PHI-2100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Enthymeme, Co-Premise
Document Summary
Use the standards of validity and soundness to determine which assumptions can be fairly added in order to make deductive arguments complete. You can always make an argument valid by adding a conditional whose antecedent is the premises and whose consequent is the conclusion. People have called premises that are not stated but are needed (to make the argument valid and explain how it works) suppressed premises. An argument depending on suppressed premises is called an enthymeme and is called enthymematic. To trace the pathway between premises and conclusion, it is usually necessary to fill in these suppressed premises that serve as links between the stated premises and the conclusion. An argument is a single premise which has grown to include three stages with at least four suppressed premises. We cannot assume that the person who gave the original argument had a more complete argument in mind (so never assume this).
