Welcome back. In the previous lecture, we saw a
definition of argument as a connected series of sentences, statements, or
propositions, where some of those sentences,
statements, and propositions are premises and one of them is a conclusion.
And the premises are intended to give some kind of reason, for the conclusion.
In this lecture, we're going to look at the purposes for which people give
arguments, because the purposes are crucial in determining what an object is.
Take for example an artifact that you might find at an archaeological site.
You won't be able to figure out whether it's a really big screwdriver or a really
small spatula, unless you know whether the people who used it intended it to
screw screws, or to pick up food that they were cooking.
So to understand arguments we need to understand the purposes for arguments.
And that means, why does somebody bother to give an argument instead of just
asserting the conclusion without an argument?
Well, just think about it. If you went to a used car lot and the
salesman said, you want to buy that Mustang?
Would that convince you? Not a chance.
But if the salesman said, you want to buy that Mustang because it looks really
cool, and it goes really fast, or maybe it has great gas mileage, or whatever,
and gives you a series of reasons, then you might be convinced to buy the
Mustang. So that's one purpose of arguments, to
try to convince you to do things, or to believe things, that you wouldn't
otherwise do or believe. So this purpose is persuading or
convincing, and if you think about it, what the salesman's trying to do is he's
trying to change your mental states. He's trying to make you believe something
that you didn't believe, or do something that you didn't do.
So he's trying to bring about an effect in the world.
But that's just one purpose of arguments. We don't always act like salesmen.
Sometimes, instead of trying to change people's beliefs, we're simply trying to
give them a reason for their belief or for our belief.
And to give them a reason is not necessarily to convince them, or persuade
them, or change their beliefs. When we're simply trying to give them a
reason to believe the conclusion, we're going to call that justification.
So imagine that your friend, you're not a salesman, you're a friend, imagine that
your friend is thinking about buying a car and he doesn't know which one to buy.
You might say, well, I think you ought to buy the Mustang, because it looks really
good, and it goes really fast, and it's actually got pretty good gas mileage, and
it's quite reliable, or whatever. You're not necessarily trying to convince
her to buy that car. It'd be fine with you if she bought any
car she wanted, any car that would make her happy.
You're trying to talk about the reasons for buying the car, so that she can make
her own decision. In that sense, you're trying to justify
that decision, or that belief that the Mustang is the best car for her to buy
and not necessarily to convince her or persuade her.
If she comes up with great reasons to the contrary, you're perfectly happy,
whereas the salesman wouldn't be. But notice, that you might give exactly
the same reasons that the salesman did. Exactly the argument that the salesman
did. The difference lies in the purpose,
because the salesman is trying to convince her to change her beliefs and
actions. But your goal, with your friend is to
discuss the reasons for her decision or action.
So you're thinking about justification and the salesman was thinking about
persuasion. That really matters whether your goal is
justification or persuasion, because there's a big difference here.
If you're trying to justify your friend's belief or your friend's action,
then you're trying to give her good reasons.
The salesman can convince her or persuade her with bad reasons.
So it doesn't matter to his purposes whether the arguments that he gives are
any good or bad, as long as they work to affect that change in the world,
whereas, you care about whether your arguments and your reasons are good
reasons or arguments, because you're trying to justify that
belief or that action. And of course, people can try to do all
of these things at once. They can mix them together in various
ways and that can get complicated, so when someone gives you an argument,
you need to ask a series of questions. The first thing you need to ask is, is
this person trying to change my mind or change my behavior?
If so, then their goal is persuasion or to convince you.
Then you need to ask, are they trying to give reasons for changing my mind or for
believing if I already believed it. Well, if they're doing that then your
goal is justification. And if you go down that series of
questions, you'll be able to understand what the purpose of giving the argument
is, at least for this range of cases. So let's do a few exercises just to make
sure that you understand justification before we go on to the next purpose of
argument which will be explanation.