According to Epstein there are three requirements that an argument must fulfill in order to be considered a good argument. The premises should be plausible, the premises should be more plausible than the conclusion, and the argument should be valid or strong.
An example is: People who are sleeping do not answer their phone. My brother did not answer his phone. Therefore, he must be asleep.
The premise is plausible because usually when people are sleeping, they do not want to be disturbed so they will not answer their phone. The premise is more plausible than the conclusion because my brother could have very well been sleeping, however if it was in the middle of the day he could have just been busy doing something else. This argument is not strong because not all sleeping people ignore phone calls and there are many other reasons why my brother could have not answered his phone.
Hey there:) Good job on your post, I really enjoyed reading it mainly because it was very direct in its explanation. I especially liked how you compared the plausibility between the premise and the conclusion in order to show it is a weak argument. Typically people do not make the connection when explaining it. Also, I liked how you explained the different possibilities for your brother not answering the phone. It shows how people usually think in their every day lives because people usually come up with different scenarios to explain certain outcomes and situations. Overall, your post shows a clear understanding of what a good argument is and isn't.
ReplyDeleteI defiantly agree with EsconeQueen. I like your post because it was straightforward and interesting to read because this situation happens often to maybe people. I like how you used an example that showed an argument could be plausible but weak. I also like how you explained everything with back up possibilities making it clear to the reader. In most cases people would try to make an argument strong. It was a good reminder that an argument that is invalid has a chance to be either weak or strong and in this case, weak. In the end, your post was really helpful and showed you knew what was and wasn’t a good argument.
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