Why Some Arguments are Stronger than Others: Difference between revisions
(Created page with ";'''§1.5''' Mapping an argument is a way of analyzing it—breaking it up into its parts and showing how those parts fit together into a whole. The point of analyzing an argument is that it makes it easier for us to then ''assess'' the argument. When we assess an argument, we are asking how strongly it supports the conclusion—how good a reason it gives us to think that the conclusion is true. The strongest arguments enable us to tell that their conclusions are true. I...") |
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If an argument supports its conclusion strongly enough to establish it as knowledge, the argument is called '''conclusive''' and is said to be a '''proof''' or to '''prove''' the conclusion.3 These arguments are especially valuable. On the opposite extreme would be an argument that gives us no reason to believe the conclusion and so leaves us no closer to knowing it than we were before. There is no special name for such arguments, but let’s call them '''worthless''' because they don’t do any of what an argument should do. Many arguments fall in between these two extremes. That’s because knowledge isn’t an all-or-nothing affair. There is a whole spectrum between really knowing a proposition and being entirely ignorant of it. We can call this spectrum the proposition’s '''epistemic status'''. | If an argument supports its conclusion strongly enough to establish it as knowledge, the argument is called '''conclusive''' and is said to be a '''proof''' or to '''prove''' the conclusion.3 These arguments are especially valuable. On the opposite extreme would be an argument that gives us no reason to believe the conclusion and so leaves us no closer to knowing it than we were before. There is no special name for such arguments, but let’s call them '''worthless''' because they don’t do any of what an argument should do. Many arguments fall in between these two extremes. That’s because knowledge isn’t an all-or-nothing affair. There is a whole spectrum between really knowing a proposition and being entirely ignorant of it. We can call this spectrum the proposition’s '''epistemic status'''. | ||
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Revision as of 11:19, 9 August 2022
- §1.5
Mapping an argument is a way of analyzing it—breaking it up into its parts and showing how those parts fit together into a whole. The point of analyzing an argument is that it makes it easier for us to then assess the argument. When we assess an argument, we are asking how strongly it supports the conclusion—how good a reason it gives us to think that the conclusion is true. The strongest arguments enable us to tell that their conclusions are true. In doing so, they establish the conclusions as knowledge.
If an argument supports its conclusion strongly enough to establish it as knowledge, the argument is called conclusive and is said to be a proof or to prove the conclusion.3 These arguments are especially valuable. On the opposite extreme would be an argument that gives us no reason to believe the conclusion and so leaves us no closer to knowing it than we were before. There is no special name for such arguments, but let’s call them worthless because they don’t do any of what an argument should do. Many arguments fall in between these two extremes. That’s because knowledge isn’t an all-or-nothing affair. There is a whole spectrum between really knowing a proposition and being entirely ignorant of it. We can call this spectrum the proposition’s epistemic status.
