Exercise #2) I'm on my way to school. 1 I left five minutes late. 2 Traffic is heavy. 3 Therefore, I'll be late for class. 4 So i might as well stop and get breakfast. 5
Argument: Yes
Conclusion: I am going to be late for class, so I might as well stop and get breakfast.
Additional premises needed? Additional premises are needed to make this a better argument. This person does not give a reason for being five minutes late. They also need to add a premise after the fourth claim. Just because this person is going to be a few minutes late for class, they do not have a good reason to get breakfast and arrive at class even later. This would help connect the fourth and fifth claim.
Identify any sub-argument: The first three sentences of this argument are sub-arguments that support the fourth claim. The fourth claim supports the fifth claim which is the conclusion.
Good Argument: This argument is not good because it needs a premise to connect the fourth and fifth claim. If the premise was added, this would be a good argument.
This exercise was very helpful. I learned how to make arguments better and how to analyze them. I will be able to use the information I learned in this class as well as my other classes.
Hey KennyPowers,
ReplyDeleteI liked your example for the structure of arguments example. This what a rather complex idea, and you broke it down so it was easy to understand. It is true that this is an argument, however, not a good one. As you said, by adding additional premises it would make this argument better and easier to understand. For example, the exercise could be rewritten as: "I'm on my way to school. I left five minutes late. Traffic is heavy. Therefore i'll be late to class. MY TEACHER DOESN'T ACCEPT TARDY STUDENTS. So I might as well stop and get breakfast."