Presentation 2b: Putting Arguments in Standard Form

Summary

This lecture explains how to put arguments in standard form to clarify their structure for better understanding and evaluation. It outlines steps such as numbering and separating premises, identifying conclusions, removing indicators, and rewriting statements for clarity. An example involving the argument 'cats are warm-blooded' is used to demonstrate the process. The lecture also highlights handling implicit premises and conclusions, and rewording rhetorical questions. This method helps present arguments clearly, making it easier to assess their validity.

Takeaways

• 📝 Standard form is used to clarify the structure of arguments.
• 🔢 Number and display each premise on a separate line.
• ✂️ Split premises occurring in one sentence into two lines for clarity.
• 🔄 Move the conclusion to the last line, even if it appears earlier in the text.
• 🚫 Remove premise and conclusion indicators once identified.
• 🧹 Rewrite premises and conclusions to be clear, explicit, and complete.
• 💡 Look for conclusion indicators like 'from all this it follows that' to identify conclusions.
• 🐱 In the example, the conclusion is that 'cats are warm-blooded.'
• 🔍 Rhetorical questions may imply conclusions that should be stated explicitly.
• 🧩 Include any implicit premises or conclusions when putting an argument in standard form.

Q & A

What is 'standard form' in the context of arguments?

Standard form is a way of organizing an argument by clearly displaying its premises and conclusion. It helps to clarify the structure and makes it easier to analyze and evaluate the argument.

How are premises arranged in standard form?

In standard form, each premise is numbered and displayed on a separate line. If two premises occur in one sentence, they are split into two lines to make it clear that they are separate premises.

Where is the conclusion placed in standard form?

The conclusion is always placed on the last line, even if in the original text it appeared at the beginning. Conclusion indicators are replaced with a simple indicator like 'therefore'.

What are premise indicators, and why are they removed in standard form?

Premise indicators are words or phrases that signal the presence of a premise, such as 'because' or 'since'. In standard form, these are removed because the premises are already numbered, making them redundant.

What should be done if a premise or conclusion is written in a confusing or incomplete way?

Premises and conclusions should be rewritten so that they are complete, explicit, and clear. This ensures that the argument is easier to understand and evaluate.

How was the argument about cats and mammals put into standard form?

The argument was rewritten by identifying the conclusion ('Cats are warm-blooded') and displaying it after two separate premises: (1) 'If cats are mammals, they are warm-blooded' and (2) 'Cats are mammals.' This clarified the argument structure.

What should be kept in mind about the position of the conclusion in a text?

The conclusion does not always appear at the end of a text. However, in standard form, it is always moved to the last line for clarity.

What should be done if an argument's conclusion is implied and not explicitly stated?

If the conclusion is implied, such as in a rhetorical question, it should be reworded as a straightforward statement. For example, 'How can you believe it's OK to feed this to children?' should be reworded as 'It is not OK to feed this cereal to children.'

How should implicit premises be handled in standard form?

Any implicit premises should be included in standard form to ensure the argument is complete. This makes the reasoning behind the conclusion fully explicit.

Why is it helpful to put an argument in standard form?

Putting an argument in standard form clarifies its structure, making it easier to understand the relationship between premises and conclusion. This aids in evaluating the strength of the argument.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Introduction to Standard Form

This paragraph introduces the concept of putting arguments into 'standard form,' a method used to clarify the structure of arguments. The presenter emphasizes the importance of clearly identifying premises and conclusions to better understand, analyze, and evaluate arguments.

📝 Steps to Put Arguments in Standard Form

This section outlines the steps for converting arguments into standard form. It involves numbering and separating premises, ensuring clarity by splitting multiple premises in one sentence, and placing the conclusion at the end of the argument. Premise and conclusion indicators should be removed or simplified for clarity, and all statements should be rewritten to be explicit and understandable.

📖 Example Argument: Cats and Mammals

An example argument is provided, demonstrating how to identify premises and conclusions within a text. The argument suggests that if cats are mammals, they are warm-blooded. The presenter explains how to separate premises in a single sentence and label them accordingly, followed by identifying and clarifying the conclusion.

🔄 Identifying Premises and Conclusion

Here, the presenter explains the process of identifying premises and conclusions using indicators. They show how the phrase 'from all this it follows that' is a conclusion indicator and how the premises should be rewritten to clarify the subject. In this case, 'they' is replaced with 'cats' to avoid ambiguity.

✔️ Rewriting for Clarity

The importance of rewriting both premises and conclusions is emphasized in this paragraph. The rewritten version ensures that ambiguous terms like 'they' are clarified, making the argument's structure much easier to follow. The presenter stresses that presenting arguments in standard form simplifies evaluation.

📌 Key Tips for Standard Form

This section provides important reminders when putting arguments in standard form. The conclusion does not always appear at the end of a text, and it is crucial to include implicit premises and conclusions that may not be explicitly stated. The presenter also highlights how rhetorical questions might imply conclusions that should be clearly stated in standard form.

🤔 Handling Rhetorical Questions

An example of a rhetorical question is presented to illustrate how to handle implicit conclusions. The rhetorical question 'How can you believe it’s OK to feed this to children?' is reworded into a clear, straightforward conclusion: 'It is not okay to feed this cereal to children.' This example demonstrates how implicit arguments should be made explicit when reformulating them.

🎯 Including Implicit Premises and Conclusions

This final paragraph stresses the importance of including implicit premises and conclusions when converting an argument into standard form. The presenter wraps up by reinforcing the need for clarity and explicitness in every part of the argument.

👋 Conclusion and Thanks

The video concludes with a brief farewell and a thank you message to the viewers, signaling the end of the presentation.

Keywords

💡Standard form

Standard form refers to a method of organizing and presenting arguments in a clear and structured way. It involves numbering and listing each premise on separate lines, followed by the conclusion. The purpose is to clarify the argument's logical structure, making it easier to analyze and evaluate. In the video, this method is demonstrated by separating two premises in a single sentence about cats being mammals and warm-blooded.

💡Premise

A premise is a statement or proposition that provides support for the argument's conclusion. In the video, the premises of the example argument are 'if cats are mammals, they are warm-blooded' and 'cats are mammals'. These premises are split and rewritten clearly to show the reasoning behind the argument. The video emphasizes the importance of making premises explicit for better understanding.

💡Conclusion

The conclusion is the statement that the premises are intended to support. It represents the main point or claim of the argument. In the example provided in the video, the conclusion is that 'cats are warm-blooded'. The video shows how to move the conclusion to the end of the argument and clarify it by removing unnecessary conclusion indicators.

💡Premise indicators

Premise indicators are words or phrases that signal the presence of a premise in an argument. Examples include 'because', 'since', or 'as'. The video suggests removing these indicators when putting an argument in standard form, as they become redundant once the premises are clearly numbered and listed. This helps simplify the structure of the argument.

💡Conclusion indicators

Conclusion indicators are words or phrases that introduce the conclusion of an argument, such as 'therefore', 'thus', or 'it follows that'. In the video, the phrase 'from all this it follows that' is identified as a conclusion indicator, which is replaced with a simpler 'therefore' when the argument is put into standard form. The goal is to make the argument more concise and clear.

💡Conditional claim

A conditional claim is a statement in the form 'if... then...', where the truth of one statement (the antecedent) depends on the truth of another (the consequent). In the example given in the video, the conditional claim is 'if cats are mammals, they are warm-blooded'. This premise is crucial for the structure of the argument and is separated out clearly when rewriting the argument in standard form.

💡Implicit premises

Implicit premises are unstated assumptions that are necessary for the argument to work but are not explicitly mentioned. The video explains that when putting an argument in standard form, it’s important to include any implicit premises. These might be ideas that the speaker assumes are understood, but making them explicit helps clarify the argument.

💡Rhetorical question

A rhetorical question is a question that is asked for effect or to make a point, rather than to elicit an answer. In the video, an example is provided where a rhetorical question ('How can you believe it’s OK to feed this to children?') implies a conclusion ('It is not okay to feed this cereal to children'). The video discusses how such implied conclusions should be rewritten in standard form for clarity.

💡Rewriting arguments

Rewriting arguments involves clarifying and restructuring the premises and conclusion to ensure that they are explicit, complete, and easy to understand. The video stresses that when putting arguments into standard form, rewriting is often necessary to make ambiguous or implicit statements more direct. This makes it easier to evaluate the argument's logical flow.

💡Evaluation

Evaluation refers to the process of assessing the validity and soundness of an argument. The video highlights that putting arguments in standard form helps make the structure of the argument clearer, which in turn makes evaluation more straightforward. By clearly separating premises and the conclusion, it becomes easier to see if the argument is logically consistent and whether the premises adequately support the conclusion.

Highlights

Introduction to putting arguments in standard form to clarify structure.

Standard form makes it clear what the premises are and what the conclusion is.

To put an argument in standard form, number each premise on a separate line.

If a sentence contains multiple premises, split them into separate lines.

The conclusion is displayed on the last line, regardless of its original position.

Remove all premise indicators, as they are redundant once premises are numbered.

Use 'therefore' as a simple conclusion indicator and remove other complex indicators.

Rewrite premises and conclusions to be clear, complete, and explicit.

Example given: Cats are mammals; they are warm-blooded, and it follows that cats are warm-blooded.

In standard form, split premises and conclusion into separate lines for clarity.

Rewritten premise for clarity: Replace ambiguous pronouns like 'they' with explicit references.

Putting arguments in standard form helps clarify the reasoning and structure for evaluation.

The conclusion of an argument is not always the last sentence in the original text.

Implied conclusions can occur, such as those posed as rhetorical questions.

Implicit premises should be made explicit when putting an argument in standard form.

Transcripts

Hello, and welcome to lecture 2b: Putting  Arguments in Standard Form. In this presentation,  

we will talk about how to put arguments in what  we will call “standard form”, which is one way of  

recasting them that clarifies their structure. In order to understand, analyze, and evaluate an  

argument, it can be helpful to display it a  way that makes clear precisely what are the  

premises and what is the conclusion. This way of displaying arguments is  

known as the standard form (or standard format) Here is how to put an argument in standard form.  

Number and display each premise on a separate  line. Sometimes two premises will occur in one  

sentence. Split these up over two lines so it’s  clear that there are two separate premises.  

Display the conclusion on the last line. Sometimes  in a text, the conclusion occurs at the beginning.  

Move it to the end. Remove all premise indicators.  

We already know what the premises are  from our numbered list of premises.  

Remove all conclusion indicators or replace with  a simple conclusion indicator like “therefore”.  

Rewrite premises and conclusion  so that they are complete,  

explicit, and clear. Sometimes premises  and conclusions are written in a confusing,  

incomplete, or implicit way---clean all  that up so it’s clear just what they are.  

Let’s go through an example of putting  an argument in standard form.  

Here is the original argument text: If cats are mammals, they are warm-blooded,  

and they are indeed mammals! From all this  it follows that cats are warm-blooded.  

To put an argument in standard form, we first need  to identify the premises and the conclusion.  

And to do this, it helps to look for  premise and conclusion indicators.  

Here “from all this it follows  that” is a conclusion indicator.  

So, we can see that the conclusion  is that cats are warm-blooded.  

We labeled the conclusion with a “C”  and replaced the wordy conclusion  

indicator with the simple one “therefore”.  

Let’s turn now to the premises. In this text, the premises come  

before the conclusion, though  this needn’t always be the case.  

The premises are the conditional claim that  if cats are mammals, they are warm-blooded,  

and the claim that cats are mammals. These premises occurred in one single sentence,  

but to put the argument in standard form, we have  to separate the two premises into two sentences  

and display them on two separate lines. I labeled them as (P1) and (P2).  

I could have also just labeled them as  (1) and (2)---that would have been fine.  

Notice that we rewrote the first premise to  make it clear that “they” refers to cats. We  

also rewrote the second premise to make clear  that “they”, there again, refers to cats.  

And there you have it. We’ve presented  the argument in standard form.  

As we can see, the argument  presented in standard form is  

much clearer than the original text.  It’s much easier to understand and,  

eventually, to evaluate it. We can see more clearly what the  

conclusion is supposed to be and what are  the reasons put forth for believing it.  

When putting an argument in standard form,  here are a few things to keep in mind.  

The conclusion of an argument need not be the  last line in a text containing the argument.  

Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes  an argument’s conclusion is not explicitly stated.  

For instance, it might be implied  by a rhetorical question.  

For example, consider this argument:  This cereal is full of toxic chemicals.  

How can you believe it’s OK to feed this to  children? The conclusion is in the form of a  

rhetorical question. Of course, in putting this  argument in standard form, we would reword the  

conclusion more straightforwardly as “It is  not okay to feed this cereal to children”.  

Similarly, a premise might not be explicitly  stated but might rather be left implicit.  

When putting an argument in standard form, we  include any implicit premises and conclusions.  

Thank you for watching. That’s it for now.