Questions tagged [argumentation]
The construction, deconstruction and presentation of arguments for a position;
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Are transcendental and indispensability arguments reciprocally structured?
This question occurred to me in the course of addressing a recent question about what counts as evidence in philosophy. There, I offered that transcendental arguments are structurally akin to ...
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What constitutes evidence in philosophy?
I have noticed an apparent confusion when posing and answering questions as to what constitutes evidence in philosophy. Especially in scientifically-related areas, I often cite scientific evidence ...
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Do some philosophical questions tend to entertain vacuous ideas?
Empty, inane, devoid of value. This is a dictionary definition of the word "vacuous". Are vacuous ideas worthy of consideration? I mean no offence, but I fail to see the sensible intent ...
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Is reason under challenge? [closed]
I find the resurgence in the new century of pseudoscience, religious extremism, and irrationalism disturbing. Reason was pre-eminent throughout the previous two centuries. Is reason being seriously ...
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What is the burden of proof? Has this principle ever been challenged?
I have been surprised to find that some people doubt this principle. Onus probandi incumbit ei qui dicit, non ei qui negat - the burden of proof lies with the speaker, not with the one who negates. I ...
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Should proofs of God involve the infinitary language ℒ(∞,∞)?
If God is an infinite being (per Scotus, say), and if no finite number of steps in an argument is adequate to the scope of the divine majesty, then the strictures of monadic theism aside (God as a ...
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The Likelyhood Principle and Baysean Statistics
I am reading Kotzen's paper Selection Bias in Likelihood Arguments.
The author takes the following principle as a starting point:
I'm confused as to how to formalize this notion in terms of Bayesian ...
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How to best develop writing and argumentation skills on a philosophy self-study track?
I am about to embark on a journey of Philosophy self-study. I have a curriculum I want to pursue, covering all majour branches of philosophy. I also have a reading list which includes set texts, text ...
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Examples of situations where explaining the situation destabilizes the mind [closed]
Could someone please provide, using logic, or some other reasoning or portrayal, an example of a situation where explaining the situation destabilizes the mind?
Thank you.
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Argument analysis question
A simple question for those familiar with argument analysis / formalization. Can you elaborate and explain what is going on in the following two arguments? They appear to lead to opposing conclusions ...
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What is the justification of a complex dilemma?
7.8 The Dilemma in Copi's Introduction to Logic says:
Complex dilemma: An argument consisting of (a) a disjunction, (b) two conditional premises linked by a conjunction, and (c) a conclusion
that ...
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How should an argument containing an exceptive proposition be tested?
IX. Exceptive Propositions in 7.3 Translating Categorical Propositions into Standard Form in Copi's Introduction to Logic says:
Because exceptive propositions are not categorical propositions but
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Word-Pairing Rhetorical Tactic
I am looking for a name referring to a rhetoric/propaganda tactic in which words are paired together to change perceptions? For example, if I said, "a controversial speaker is giving a lecture at ...
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For what kind of P is "if P were the case, I would know that P" true?
Consider arguments of the following form for some proposition P:
If P were the case, I would know that P.
But I don't know that P.
Therefore, it is not the case that P.
I am wondering what kind of ...
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Model of an argument
I have the thought that an informal argument is fundamentally about building a justification graph: a directed acyclic graph from premise propositions to intermediate and conclusion propositions, ...
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Is the Law of Excluded Middle an allowed argument in court?
Is the Law of Excluded Middle a valid deduction rule in court? If not, is it reasonable to say that all arguments in court must be "constructive in nature"?
As an example, consider this ...
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Why is Occam’s razor faulted for being a heuristic when almost everything in philosophy is?
I am confused as to why any sort of discussion about Occam’s Razor, without fail, has the addendum mentioning how the tool doesn’t prove anything. But quite literally, unless something is logically ...
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Is the argument by analogy logically consistent?
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/#ArguAnal
I'm a bit confused by the criticism here.
That is, this argument has no problems with logical sequence and if the premises are correct, then ...
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What is the fallacy called where "Nothing a liar said can be true?"
What is the fallacy called where "Nothing a liar said can be true" (i.e., "false in most things, false in everything")?
For example, consider that 99% of something someone said is ...
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Type of false reasoning?
I don't have extensive background in philosophy but I try to outline my question clearly.
I am arguing with a person who always uses the same logic.
We have an outcome X such a medical disease ...
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Is this argument about computers and consciousness logically valid?
Assume 1) You can make a conscious agent consisting of a robot controlled by some computer; 2) There are no zombies 3) You replace the computer by a chinese-like room version that behaves identically.
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If moral statements aren't supposed to be reports of objective facts, does the practice of "fallacy checking" apply to moral arguments?
Maybe this is just a case of Jörgensen’s dilemma, but so I was reading the SEP article about feminist perspectives on argumentation, more specifically this passage:
The difficulty some philosophers ...
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How did Nietzsche prove his will to power?
Was Nietzsche right about the will to power? Specifically, did he (or any of his interpreters) prove (let's take Kant's system as a cut off for 'proof') that the will to power, either individually or ...
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If we can't be 100% sure of anything, then we have to believe everything with a grain of salt?
If we can't be 100% sure of anything, then we should trust everything with mistrust and suspicion?
For example, the existence of other minds, the existence of the outside world, etc. is currently ...
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What does the IBE argument (the best explanation argument) look like in favor of the existence of other minds?
I have read several versions of the IBE argument for the existence of other minds.
But I got a little confused.
Now I'm not sure I know what it should sound like.
How should the IBE argument (argument ...
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Help to understand the use of arguments
If the arguments have the same conclusions, but the premises in one argument contradict the premises in another argument, then these arguments cannot be used together. I am right?
For example I have ...
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Logical Analysis of Argument
Andrew: I think this country needs more scientists.
Britney: But if everyone were scientists, then we won't have any artists! And without artists, we might as well all be robots.
Is Britney's argument ...
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Can I use multiple justifications for believing in the existence of other minds?
Can I use multiple justifications for believing in the existence of other minds?
There are several good justifications for our belief in the existence of other minds.
Theory of mind, which is part of ...
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Objection to Famine, Affluence and Morality
If you can prevent something bad from happening at the cost of something less bad, you ought to do it.
The second principle, as quoted above, is the link between the seemingly obvious claim that:
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What is this "going to the other extreme to make it look stupid to prove something"?
I don't know why I see this so often.
When I say, it may not be good to sell 35 years of your life to the corporate world in a stressful way being golden handcuffed by a high salary or stock, somebody ...
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What are philosophical arguments for the position that Intelligent Design is nothing but "Creationism in disguise"?
I would like to start this question quoting one of the comments to this answer to the question Does Intelligent Design (ID) entail an infinite regress of designers, and if so, is that problematic?.
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Does an argument require an explicit statement of conclusion?
The book I'm reading Critical Thinking by Brooke Noel Moore, Richard Parker says that the following is an argument.
John Montgomery has been the Eastern Baseball League’s best closer this
season. ...
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Explain how the Phenomenal Conservatism and Common Sense Privilege arguments works to justify belief in other minds
Please explain how the Phenomenal Conservatism and Common Sense Privilege argument works to justify belief in other minds.
Here it is written that it is used to justify belief in other minds, but I ...
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Location of the sky (universe) according to Aristotle
Aristotle wrote in his Physics:
The earth is in the water, the water is in the air, the air is in the
ether, the ether is in the sky, and the sky is no longer in anything
else.
Do you agree with ...
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If an argument cannot be known as sound, can it still be claimed as sound?
I have read the the criteria to determine if an argument is sound is if its claim is valid and its premises are true.
However, what if no one can know whether or not an argument is sound because no ...
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what do you call a logical argument between 2 people who hav personal grudges? Its opposite of Ad Hominem bt not Inverse Ad Hominem. what's it called?
If A and B already have personal grudges but keep that aside, they are discussing a subject and a conflict erupts argument. Their points are based on the subject only and nothing personal but the heat ...
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How does pluralism about doxastic logic work?
If person M has a concept of belief, and a logic for that concept, B1, but some other person N has concept B2, with different inference rules over the operator, then on the first-order level, does M ...
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What is (or should be) the logical structure of a demarcation argument?
I am working on a scholarly article that attempts to define "theory" in my scholarly field, which is a social science. (My field is information systems, mainly a hybrid between information ...
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Analytically, what is the difference between the essay questions: "What does it mean to argue that X?", and "Is it the case that X?"
I'm trying to work out the best way to approach this (3rd year undergraduate) essay titled in the form "What does it mean to argue that X?", and I'm having difficulty expressing a case for ...
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Does a counterargument exist to the claim "Too much diversity is a problem/cannot be controlled"?
Since I live in America i'll make an example using that. People nowadays (2023 as I write this) say that our government will get increasingly more diverse, which will lead to more issues and points-of-...
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What is a convincing explanation of how Russell's "golden mountains" argument is logically fallacious?
Here is the now famous passage in his book on Western philosophy where Bertrand Russell explains why Aristotle's position that the universal affirmative "All Greeks are men" implies the ...
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What kind of a logical fallacy is giving an example from the past - in order to justify present unjustice?
I was wondering what kind of fallacy is giving an example that occurred in the past, and thus saying we don't need to worry about the present as the same or worse happened in the past. I would like to ...
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The term "ad hominem" used as "appeal to authority", and tradition in argument classification
I saw the claim that an appeal to authority was an "ad hominem". This contradicts how I have always seen the two terms used. I am interested in if there is a tradition in "argument ...
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Dawkins on God: What are the strongest counters to his argument?
But the candidate solutions to the riddle of improbability are not, as is falsely implied, design and chance. They are design and natural selection. Chance is not a solution, given the high levels of ...
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Axioms/premises vs. rules of inference
Deductive philosophical arguments are often presented semi-formally as a list of premises and the conclusion (and sometimes combinations of such sub-arguments). What is virtually never stated are the ...
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Are retorsion arguments in epistemology generally problematic?
An retorsion argument consists in pointing out how a claim is self-defeating.
Of course, I accept that there are sound arguments of this type that don't misrepresent the original position. But they ...
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Why is Diogenes the Cynic's solution to Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox insufficient?
According to Wikipedia's discussion of Zeno's Dichotomy paradox (emphasis mine),
According to Simplicius, Diogenes the Cynic said nothing upon hearing Zeno's arguments, but stood up and walked, in ...
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How do philosophers support their faith in other minds? [duplicate]
How do you support your belief that other people have minds like yours?
Do you use any arguments to explain the reasons for your belief?
I believe that other people have minds and mental states like ...
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Please clarify this answer about the argument
I did not understand how this argument should sound.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/#BestExpl
The article reads as follows: On this way of thinking, mental states are taken to be inner ...
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Is this statement convincing and good? [closed]
There is the following wording:
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.
What type of argument is this?
If we use this argument in favor of the existence ...