Many texts aim to persuade without offering, or even trying to offer, a reason to be persuaded. Consider ads, any ad. Such texts offer mere assertions, rather than arguments. And knowing the difference makes all the difference.
A mere assertion aims at persuading you of some claim without offering reasons to think it's true. Often a mere assertion is dressed with such flare or hurled with such boldness that it feels persuasive in spite of its lack of substance.
In contrast, an argument tries to give you reasons for believing things. It is a set of claims offered as support for some other claim.
An argument’s premises are the claims offered as support; its conclusion, the claim supported.
An argument, in this sense, is not a debate, and it is not always an instrument of persuasion. A bunch of philosophers can sit around talking about some weird argument, even though none of them are using it to persuade any of the others. Actually, they do this for a living.
How can you tell if something is a mere assertion or an actual argument? Ask yourself: Are there premises that are distinct claims from the central claim, or does the passage just repeat the central claim over and over in different ways?
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Assuming an argument is being given, it is important to assess whether the argument is good. A good argument is one that succeeds at giving a reason for its conclusion. But before you can do that, obviously, you must know how the argument goes.
Here, a useful convention is to number the claims of an argument.
For instance, consider this argumentative paragraph: I think Biff is the ice-cream bandit. After all, when I saw him on the day of the heist, he had ice cream all over his hands!
We can rewrite this argument with numbered claims:
Biff had ice cream all over his hands.
If Biff had ice cream all over his hands, then he is the ice cream bandit.
So, Biff is the ice-cream bandit.
The benefit of this is that it makes the argument totally clear. 1 and 2 are the premises, and 3 is the conclusion. Now we can see exactly what the premises claim, and how the conclusion follows.
Why does such clarity matter? For the simple reason that a clear argument allows for an apt response.
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Often, when reading or listening, it’s hard to see just what the argument is supposed to be. Some advice: identity the conclusion first, then work backwards to the premises.
How do you find the conclusion? Look for the telling terms, such as:
So
Thus
Therefore
Accordingly
And how do you find the premises from there? Start by clearing the underbrush. Bracket off mere background information, bits of text that help the reader follow along, but don’t directly contribute to the reasoning.
For example, imagine an essay that starts like this: Self-driving cars are already on the streets. But are such vehicles ethical? I want to argue they are not, because they come with grave unforeseen risks.
The first two sentences don’t bear on the reasoning; they just provide some useful background. Cross them out, kill them, until only the premises remain.
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One take-away for the life of the mind: When you hear an argument given at a party or around the dinner table, it will often be phrased as a rhetorical question, a passing jab, a fist pounding the table. Alas, people do not often slow down to present their arguments in an ordered way. To address the actual reasoning, then, take some time and write out the argument with numbered premises, just as I’ve done above. (You’ll want to do this alone, of course, lest others weary of your company.) Then you’ll have something to respond to rationally.
Advice to Christians: This is an important way of managing doubts which, like many fears, gain their strength by remaining only half-articulated.
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