Well, I hope the first lecture convinced you that arguments really matter.
Of course, they're not the only thing that matters,
there's more to life than reason and arguments. But, they are something that
matters, and they matter a lot. So, we need to understand arguments.
And the first step in understanding arguments is to figure out what arguments
are. And the first step in understanding what
arguments are is to figure out what arguments are not because we want to
distinguish arguments from all those things that don't count as arguing.
And the best source of information about what arguments are not is, of course,
Monty Python. Well, that was pretty silly wasn't it?
But it in the midst of all that silliness, we find some truth because,
after all, many members of the Monty Python troupe were philosophy majors.
So, each room represents a kind of thing that we need to distinguish from
arguments. So, let's think first bout getting hit on
the head lessons. Oh.
[LAUGH] Arguments are not like hitting people on the head.
You hit people on the head when you wrestle [SOUND] This is for [INAUDIBLE]
in a. [SOUND] The point is that arguments are
not fights. you don't win a argument by hitting
somebody on the head. Sometimes, little children say that their
parents are arguing when they're really having a verbal fight.
[LAUGH] All this fighting, I might as well be back with my parents.
Damn it, George, I told you if you didn't quit drinking I'd leave you.
Well, guess that makes you a liar because I'm drunk as hell and you're still here.
[LAUGH] But, you cannot win an argument just by yelling at someone.
That doesn't make the argument any better, because that's not the point of
arguing. Another room in the Monty Python skit
involves abuse. Don't give me that, you snotty-faced heap
of parrot droppings. [LAUGH] Now, abuse is one of the things
you do with language, but it's not the same as arguing.
You cannot win an argument simply by calling your opponent a stupid git.
Stupid git. And the point of this course is not to
teach you to go back and abuse your roommate by calling them nasty names,
that will not help you win any argument. It also won't help you win any friends.
And another room in the skit has to do with complaining.
Nothing happens, you might just as well not bother, and my back hurts, and we'll
never have a fine day. But all those complaints don't amount to
an argument either, they're just expressing your emotion
about the situation. Arguing is something different from all
of those rooms. So, what is arguing?
Well, at one point, one of the characters says,
well, arguing is not the same as contradiction.
It can be. No, it can't.
So, what do they mean by a contradiction? In British English, to say a
contradiction, is just to deny the person, or contradict what they said.
but contradicting what the person said, that is denying it, is not arguing.
I can say, what do you think is the best flavor of
ice-cream in the world? Well, I have my favorite. I know what the
best flavor is. The best flavor is Ben and Jerry's
Coconut Almond Fudge Chip ice cream, there's nothing better.
And then, you say, no it isn't. Well, you have an argue that it isn't and
I have an argue that it is. We're just disagreeing with each other.
We haven't given any reason for any of the positions that we've adopted yet.
So, as Monty Python says later on, in a different character.
Argument is an intellectual process. It's a process not just of asserting your
views, but of giving some kind of reason for your views.
So, the next definition that Monty Python gives of an argument is, that an argument
is a connected series of statements to establish a proposition.
I take it they mean, intended to establish a certain proposition.
So, that's a pretty cool definition, if you think about it.
Because it tells you what an argument is made of.
It's a series of statements, and statements are made in language, so
arguments are made of language. It also tells you what the purpose of
argument is. The purpose of argument, they say, is to
establish a certain proposition. So now we have a pretty neat definition
of argument. This definition gives us a nice contrast
because there are lots of other series of statements or sentences that don't count
as arguments because they're not intended to establish a proposition.
Consider for example, a novel which has statements about what's going on, but
it's not necessarily trying to establish any particular proposition.
Or a dictionary might have a series of definitions, but it's not intended to
establish a certain proposition. Instead, novels and dictionaries order
sentences in a different way. They order them either chronologically or
alphabetically. Whereas, arguments are trying to put
statements into a certain structure that reflects the order of reasoning in order
to establish the proposition, according to Monty Python.
But Monty Python, no matter how great they are, and they are great.
Didn't get it quite right because the purpose of an argument is not always to
establish a proposition because some propositions that are conclusions of
arguments we already knew. Consider, for example, a mathematical
proof. If someone tries to prove the Pythagorean
theorem in geometry, people already believe the theorem.
They already new that it was true, so they weren't trying to establish the
proposition. But the proof does something else.
It shows you how that proposition is connected to the axioms of the system and
helps you understand why the proposition is true.
And we'll see that other arguments, like explanations, do the same thing.
So sometimes, arguments are intended to establish a proposition, like Monty
Python said. But in other cases, they're intended to
help us understand the proposition and the reasons why the proposition is true.
So, we want to distinguish reasons to believe that the proposition is true from
reasons why the proposition is true. And arguments can do both of those
things. So, we need a somewhat broader definition
of argument to cover these different kinds of reasons.
We'll think of an argument as a connected series of sentences, or statements, or
propositions where some of these sentences or statements or propositions
or premises and one of them is the conclusion.
And the ones that are premises are intended to provide some kind of reason
for the one that's the conclusion. This definition is useful in many ways.
First of all, it tells us what the parts of the arguments are,
the premises and the conclusion. Secondly, it tells you what the
argument's made of. It's made of language because sentences
and statements and propositions are made in language.
Third, it tells you the purpose of argument.
To give a reason for the conclusion. Fourth, a nice feature is that it's very
flexible, because there's lots of different kinds of reasons.
We don't want our definition to be too narrow because then it won't cover all
the different kinds of arguments. And the notion of reason captures the
different kinds of relations between the premises and the conclusion in different
kinds of arguments. So, let's do a few quick exercises to
make sure that you understand how this definition works.