GIVING

REASONS
Rachel McNealis
PHI101 Canisius College
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STRONG
ARGUMENTS
• Reliable Premises
• Audience is justified in believing
• Relevant Premises
• Provides some reason to believe conclusion
• Strong enough premises
• Enough to support conclusion
 RELIABILITY
A PREMISE THAT IS REASONABLE FOR THE
AUDIENCE TO BELIEVE

• Applies only to premises

• Not the same as being true
• Contingent to audience, but not subjective
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RELEVANCE

• A relevant premise offers some reason for thinking the conclusion is true.
• An irrelevant premise offers no reason to think the conclusion is true.
• Judge relevance of premises alone or along with other premises.
• Ignore all irrelevant premises.

• Hidden premise: a premise that must be assumed for the argument to be

plausible.
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STRONG ENOUGH

• Contextual criteria
• Consider the stakes of the argument
• “How likely is it that the conclusion would be false, even if the premises are true?”
• Less likely it would be false, stronger the argument
EXERCISE 6

1. Read this article.

2. Rewrite the argument as a list of numbered
statements leading to the conclusion.
3. Evaluate the argument:
-Are the premises reliable (for you)?
-Are the premises Relevant to the
Conclusion?
-Are the premises collectively strong
enough to support the conclusion?
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ABOUT BETTER AND WORSE

DESCRIPTIVE STATEMENTS NORMATIVE STATEMENTS

• About the way things are, were, would be • About what is good or bad, about how
under certain circumstances things should be, or about who should do
what
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PRINCIPLE OF CHARITY
YOU SHOULD INTERPRET SOMEONE ELSE’S ARGUMENTS OR STATEMENTS IN WHATEVER WAY MAKES IT
SEEM THE STRONGEST OR MOST REASONABLE.

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Confirm you’ve understood the Look for hidden premises if the When you find a fallacy, take a
statement and try to find possible argument seems too weak to closer look to see if you can find
reasons one might have for support the conclusion. a good argument behind the
believing it. mistake.
FALLACIES
Ad hominem Appeal to Popularity Hasty Generalization
Anecdotal ​ Circular Reasoning Post Hoc
Appeal to Authority ​ Composition Slippery Slope
Appeal to Ignorance Division Strawman
Appeal to Nature Equivocation
Appeal to Popularity False Dichotomy
Appeal to Nature Genetic Fallacy
Presentation title 10

REVIEW
What do the premises of a strong argument need to be?

How is the reliability of a premise relative to particular audiences?

What makes a premise irrelevant?

What is a hidden premise?

What is a descriptive statement? What is a normative statement?

What is one type of logical fallacy and how does it work?

QUESTIONS