RECOGNIZING

ARGUMENTS
What is an argument?
■ In critical thinking, however, an argument is simply a claim defended with reasons.
■ Arguments are composed of one or more premises and a conclusion.
■ Premises are statements in an argument offered as evidence or reasons why we should
accept another statement, the conclusion. The conclusion is the statement in an
argument that the premises are intended to prove or support.

■ An argument is a group of statements, one or more of which (called the premises) are
intended to prove or support another statement (called the conclusion).
■ A statement is a sentence that can be viewed as either true or false.
Statement and its examples
■ A statement is a sentence that can be viewed as either true or false.

Examples:
■ Red is a color.
■ Canada is in South America.
■ God does not exist.

Some of these statements are clearly true, some are clearly false, and some are
controversial. Each of them is a statement, however, because each can be started
with the phrase “It is true that” or “It is false that.
IDENTIFYING PREMISES AND
CONCLUSIONS
■ In identifying premises and conclusions, we are often helped by indicator words. Indicator words are
words or phrases that provide clues that premises or conclusions are being put forward.
■ Premise indicators indicate that premises are being offered,
■ Premise indicators
■ since
■ because
■ for
■ Given that
■ seeing that
■ considering that
■ As much as
■ in view of the fact that as indicated by
■ judging from on account of
Examples of premise indicators

■ Having fun can be the spice of life but not its main course, because when it is over,
nothing of lasting value remains.
■ Since effective reasoning requires reliable information, it’s important to be able to
distinguish good sources and trustworthy experts from less useful ones.
Conclusion Indicators

■ Conclusion indicators indicate that conclusions are being offered.

■ Conclusion indicators
■ therefore thus
■ hence
■ consequently
■ So
■ accordingly
■ it follows that
■ for this reason
■ that is why
■ which shows that
■ wherefore this implies that
■ as a result this suggests that
■ this being so we may infer that
Examples

■ Your life is what your thoughts make it. That is why it is important for all of us to guard
our minds from unhealthy habits of thinking, habits that hold us back from what we
could be accomplishing.
■ Understanding arguments would be easier if the expressions just listed were used only
to signal premises or conclusions.
■ Examples
■ I haven’t seen you since high school.
■ You’ve had that jacket for as long as I’ve known you.
■ In none of these examples does the italicized term function as an indicator word. This
shows once again why it’s so important to consider the context when determining the
meaning of an expression.
■ Many arguments contain no indicator words at all.
■ Example:
■ I can’t be completely responsible for my life. After all, there are many factors outside
my control, people and forces that create obstacles and undermine my efforts. And we
are subject to pressures and influences from within ourselves: feelings of greed, fear of
death, need for social acceptance, and so on.
Question

■ How can you find the conclusion of an argument when the

argument contains no indicator words?
Tips on Finding the Conclusion of an
Argument
■ Find the main issue and ask yourself what position the writer or speaker is taking on
that issue.
■ Look at the beginning or end of the passage; the conclusion is often (but not always)
found in one of those places.
■ Ask yourself, “What is the writer or speaker trying to prove?” That will be the
conclusion.
■ Try putting the word therefore before one of the statements. If it fits, that statement is
probably the conclusion.
■ Try the “because” trick. That is, try to find the most appropriate way to fill in the blanks
in the following statement: The writer or speaker believes________ (conclusion)
because______ (premise). The conclusion will naturally come before the word because.
Exercise
■ The following exercises will give you practice in identifying premises and
conclusions.
1. Life changes when you least expect it to. The future is uncertain. So seize
this day, seize this moment, and make the most of it.
Premise 1: Life changes when you least expect it to.
Premise 2: The future is uncertain.
Conclusion: Seize this day, seize this moment, and make the most of it.
2. You want to be very careful about lying; otherwise you are nearly sure to
get caught.
Premise: If you are not very careful about lying, you are nearly sure to get caught.
Conclusion: You want to be very careful about lying.
Exercise
3. You know how I know animals have souls? Because on average, the lowest
animal is a lot nicer and kinder than most of the human beings that occupy this
Earth.
Premise: On average, the lowest animal is a lot nicer and kinder than most of the
human beings that occupy this Earth.
Conclusion: Animals have souls.
4. Do not play your sound system loudly as you may not be able to hear
warning sirens from emergency vehicles. In addition, hearing damage from
loud noise is almost undetectable until it’s too late.
Premise 1: You may not be able to hear warning sirens from emergency vehicles.
Premise 2: Hearing damage from loud noise is almost undetectable until it's too late.
Conclusion: Do not play your sound system loudly.
Exercise
5. Science is based on experiment, on a willingness to challenge old
belief, on an openness to see the universe as it really is. Accordingly,
science sometimes requires courage—at the very least the courage to
question the conventional wisdom.
Premise: Science is based on experiment, on a willingness to challenge old
belief, on an openness to see the universe as it really is.
Conclusion: Science sometimes requires courage--at the very least the
courage to question the conventional wisdom.
Assignment

■ Bring five examples of arguments in next class.

WHAT IS NOT AN ARGUMENT?

■ People don’t use language only to offer arguments: they also use it to tell jokes, sing
songs, recite poetry, express feelings, report events, ask questions, offer explanations,
say prayers, and give orders.

■ How, then, can we distinguish arguments from non arguments?

Answer

■ Something counts as an argument when

(1) it is a group of two or more statements and
(2) one of those statements (the conclusion) is claimed or intended to be supported by the
others (the premises).
Five types of non-argumentative
discourse
■ Five types of non-argumentative discourse that are sometimes confused with arguments:
■ reports
■ unsupported assertions
■ conditional statements
■ illustrations
■ explanations
Reports
■ The purpose of a report is simply to convey information about a subject.
■ Example:
Sweeping changes occurred in demographics, economics, culture, and
society during the last quarter of the 20th century. The nation aged, and
more of its people dropped to the Sunbelt. Extensive “urban corridors” and
“edge cities” challenged older central cities as sites for commercial, as well
as residential, development. Rapid technological change fueled the growth
of globalized industries, restructuring the labor force to fit a
“postindustrial” economy.
■ In this passage, the authors are simply reporting a series of events; their
aim is to narrate and inform, not to offer reasons why one statement
should be accepted on the basis of others.
Reports
Caution is needed, however, with reports about arguments.
■ Example:
Government is legitimate, according to Hobbes, because living under a
government is better than living in a state of nature. The advantages of
government are so great that it is worth sacrificing some of our freedom in
order to bring about these advantages. For this reason, rational people
would consent to sign a social contract and subject themselves to the laws
and powers of a government.
■ This is not an argument because the author is merely reporting another
person’s argument, not authorizing it or putting it forward as his own.
 Unsupported Assertions
■ Unsupported assertions are statements about what a speaker or writer happens to
believe. Such statements can be true or false, rational or irrational, but they are
parts of arguments only if the speaker or writer claims that they follow from, or
support, other claims. An unsupported assertion is a statement of fact without any
evidence to support that fact. 
■ Example:
I believe that it is not dying that people are afraid of. Something else, something more
unsettling and more tragic than dying frightens us. We are afraid of never having
lived, of coming to the end of our days with the sense that we were never really alive,
that we never figured out what life was for.
Because there is no claim that any of these statements follow from, or infer, any other
statements, this is not an argument.
Unsupported Assertions

The statement, “Men are naturally more violent than women” is

an unsupported assertion because:

1. There is no evidence to back it up

2. There is no citation to suggest someone has evidence to back
it up
3. It seems to rely on the author’s own personal experience
Avoid Unsupported Assertions

■ Remember, you must prove with every sentence that you know what
you’re talking about.

■ To do that, provide outside evidence to support any and all assertions you
make.

■ If you can’t find evidence to support it, you can’t use it.
 Conditional Statements
A conditional statement is an if-then statement.
Examples:
■ If it rains, then the picnic will be canceled.
■ You must speak French if you grew up in Quebec.
■ If at first you don’t succeed, don’t try skydiving.
Conditional statements are made up of two basic parts. The first part, the
statement(s) following the word if, is called the antecedent. The second part, the
statement(s) following the word then, is called the consequent.
Conditional Statements
■ Conditional statements need not be explicitly in if-then form; in fact, in modern
usage, then is usually dropped. For example;
■ Should it rain, the picnic will be canceled.
■ In the event of rain, the picnic will be canceled.
■ Ali will graduate, provided he passes Critical Thinking course.

■ Conditional statements are not arguments, because there is no claim that any
statement follows from any part of a conditional statement. Thus, if I say, “If it
rains, the picnic will be canceled,” I’m not asserting either that it will rain or that
the picnic will be canceled. I’m only asserting that if the first statement is true,
the second statement will also be true. Because there is no claim that any
statement follows from, or supports, this conditional statement, no argument has
been given.
Conditional Statements
■ Conditional statements are not arguments. They can, however, be parts of arguments.
■ Example:
If Ali fails Critical Thinking, he’ll be placed on academic probation.
Ali will fail Critical Thinking.
So, Ali will be placed on academic probation.
■ In fact, arguments can be composed entirely of conditional statements:
If Ali scores on this play, I’ll eat my hat.
If I eat my hat, I’ll have a bad case of indigestion.
So, if Ali scores on this play, I’ll have a bad case of indigestion.
■ Such arguments are sometimes called chain arguments because the antecedent (the if part) of the
first statement is linked to the consequent (the then part) of the last statement by a chain of
intervening conditional statements.
Illustrations

Illustrations are intended to provide examples of a claim, rather than prove

or support the claim.
Example:
Many wildflowers are edible. For example, daisies and day lilies are
delicious in salads.

■ Even though the second statement does provide some evidence for the
first, this passage is an illustration rather than an argument. Its purpose is
not to provide convincing evidence for a conclusion but merely to
provide a few notable or representative examples of a claim.
Illustrations

There is sometimes a fine line between illustrating a claim and providing

sufficient evidence for the claim.
Example:
Many of the world’s greatest philosophers were bachelors. For instance,
Descartes, Locke, Hume, and Kant were all unmarried.

In this example, for instance, it is doubtful whether the four philosophers

cited provide sufficient evidence for the claim that “many” of the world’s
greatest philosophers have been bachelors. It is better, therefore, to treat
these as illustrations of the claim rather than as evidence intended to prove
the claim.
Explanations

■ Consider the following two statements:

1. Titanic sank because it struck an iceberg.
2. Capital punishment should be abolished because innocent people may be
mistakenly executed.
Identify explanation and argument.
■ These two statements look very much alike. Both give reasons, and both
use the indicator word because. There is, however, an important
difference between the two: The first statement is an explanation, and the
second is an argument.
Explanation
An explanation tries to show why something is the case, not to prove that it is the case. In
the first example, for instance, it is clear that the speaker isn’t trying to argue that Titanic
sank—everybody already knows that it sank. Instead, he is trying to explain why it sank. Of
course, you can argue about whether a given explanation is or is not correct.
Consider this example:
Dinosaurs became extinct because of the impact of a large asteroid.
■ Scientists argue vigorously about whether this is the correct explanation of the
apparently sudden extinction of the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago. But the fact
that this explanation is controversial (i.e., can be argued about) doesn’t mean that it is an
argument. The purpose of the passage is not to argue that dinosaurs became extinct but
to explain why they became extinct.
 Explanation
■ Explanations have two parts. The statement that is explained is the
explanandum. The statement that does the explaining is the explanans.
■ Example:
“I fell down because I slipped” the statement “I fell down” is the explanandum, and
the statement “I slipped” is the explanans.
Question

■ How does one distinguish arguments from explanations?

■ There are four basic tests.

The Common-Knowledge Test

■ First, is the statement that the passage seeks to prove or explain a matter
of common knowledge? If it is, the passage is probably an explanation
rather than an argument. (There’s usually little point in trying to prove
something that is already a well-known fact.) Thus, the passage
The North won the American Civil War because it had a larger population
and a greater industrial base
is clearly an explanation rather than an argument because it is common
knowledge that the North won the Civil War.
 The Past-Event Test
■ Second, is the statement that the passage is seeking to prove or explain an event that occurred in
the past? If so, the passage is probably an explanation rather than an argument because it is much
more common to try to explain why past events have occurred rather than to prove that they
occurred.
Thus, the passage
■ Ali failed out because he never went to class
is best viewed as an explanation because the speaker is referring to a past event, and we usually try to
explain such events rather than provide convincing evidence that they have happened.
 The Author’s Intent Test
■ Third, is it the speaker’s or writer’s intent to prove or establish that something is the case—that is,
to provide reasons or evidence for accepting a claim as true ? Or is it his intent to explain why
something is the case—that is, to offer an account of why some event has occurred or why
something is the way it is ?
■ Example:
Ali is majoring in political science because he wants to go to law school.
■ Here it is unlikely that the speaker is trying to prove that Ali is majoring in political science, for
the “evidence” offered (the fact that Ali wants to go to law school) would clearly be insufficient to
establish that conclusion. It is therefore more likely that the speaker is offering an explanation
rather than an argument.
The Principle of Charity Test
■ Fourth, the principle of charity requires that we always interpret unclear passages generously
and, in particular, that we never interpret a passage as a bad argument when the evidence
reasonably permits us to interpret it as not an argument at all.
■ This test often proves helpful when the other tests yield no clear answer.
■ For example:
Ali won’t come to the party tonight because he has an important exam tomorrow.

Our choice therefore (assuming that a choice must be made) is to interpret the passage either as a
weak argument or as an apparently satisfactory explanation. In these circumstances the principle
of charity dictates that we interpret the passage as an explanation.
Assignment

■ Bring the examples of four tests. One example for each

test.
Exercise
■ Determine which of the following passages contain arguments and which do not.
1. I ate because I was hungry.
Non-argument; explanation.
2. He must be home. His car’s in the driveway.
Argument
3. I’m trading in my Ford Explorer for a Toyota Corolla because they’re more reliable and get better
gas mileage.
Argument
4. Dinosaurs became extinct sixty-five million years ago, probably as a result of dramatic global
cooling that resulted from the impact of a large asteroid.
Non-argument; explanation.
5. I stayed home from school because I was sick.
Non-argument; explanation.
6. The Cascades mountain range contains many majestic peaks. Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood, for
instance, are both more than ten thousand feet.
Non-argument; illustration.
Exercise
7. More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and
utter hopelessness, the other, to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose
correctly.
(Non-argument)
8. It is clear that there never was a time when nothing existed; otherwise nothing would exist now.
(Argument)
9. Children should be taught not to steal because it is wrong. They should not be taught not to steal
because there is a rule against stealing.
(Non-argument; unsupported assertion)
10. Never hit your child. Today health professionals agree that hitting children harms them
emotionally as well as physically, fosters anger and self-hate, and often does lasting damage to
their self-esteem and sense of worth.
(Argument)
11. More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter
hopelessness, the other, to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Nonargument;

12. Tradition and folklore contain a large number of fallacious beliefs. For example, many widespread and
popular beliefs such as “Don’t swim for an hour after eating,” “Reading in the dark will ruin your eyes,” “You
can catch cold from being chilled,” and “The more you cut your hair, the faster it will grow” are not true.
Non argument, illustration.

13. Neptune is blue because its atmosphere contains methane.

Expnlatiion
14. True success always starts with an inner vision, however incomplete it might be. That’s why most of the
books on success by famous coaches, business stars, motivational consultants, and psychologists begin with
chapters on goal setting.
Explanation
 Exercise
Determine whether the following passages are best understood as arguments or explanations.
 A good schoolmaster is a far more useful citizen than the average bank president, politician, or
general, if only because what he transmits is what gives meaning to the life of the banker, the
politician, the general.
Argument
 My mother, who graduated from high school at sixteen, had no hope of affording college, so she went
to work in the local post office for a dollar a day.
Explanation
 Good hitters have good work habits. They know that practice and lots of it is the surest way to
eliminate slumps. And they know that practice is essential to maintaining their edge. Consequently,
good hitters are usually always working on something
Explanation.
 Because height is inherited, short people bear shorter children than tall people on average.
Explanation.