Argument Theory

SOCRATES: … And so come, Gorgias, imagine you are questioned by these men and by myself as well, and answer what it is you claim to be the greatest blessing to man, and claim also to produce. GORGIAS: Something, Socrates, that is in very truth the greatest boon, for it brings freedom to each man, and to each man also dominion over others in his own country. SOCRATES: And what exactly do you mean by that? GORGIAS: I mean the power to convince by your words the judges in court, the senators in Council, the people in the Assembly, or in any other gathering of a citizen body. And yet possessed of such power you will make the doctor and the trainer your slave, and your businessman will prove to be making money, not for himself, but for another, in fact for you who can speak and persuade multitudes. (Plato, Gorgias, 452d-e)

F. An argument is a set of claims called the premisses, and another claim called the conclusion, such that a person puts forward the premises to try to persuade others to accept the conclusion on the grounds that the latter is guaranteed by the former.

D1.The Proponent. The person(s) attempting the persuasion. D2.The Respondent. The person(s) being subjected to an attempt at persuasion. D3.The Inducement. The technique of persuasion which the proponent uses. The Target. The thing that the proponent is trying to persuade the respondent to accept.

D1.Argument Formation is a sequence of statements in which a.the final member is called the Conclusion, and b.the other members are called the Premisses. D2.An Argument Base for an inducement is an argument formation in which the conclusion is he target of the inducement. An argument base defines premisses and conclusion for the inducement. D3.An Argument specifies an argument base. Arg.A.“All men are mortal and Socrates is a man so Socrates is mortal.” F.A:< ‘All men are mortal’, ‘Socrates is a man’, ‘Socrates is mortal’ > An Effective argument is one such that just recognising the argument base causes the respondent to feel the Argument Intuition, so that the respondent is more disposed to accept the target if the other statements are accepted.

Premiss A word or phrase to signal that a local passage contains statements Indicator that can play the role of premisses. EG: Because, since, for, as we see from the following. NB: In cases where there is ambiguity or uncertainty in determining whether a word or phrase is acting as a premiss indicator, replace with ‘because’ and determine whether the meaning has changed. If it has not then it was a premiss indicator. ‘Since I’ve repaired the car I can drive to Melbourne.’ ‘Since I repaired the car I’ve driven to Melbourne.’ Conclusion A word or phrase to signal that a local passage contains a statement Indicator that can play the role of a conclusion. EG: therefore, hence, so, implying, thus, consequently. NB: In cases where there is ambiguity or uncertainty in determining whether a word or phrase is acting as a conclusion indicator, replace with ‘therefore’ and determine whether the meaning has changed. If it has not then it was a conclusion indicator. ‘I’ve repaired the car, so I can drive to Melbourne.’ ‘I repaired the car so that I could drive to Melbourne.’ Argument A word or phrase to signal that a local passage contains an Indicator argument.Premiss and conclusion indicators are argument indicators.

D1.An argument is said to be in Standard Form just in case it looks like this: Premise 1... Premise n  Conclusion E.g. All men are mortal Socrates is a man Socrates is mortal

Arg.A.“All men are animals and all animals are mortal and Socrates is a man so Socrates is mortal.” F.B:< ‘All men are animals’, ‘All animals are mortal’, ‘Socrates is a man’, ‘Socrates is mortal’ >

D1.An Effective Argument Formation for the respondent is an argument formation whose recognition causes the respondent to feel the Argument Intuition, so that the respondent is more disposed to accept the conclusion if the premisses are accepted. Arg.B.“All men are animals and all animals are mortal and Socrates is a man so Socrates is mortal.” F.B:< ‘All men are animals’, ‘All animals are mortal’, ‘Socrates is a man’, ‘Socrates is mortal’ > F.1:< ‘All men are animals’, ‘All animals are mortal’, ‘All men are mortal’ > F.2:< ‘All men are mortal’ ‘Socrates is a man’, ‘Socrates is mortal’ >

D1.An Argument Completion associated with an argument is a sequence of argument formations where: a.Each premiss of the base appears as a premiss in at least one formation in the sequence, b.The final formation in the sequence has the target as its conclusion. D2.An Argument specifies: a.An argument base, b.An argument completion. D3.An Effective Argument Completion for the respondent is an argument completion whose recognition causes the respondent to feel the Argument Intuition, so that the respondent is more disposed to accept the conclusion of the argument if the premisses are accepted. An Effective Argument for the respondent specifies a base and an effective completion for the respondent.

FidelityA principle of interpretation that demands that a passage be interpreted in a way that remains faithful to what the author actually states. CharityA principle of interpretation that demands that a passage be interpreted in a way that does most credit to the rationality of the author.