Rounding Out Arguments
Read these sections to learn how to round out arguments conceptually. The first section will distinguish between two types of argument: deductive and inductive. Pay careful attention to the difference between these two, and think about which kind of argument you use more often. The second section will help you identify arguments with a missing premise and determine how and when to supply this missing premise. It will also introduce you to the principle of charity and the difference between normative and descriptive statements – three very important terms! The third section shows you three rhetorical devices to hint at further argument without actually going through the argument: assuring, guarding, and discounting.
Complete the exercises, then check your answers against the keys.
Exercise
Answers
- 1. Anyone who rides horses is a cowboy.
- Driving over the speed limit is wrong.
- It is raining.
- Olaf is an elf.
- Any time a person has a choice of who to take to homecoming, they will
take the person they like the most.
- I have looked at the watch in frequent intervals - much more often than every 12 hours.
- Only those who have drank too much fall out of apartment windows.
- Mark is on Earth and is unassisted by any devices that help him overcome the Earth's gravity.
- Any nation in which there is a large discrepancy between net worths of
different races is a racist nation.
- The water is at sea level.
- First missing premise: We should not allows policies that have the
potential of taking innocent lives, unless there is a very good reason to do so. Second missing premise: there is no very good reason to allow
capital punishment.
- First missing premise: We should not allow policies that take working
class jobs away from working class folks, unless there is some very good
reason to do so. Second missing premise: there is no very good reason
to allow immigration that would offset the harm done to working class
folks.
- Any fair economic exchange between consenting adults should be
allowed.
- Anything that privileges using a student-athlete to make money for the
college over that student-athlete's education should be banned.
- Any student who receives an F in a course should have studied more for
that course.