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Arguments
What is an argument?
It is believed that an argument is not the competition showing different kinds of opinion; when you argue about a matter, the goal of an argument is to offer good and evident reasons in support of your conclusion that all parties to your dispute can accept (Pryor, 2010).
Targeting this subject [36200], Dr Mary Coupland (2016) provides an extract of information about arguments from the book of "Bad Arguments" written by Ali Almossawi. In this book, Almossawi (2013) indicates that an argument is linked to the notions of proposition, premiss, and conclusion. Academically, the notion of proposition refers to a statement that is either true or false, but not both, and aimed at persuading through reasoning; the notion of premiss refers to a proposition that provides explanation and support to an argument's conclusion; and the notion of conclusion refers to some other proposition that is fully provided support by the premisses. In other words, an argument includes a set of propositions with persuading reasons, and one or more premisses giving support for some other proposition which called the conclusion (Almossawi, 2013).
Further, it is crucial to understand the argument before commenting on it (University of Idaho, 2004), therefore, raising correct questions toward argument evaluation is particularly important.Two leading questions involving the evaluation of arguments are suggested as below.
1. Do the premisses support the conclusion?
2. Are all the premisses true?
Types of arguments include deductive arguments and inductive arguments
Some different sources/authors and their explanation about the definition of arguments are collected as follows:
Sources / Authors
About the Arguments
The word “argument” can be used to designate a dispute or a fight, or it can be used more technically. It refers to a collection of truth-bearers (that is, the things that bear truth and falsity, or are true and false) some of which are offered as reasons for one of them, the conclusion.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/argument/
Argument is an activity we all engage in, with varying results, in every walk of life. Philosophers have developed powerful methods for classifying arguments and identifying common errors in reasoning. Argument and Critical Thinking teaches these methods and applies them to real-life arguments, both written and spoken. It is thus an introduction to communication and applied logic.
https://www.adelaide.edu.au/course-outlines/006001/1/sem-1/
The Definition Argument answers the questions "What is it?" "What category does it belong to?" In other words, the Definition Argument attempts to assign a specific case to a larger category because it shares the essential characteristics of that category. The definition argument requires that we generate a list of essential criteria of the term (category)
The definition argument has two areas of major concern:
1) the criteria and whether they sufficiently characterize the y term (category), and
2) the match, or whether the x term (specific case) actually possess the criteria.
During the match portion of the definition argument, on the other hand, our concern is to demonstrate that the criteria apply to the x term.
http://www.uky.edu/~tlthom01/defarg.htm
An argument is a sequence of statements called premises, plus a statement called the conclusion. A valid argument is an argument such that the conclusion is true whenever the premises are all true.
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~eberlein/cs301k/moreLogic.pdf
An argument (in the context of logic) is defined as a set of premises and a conclusion where the conclusion and premises are separated by some trigger word, phrase or mark known as a turnstile.
The turnstiles seem to indicate where the premises come as opposed to where the conclusion comes. Examples of turnstiles (indicating either conclusion or premises) are: so, thus, hence, since, because, it follows that, for the reason that, from this it can be seen that.
The argument may show that one meaning is more correct than (an)other(s), or that no meanings are correct, or that the definition can be shown by the actions of a particular group (which may ally or oppose itself with the term). The argument may posit that many definitions of the term are in circulation (and then describe these definitions in detail), thus proving the slipperiness or controversy of the term itself; or the argument may posit that several different-sounding definitions are actually very much alike.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Toulmin Model of Argumentation
Argument is the most fundamental concept in our study of critical thinking. Argument refers to "a set of propositions, or statements, which are designed to convince a reader or listener of a claim, or conclusion, and which include at least one reason (premise) for accepting the conclusion."
http://faculty.uncfsu.edu/jyoung/argument.htm
A logical argument (or just argument) is a process of creating a new statement from one or more existing statements.
An argument proceeds from a set of premises to a conclusion, by means of logical implication, via a procedure called logical inference.
An argument may have more than one premise, but only one conclusion.
https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Definition:Logical_Argument
Argument - A statement, or claim, followed by a justification, or warrant. Justifications are responses to challenges, often linked by the word “because.”
Why are arguments important?
Learning thinking skills are crucial in all aspects and levels of studies that arguments occupy an important platform towards critical thinking. Arguments are important because, through the arguments, the skills of critical thinking to learn are required and achieved. WikiHow (n.d.) points out that the ability to argue effectively is actually a great skill to learn, and can come in handy in a wide variety of situations. This gives you the confidence to stand up for yourself and what you believe in. WikiHow also indicates that through arguments, the skills of how to argue positively are developed. For example, these skills include the areas of playing fair, respecting other people, attacking ideas - not the person's the ideas attached to, admitting when you are wrong, apologising when appropriate, and being open to new ideas. Further, in terms of arguing persuasively, it is believed that this makes people feel smart because they can use evidence tailored to the argument and audience, they can look for logical fallacies, they can paint them as the hero or victim, they can curate the use of language, and they know how, and when to stop the argument (WikiHow, n.d.)
References:
Almossawi, Ali (2013). Bad Arguments.
Coupland, Mary (2016). UTS Workshop week 8.
Pryor, Jim (2010). What Is an Argument?.Retrieved 10/04/2016 From http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/vocab/argument.html
University of Idaho(2004). Argument Evaluation. Retrieved 24/5/2016 from http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/crit_think/ctw-m/eval.htm
WikiHow (n.d.) . How to argue. Retrieved 10/04/2016 from http://www.wikihow.com/Argue
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