Analyzing Arguments

Analyzing Arguments
• Examine the structure of the argument

• Start with identifying the Conclusion and premises

Diagramming Arguments
• It’s clear that we should eliminate the death penalty. First, the
financial costs of capital punishment are significantly greater than
those of keeping someone in prison for life. Second, the death penalty
has no greater deterrent value than life in prison without parole.
Diagramming Arguments
• Not every sentence is a statement or a claim
• Indicator words should not be made part of the identification of
statements
• Multiple statements can be expressed in a single sentence
• ➀ Cocaine is a drug, and ➁ drugs are addictive.
• Two statements can be joined together in ways that transform them
into a single statement
• ➀ If cocaine is a drug, then it is addictive.
Diagramming Arguments
• Sometimes it may be challenging to identify when a single sentence
contains more than one statement because the sentence uses a
parenthetical phrase or buries one statement within another.
• ➀ Your house must be infested with termites. ➁ There are mud tubes running
from the soil into cracks of masonry on the house, ➂ which could only be
caused by termites.
Diagramming Arguments
• A single statement can be represented by more than one sentence
• ➀ The victim, Sabahat Ali, was stabbed and killed by the defendant, Zeeshan.
➁ Detective Kamran identified Mr. Zeeshan’s DNA on the weapon used to kill
the victim. Therefore, ➀ it was Zeeshan who killed Ms. Ali.
Placing Conclusions and Premises
• ➀ The detective found the defendant’s DNA on the weapon, thus ➁
the defendant must be the killer.
•➀

•➁
Convergent Arguments
• Most arguments have more than one premise supporting the
conclusion.
• You will need to determine the relationship between those premises
and then draw the diagram in a way that reflects this relationship.
• Arguments with premises that independently support the conclusion
are convergent arguments
Convergent Premises
• If one of the premises is false, the conclusion is still supported
because the remaining premises provide independent support for the
conclusion.
• Cocaine is addictive, and it is illegal. Consequently, you should not use
cocaine.
Linked Premises
• When premises depend on each other to support the conclusion, they
are linked
• All of the linked premises must be true in order to support the
conclusion
• If one of the premises is false, the conclusion is no longer supported
• Cocaine is a drug, and drugs are addictive. Therefore, cocaine is addictive.
Representing Convergent and Linked
Arguments
• ➀ Cocaine is addictive, and ➁ it is illegal. Consequently, ➂ you should
not use cocaine.
➀ ➁

➂
➀ Cocaine is a drug, and ➁ drugs are addictive. Therefore, ➂ cocaine is addictive.
➀+➁

➂
Diagramming Arguments with Unstated
Conclusions
• Unless NASA gets congressional approval for its plan to send a new
mission to the moon, the space program will most likely disappear.
And congressional approval seems highly unlikely. The result of this is
obvious, isn’t it.
Diagramming Arguments with Unstated
Conclusions
• ➀ Unless NASA gets congressional approval for its plan to send a new
mission to the moon, their space program will most likely disappear.
And ➁ congressional approval seems highly unlikely. ➂ The result of
this is obvious, isn’t it? ➂ The NASA space program will most likely
disappear.
Diagramming Arguments with Unstated
Conclusions
• If you want to do well in this class, then you must work very hard. And
I know you want to do well in this class.
• ➀ If you want to do well in this class, then you must work very hard.
And I know ➁ you want to do well in this class. ➂ You should work
very hard in this class.
Diagramming Arguments with Implied
Claims (Premises)
• Stop playing video games all night. Otherwise, you may develop
carpal tunnel syndrome.
• ➀ Stop playing video games all night. ➁ Otherwise, you may develop
carpal tunnel syndrome. ➀ You should stop playing video games all
night.
Diagramming Arguments with Implied
Claims
• We should keep the death penalty. How could a brutal murderer be
allowed to live?
Diagramming Arguments with Implied
Claims
• ➀ We should keep the death penalty. ➁ How could a brutal murderer
be allowed to live? ➁ Those who brutally murder others should not
be allowed to live.
Example
• The defendant is charged with murder, and the question is whether
the defendant is actually the person who committed the drive-by
shooting of the victim (i.e., there is no question of self-defense or
insanity or accidental death; the only question is the identity of the
person who did the deed).
Example…
• White Jaguar automobiles are quite unusual in this area. The
defendant owns a white Jaguar, and the car from which the fatal shots
were fired has been identified by several witnesses as a white Jaguar.
Therefore, there is some reason to think that the defendant is guilty
of the drive-by murder.
Linked Argument
• The prosecution must prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a
reasonable doubt, and this argument doesn’t come close.
• We have three reasons, all supporting (though not establishing) the
conclusion that the defendant is guilty.
Example
• We should legalize physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients
who wish to hasten their deaths. First, it is psychologically important
that people have as much control over their situations as possible,
and being able to control the process of one’s death gives some
terminally ill patients a very satisfying and powerful sense of control.
Furthermore, excruciating pain is always undesirable, and some forms
of disease cause excruciating pain that can only be relieved by death.
And finally, competent people should have the right to make their
own decisions about their lives and deaths.
Convergent Arguments
• There are three convergent lines leading to the conclusion: the first is
the argument concerning control, the second the argument about
pain, and the third the claim concerning rights.
• But the first and second of these convergent lines are linked
arguments.
Convergent Arguments
• Control of death is an important form of control
• Control is psychologically important

• Pain is undesirable
• Death is the only means of ending some kind of pain

• Competent people have the right to make their own decisions

• Legalize physician-assisted suicide