Philosophy 107 (2-3-20) PDF

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Taught by Neil Tognazzini...

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Philosophy 107 2/3/20 Arguments: -

Anytime you have one thing being offered as a reason to believe another thing, you have an argument In our structured paraphrases, arguments are indicated by [s] or [ri], depending on the priorities of the author Schematic Form: o Argument = Support / Conclusion o You can think of schematic form as a paraphrase of the reasoning

Schematic Form -

[s]  Secondary point / Main point  Secondary point is above main point [ri]  Main Point / Secondary Point  Main point is above secondary point Put support above the main point if [s] o

Tributary Arguments: -

In the simplest case, the support in a passage all leads to one conclusion o But often we’ll also be given support for the support  When that happens, we’ll have tributary arguments o “Our best hitter is out for the rest of the season, so we’ll probably come in last place, which means that ill likely be fired.” MP: Our best hitter is out for the season. [ri]/[re]

SP: We’ll come in last place.

[ri]/[re]

SP: I’ll be fired.

TO S1: Our best hitter is out for the season. S2: We’ll come in last place. C: I’ll be fired

S1: Our best hitter is out for the season.

S2: We’ll come in last

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S2: We’ll come in last place

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C: I’ll be fired.

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A tributary argument is one whose conclusion also serves as a piece of support in another argument. Another way to think about it: o An argument is generated by attempting to defend a conclusion o You assert: C. Your friend asks: why do you think that? S1 S2 ---C

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But this will be convincing only if your friend already accepts S1 and S2. If they don’t, they may continue to press you: why do you accept S1? The next move in the conversation would then be to give a tributary argument in favor of S1. And so on....