2.4: Putting Arguments into Standard Form

Although real life arguments rarely come neatly packaged, it will make our task easier if we adopt a clear format for repackaging them. We will say that an argument is in standard form if it consists of a list of all the premises, followed by the conclusion. In an argument with two premises, it will take the following form:

1. All Oklahomans are Sooners.

2. Tom is an Oklahoman.

Conclusion: Tom is a Sooner.

The line above the conclusion makes it easy to identify the conclusion at a glance. If there are more than a couple of premises, it is often handy to number them, though in simpler cases it isn’t necessary.

Arguments vs. Conditionals

One type of sentence, conditionals, are easily confused with arguments. Here is an example of a conditional sentence:

• If we had started to shelter-in-place once we learned about Covid-19, then fewer people would have died.

This is not an argument. It does not give reasons to support any claim. It doesn’t advance any conclusion. It just says that if one thing is the case, then something else is too. But this is merely hypothetical. You could assert this, but then go on to add, correctly, that people were already dying before most states gave the order, and that once we started sheltering in place we began to flat the contagion curve. Statements that make hypothetical claims like this are called conditionals. Such statements are easily confused with arguments, but they do not contain premises or conclusions. So, they aren’t arguments.

Compare the above sentence with:

• We started sheltering in place as soon as we learned about Covid19. Therefore, very few people died.

This is an argument (as it stands, it’s not a very good argument, but bad arguments are arguments too). It makes two claims, and neither is hypothetical at all. It says (falsely) that we started sheltering in place as soon as we learned about Covid-19. It also says (again, falsely) that few people died. The word ‘therefore’ is a conclusion indicator, and here it signals that the claim that few people died is the conclusion of the argument.

When you are trying to determine whether a passage contains an argument, ask yourself, “What is the other person’s point; what are they trying to get me to believe?” “What, if anything, is being supported, and what is merely being asserted?” In real life, the conclusion will often come at the very end of an argument. But it can also occur at the beginning. It may even come in between various premises. It may also be the case that some of the material is extraneous filler that really isn’t part of the argument at all.

Exercises on Identification of Arguments

For each of the passages below, label each as either ‘Argument’ or ‘Not an Argument’.

Then, for each of the arguments, do the following:

• Circle the conclusion.
• Underline each premise.
• Enclose any extraneous material in parentheses.
• If any premises or conclusions are missing, fill them in.

For each of the non-arguments, explain why they’re not arguments.

1. Hillsborough County has issued a safer-at-home order. My neighbor Brian keeps going out in his shaved ice truck. So, he is violating the order.
2. Although Trump did some terrible things, they don’t rise to the level of impeachment.
3. As long as members of al-Qaeda are on the loose, we will be in danger.
4. The Zamori tribe will eventually die out, because they initiate their young by putting them to death at the age of four (George Carlin).
5. Akiva grew up in Oklahoma, so he knows what Oklahomans need most from a meteorologist (Channel 4).
6. The race is not always to the swift or the victory to the strong, but that’s the way to bet (Dayman Runyan).
7. The ability to hold the breath is important in swimming, since it develops confidence and permits the practice of many swimming skills.
8. Avengers: Endgame is the highest grossing movie of all time. So, it must be a great film.
9. Intramural basketball started recently, so the fitness center will be crowded because lots of games will be going on.
10. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth (New Testament).
11. Blessed are the meek, but they ain’t gonna get rich (J. R. Ewing).
12. The prime numbers can’t come to an end. If they did, we could multiply all the prime numbers together and add one, and this would give us a new number. But this new number would be prime, because it would leave a remainder of 1 when divided by any of the prime numbers.
13. The Iowa State Lottery has already contributed over 41 million dollars to Iowa’s massive economic development push. The funds have been used all around the state: business incentives, cultural program, agricultural research, trade and export development, education. When you play the lottery, all of Iowa wins.
14. If you are sure, from the betting and the draw, that a player has three of a kind and you have two pairs, even aces over kings, you are a sucker to go for the full house, because the odds against buying that ace or king are prohibitive at 10.8 to 1.
15. Consciously or unconsciously, the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; she wishes to be told what is. Hence, as a rule, it is better to express even a negative claim in positive form.
16. Somebody else will get AIDS, but not me.
17. You can’t argue about right and wrong, because it’s all a matter of opinion anyway. Who’s to say what’s right and wrong?
18. Shut the door—if you don’t want the dog to get in.
19. If Osama bin Laden planned the attacks, we must track him down. And it’s clear that he did. So, we’ve got to find him.
20. Mexican Coke is better than American Coke because it is made with cane sugar.