The Principle of Rational Discussion is when we assume that the person who’s argument we are reading:
1. Knows about the subject under discussion.
2. Is able and willing to reason well.
3. Is not lying.
1. Knows about the subject under discussion.
2. Is able and willing to reason well.
3. Is not lying.
To repair a faulty argument we can add a premise or conclusion that satisfies all of the following:
1. The argument becomes stronger or valid.
2. The premise is plausible and would seem plausible to the other person.
3. The premise is more plausible than the conclusion.
1. The argument becomes stronger or valid.
2. The premise is plausible and would seem plausible to the other person.
3. The premise is more plausible than the conclusion.
If the argument is then valid or strong, we may remove a premise if doing so does not make the argument worse.
My example of an argument that needs repair:
Frank’s room is black. Frank paints his room red.
Analysis: There is something missing from this argument, an unstated premise that would help us to understand the connection between the premise and the conclusion. We don’t know why Frank painted his room red out of all the colors of the rainbow and we don’t understand why it is significant. If we were to add “Frank’s favorite color is red”, it would make the argument good. This statement satisfies the guide to repairing arguments and is true. Now the argument is much more understandable.
Hello, RL
ReplyDeleteGood Job with this posting, I agree with that this argument definitely needs to be repaired or else it will be a weak argument. This argument will cause many people to ask why choose red? People might think it's frank's favorite color, frank's girlfriend's favorite color, frank's niece chose it, or maybe it came in a dream. There are so many possibilities to explain why Frank chose red as his room color. So this extra premises will help people understand why he chose red. Also this extra sentence will farther clarify any other questions regarding the red color.
[ellacomm]