PHI 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: The Butler, Asthma, Iceberg

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1101
• Professor: Sardar Hosseini

Document Summary

Argument aims at taking us closer to truth. Therefore the main task of logic is to tell the good arguments from the bad ones: this is called evaluating argument. In order to evaluate an argument, we must analyze the argument, that is, identify the premise and conclusion and the relationship between them. Analyzing arguments is slightly arbitrary and artificial, but it is a helpful way of getting clearer on the content and structure of an argument. There are different ways for analyzing arguments. Start with what is clear and build from there. We put simple arguments into standard form by listing the premises one after another, drawing a line, then stating the conclusion. Ex: strikes by public employees are illegal, the teachers at ps 197 are public employees, the strike by the teachers at ps 197 is illegal. Diagramming is another useful way of analyzing arguments.