's not only upset about it he's taking action he's ready to get stalked or teased out of everybody this one but it's going to require him to betray his country to go against well the many MD was because the laws are part of the country too aren't they and the men have changed their minds all the time see the many are not critical thinkers the many just go wherever their opinion leads them and they go by feeling or some of these ways that we're going to look at a fallacy later out of the semester called the argument from popularity where they appeal to popularity this because many people think something is true it doesn't make it true at all what you want to do is look at what do the people who actually know about what do they think about actually another way of thinking about this what's your job here in college what are you supposed to become right now many of you are the vent if you don't have the answers to the questions I'm asking in class if you are the manager they're not ready at hand right not just free things for many are free thinkers they're free to think all sorts of crazy things that they don't have any sort of support for anybody free to have any opinion they like everybody's free to study things that they want to do anybody's created the ignorant to be knowledgeable you're completely free in that respect being a free thinker is not that that important being critical thinkers actually have reasons for what you say from what you think and then being able to back those up that's what's keen that's what people are going to pay you to do they won't pay you to show up with without having you know looked at things and having opinions about it that are well reasoned they're not going to pay you just to show up on time they're going to pay you for actually knowing your stuff knowing your stuff means being able to do this it's going to vary from person to person some of you are going into business some of you are going into counseling and what we were going into criminal justice those are different areas but the same basic structure has been the holes in every case if you want to make this this college degree work for you one of the basic skills that you're in half together you want to actually bring in every single class session we come to is being able to go through this whole chain let's look at a another way we might do this let's say we start out let's make a very complex what's a claim that affects your lives as college students something that you can say something about take some sort of stand on there's a lot of stuff going on right now on a Tuesday at this university actually nation of wine that is affecting your college education what's that finances so what matters to you yeah I'm in college okay so and what are your main costs so right that's that it's not so much the books tuition cost you more right yeah could you have the rental program although it doesn't cover everything it's pretty good for imagine how much you have to pay so you pay more in the book sometimes the hinge is intuition yeah the Community College is a very affordable tuition the higher you go up in rig the more expensive the kiss FS she was actually pretty cheap and the UNC system is actually pretty cheap in comparison to other places but it's still expensive and what have they done recently with your tuition yeah actually they can last two years have a thing they raised your tuition those of you who look with sort of blank expressions you're gonna pay for this eventually if you have a loan and they keep raising tuition you're gonna pay for it so I'm gonna give grants but that's not going to cover your entire college career I think yeah your your student health and parents yeah and then you have various student feeds too right they tack on other things there's a lot of hidden fees to out there like how much do you guys get for your print account forty bucks right here yeah you need like forty to forty dollars a semester why don't they need to go through it like that if you're actually downloading research papers and printing them out which all of you should actually be doing at one point or another that gets burned up very quickly if you're printing out all the things that your instructor expects you to print them it can go pretty late especially reading multiple drafts or papers so money is tight for students so this is a concern this is something now we have a topic now we can come up with an issue whether your tuition should be raised I mean this is a live issue the UNC system is is out of money the state of North Carolina is out of money we're facing 15% budget cuts likely this year we've cut staff for the last two years we've frozen a lot of accounts travels is you know right now at 75% payment pretty soon it's going to be 0% payment for faculty travel all these things there are signs of the situation that we're so that's likely that they're gonna raise tuition if you students actually wanted to do something about it now would be the time it's just making your argument to would you make it to you wouldn't make it to us professors we might help you structure it but we don't have any to say it we're doing this that's your tuition no Chancellor would be the first person that you'd wanna send a letter to he has a lot of power over the institution saved North Carolina by itself doesn't it each institution gets to decide respective so let's say you want to write a letter in this students to the Chancellor and let's figure out what your basic things it's something about tuition you know you're not happy about it is that all you in one sec what are you happy we can use that later on is that the ultimate claim you want to make what's the ultimate plan what's the main point you want to get across to them it's too much whoa hold on to that what are they what are the thing about doing no that's a that's a good concern and we'll bring all that something what is the most basic claim that everything else that you're going to say stop raising tuition okay we've got that frame now is an imperative or a command we can change commands and so what kind of statements should remember we've talked about value judgments the other day how would you frame it you should now that is the conclusion of the argument that you would be making all these other concerns that you guys have brought up which are very good those could be reasons why students are right that's true isn't it that's a valid concern what else did you guys get the more that maybe it would be wrong to raise prize when you're giving us service I think that could be a very persuasive point you know in other companies if they're cutting your services they should be cutting your products right what are you saying mr. Flores yeah that's another key issue sometimes I've talked about those pricing students out how education now you could write that letter and you could have these three points you might come up as many more to what he expected the response might be from the people who read it they may accept some of the points that may not go would have to do that well then you've got to figure out how you're going to support these points now how you're dealing with a complex argument aren't you these are premises but they're also going to be conclusions and other arguments so students are in Hampton why should why should he care why is that important okay are the comments or salary and we might have to bring in some other premises as well this is what we're going to get this unstated and implicitly is this so ok somebody says well what do I care that students are anyhow look buddy I pay your salary my tuition goes to them not exactly true unfortunately this come on your tuition only pays a little sliver actually stated the state finals paid for most of it but okay you have some sort of crap system that it's wrong to raise the price when you're giving less services you can make a case for that right let's say somebody says well why shouldn't I raise the price when we have less services I mean everything is costing me more if you have a company and it's raw materials they're costing it more it just passes and I do you think about the gas stations right all of you buy gas and one side or another and prices go up and go down and if you go to the gas station complain whether they tell you what's boil it's costing us more so we have to pass on the sometimes they pass the savings on to you usually they're passing the cost side right so maybe the university says that is there anything you can say in response so to back this up that is wrong to raise the prices of all providing my services what you think about that that one's kind of complicated but let's say we could come up with something then we'd have another argument your pricing students out of an education let's take somebody down is that what would you do what did you do in any class when the instructor doubts the claims that you're making a paper okay you could yeah so you could do some sort of research that you're doing might be folding maybe pull FSU students here to say if they raise them this about will you continue to go that's us to go yeah that could be good support when this began would be another argument so you have a very large complex argument those who started with just one thing actually he did you started with one main claim that a bunch of different ideas just sort of bouncing around and what did we do we impose some structure on them if you were going to write this letter do you think you'd be better armed more ready to write that letter now with this sort of stuff up on the board and with all of these things are sort of bouncing around in your head so you see the usefulness of diagram and hardness of laying these things out when you're reading the Credo you should be doing this should be thinking about what are the arguments that are being made in the claims and see if you can set the mountain some sort of structure when you're preparing for the classes reading documents what's the problem you're not the only state in that case Illinois did the same thing of dirty lottery and they make the same complaints Wisconsin did these states that yeah the states that that put lotteries into place the argument none of us arguments always have to be made in politics to get people to to make changes and one of the changes it was was have a lottery and the argument was we will use the money just for education it'll be earmarked or set aside there's stuff like that and why did they have to do that cuz a lot of people were saying lotteries are a bad thing they say impact the poor more than the rich they're not a really good proposition it's really the state imposing an extra tax yeah actually they they've done studies with gambling in general when for instance what I could see no time so a lot of times people make them going to be great for us because jobs you know going to improve a depressed area yeah yeah some jobs go up with not a lot a lot and rates of alcoholism divorce bankruptcy all those things yeah there's some interesting arguments to be made about this let's do one of the thing I want to talk about so let's look just at this little argument I've done the sort of abbreviated you know structure and making the claims just so we could fit everything on the blackboard and this is actually the way that we do are somebody says students are unhappy somebody else why should I care about that and the response is while you know we are paying here salary now there's an argument there or at least the start of an arrangement but not everything is above the board not everything is visible yeah let's put it over here students and is that really ugly you know where they're they're going with it no actually students aren't happy why does that actually matter they're not not all this has been spelled out some of it is just in your head you're assuming that the other person understands us this is what we call implicit or unstated why does it matter if students are happy what are we assuming here it's a bad thing I mean maybe there are some institutions where it's good to make people unhappy I'm not saying this is advocating it myself but a lot of people make arguments about prison and they say prison should be a terrible place this is not a prison so you shouldn't be unhappy right students aren't happy we don't want students to be unhappy we can spell out a lot of other things let's say we look at me that the other students aren't happy students are the clients paying your salary now all we get is the only thing that's up for consideration are these two claims this claim is not really connected to this yet how do we get from here to here what do we have to be assuming on the part of the speaker and of a part of the listener person who's being addressed somehow this has to be connected to this and you do think they're connected right because if you were making these arguments you would say something like this as a response to all who cares students with the clients paying your salary what's the assumption somebody's you should know they're okay their feelings are important you know I know they're in other businesses if you don't like the way a restaurant serves if you quit going there don't you educational a little bit different sometimes people think it's okay to screw students around because now they're always going to be you know to the clients paying salaries somebody's paying your salary their feelings are important students aren't happy what's being actually implied with this it's your job to make them at least you know content and these things notice these assumptions you're assuming that the other person gets those if they were ought to be obstinate and say wha who cares if there are they're my clients you might actually scholar might say look I think you don't quite understand what it means to be a you know a supplier to a client you actually have to make the client happy about something or else they're going to quit going to you you shouldn't care about them if they say okay so the students are unhappy why does that matter you you can say it's your job to make them happy this is something implicit right and we think about this know what we can actually see is that these two things go together that you have them to this this is really the conclusion this this is the conclusion that you can draw students already happy it's your job to do something about that students aren't happy is actually the premise not a conclusion if you frame it this way notice premises conclusions something can be both the premise and the conclusion at the same time something can switch its role depending on how you frame the argument and as you think through arguments you will find these things changing that's okay don't don't feel like you're not getting it if you find that that something is changing from a premise to conclusion that probably means you're actually getting it you're you're doing a job premises and conclusions relational firms or premise is a premise if it's supporting something a conclusion conclusion if it's what is being supported just like a father is a father if they have you know we gotten some children a child is a child of somebody who is that's one of the premises generally when we're gonna wooden or sketching these things the convention is premises on top of the bottom this is the rope of wood it's your job to care about with your clients think no I said that that this students are happy if we think about it as really functioning as a premise not as a conclusion now when you argue when you make real-life arguments you're assuming things on the part of your listeners all the time device today well let's use the old example that we use all the time if it's snowing today therefore the class is canceled I've left some stuff out whatever I left out what's the assumption if I say it's snowing class is canceled I've already said yeah or something more like if it's no is that right and we assume these sort of if that is all the time they say one thing and then we immediately say another thing and we don't spell out if that why because we assume that the audience knows that and if they look at us with a blank face you know like for instance my first snowfall down here I showed up because you know I'm from Wisconsin so it takes a lot of smell before I'm not gonna show up to it to work matter of fact Wisconsin if there is maybe like four inches of snow and you don't feel work you're written up but here I didn't I didn't realize that one of the bits of background knowledge is if it snows whole place shuts down and we ditched my blind why is that the case somebody might say yeah that doesn't sound right well FSU Fayetteville doesn't have what what do they need that we're going to hopefully the snowplows cities with the north have some problems I think it's motor graders those over school bus see now this is all background knowledge this these are things that we have to assume you guys would know more about that than I all right

Channel: Fayetteville State University

Views: 21,601

Rating: 4.932961 out of 5

Keywords: Complex Arguments, Unstated Premises

Id: 0EMHQh37Zd8

Length: 41min 41sec (2501 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 02 2011