What is an Argument?

Introduction

LOGIC reasoning
correct
Let us try to have an argument.
Answer the question.

Is LOGIC important?
Let us try to have an argument.
Answer the question.

Is LOGIC important?
YES! – (you need to reason out)
Let us try to have an argument.
Answer the question.

Is LOGIC important?
NO! – (you (still) need to reason out)
Is LOGIC important?

LOGIC is important

YES! NO!
What is an Argument?

•Arguments in logic are

composed of premises
offered as reasons in
support of a conclusion.
 Arguments are not
defined as quarrels or
disputes.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/07/08/opinion/sunday/08dellantonia/merlin_140875608_702e1b3b-9523-
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https://beats.eckovation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/cr.jpg
https://beats.eckovation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/penguinlogic.jpg
Argument: any group of
propositions of which one
is claimed to follow
logically from the others.
What is a proposition or statement?
(we will use these words interchangeably)

• a verbal expression that can be

regarded as true or false (but not
both).
•Hence, a proposition or a statement
is a sentence with a truth-value. 
 All propositions are
sentences, but not all
sentences are propositions.

It is important!
This is a Proposition
Predicate term
Copula
Quantifier

Some Logic teachers are handsome

Qualifier
Subject term
Thus,
phatic communication,
greetings,
commands,
requests,
and poetry,
among other uses of language, are not mean to be taken as
statements.
Every argument in logic has a structure, and every
argument can be described in terms of this structure.
 Propositions
(with truth value) Middle Term
(M) major Term
(P)

Major
Premise Every animal is mortal
Minor
Premise but every dog is an animal
Conclusion
therefore every dog is mortal.
minor Term
(S)
This normal sense of "argument"

“My neighbor yelling to me

about my trashcans”

argument
is not termed
"an argument" in
logic.
By "argument," we mean a demonstration or a proof of some statement,
not emotional language. 

"That bird is a crow;

therefore, it's black."
The central part of an argument includes:

1. a proposition which gives reasons, grounds, or evidence for

accepting some other proposition, called the conclusion.

2. a proposition, which is purported to be established on the

basis of other propositions.
http://dailyskeptic.org/getpsyched/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/LOGIC.png
is the reasoning process by which a
logical relation is understood.
 Commonly Used Inference Indicators

Premise Indicators Conclusion Indicators

for, since, as, because thus, therefore, hence, so
in as much as consequently
follows from demonstrates that
after all, assuming it follows that
in light of the fact proves that
for this reason* this means, suggests that
seeing that, granted that we may infer, results in
in view of, as shown by indicates that
as indicated by accordingly
 given that implies that
 due to the fact that for this reason*
Here are some examples of passages that do
not contain arguments.
1. When people sweat a lot they tend to drink more water.  [Just a
single statement, not enough to make an argument.]
2. Once upon a time there was a prince and a princess. They lived
happily together and one day they decided to have a baby. But the
baby grew up to be a nasty and cruel person and they regret it very
much. [A chronological description of facts composed of statements
but no premise or conclusion.]
3. Can you come to the meeting tomorrow? [A question that does not
contain an argument.]
Credits:

https://philosophy.hku.hk/think/arg/arg.php
https://philosophy.lander.edu/logic/phil_log.html