Chapter 2
Distinguishing Arguments from
Non-arguments
The aim of this tutorial is to help you
identify arguments and distinguish them
from various kinds of non-arguments.
An argument is a claim defended with reasons.
More precisely, a passage is an argument if and only if:
(a) it is a group of two or more statements
(b) one of those statements (the conclusion) is claimed or
intended to be supported by the other(s) (the premises).
Notice three important things that follow from this
definition:
1. Arguments consist entirely of statements, i.e., sentences that it
makes sense to regard as either true or false. Questions,
commands, exclamations, and other kinds of nonstatements
cannot be parts of arguments. (Keep in mind, however, that
rhetorical questions should be treated as statements.)
2. No single statement, however long, complex, or controversial,
is an argument. Arguments always consist of at least two
statements.
3. Nothing counts as an argument unless it is claimed or intended
that one statement follows from one or more other statements
in the passage. In other words, a passage is an argument only
if the speaker or writer intends to offer evidence or reasons
why another statement should be accepted as true.
Five kinds of passages that are sometimes confused with
arguments are:
•reports
•unsupported statements of belief or opinion
•Illustrations
•conditional statements
•explanations
Planet Earth was much drier in the Triassic than it is now,
and there were large deserts in inland areas. There were no
flowering plants or grasses--they evolved much later. The
most common trees were conifers, similar to today's pines.
Other large plants included yews, ginkgos, and the
palmlike cycads. Moisture-loving ferns and horsetails
thrived by lakes and rivers.
Philip Whitfield, Simon & Schuster's Children's Guide to
Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals, 1992)
This passage is a report.
A report is a statement or group of statements intended simply to
convey information about a subject.
Keep in mind that reports of other people's arguments should be
regarded as reports rather than as arguments.
1. Begin each day with a prayer. 2. Work hard. 3. Love your
family. 4. Make light of your troubles. 5. Follow the Golden Rule.
6. Read from the Bible. 7. Show kindness. 8. Read worthwhile
books. 9. Be clean and pure. 10. Have charity in your heart. 11.
Be obedient and respectful. 12. End the day in prayer. These
twelve rules, the "Quaker Dozen," were written long ago in a
family Bible. But I believe they still fit today's problems.
(Adapted from Olive Ireland Theen, "Grandfather's Quaker
Dozen," in William Nichol, ed., A New Treasury of Words to Live
By, 1959)
This passage is an unsupported statement of belief or opinion.
An unsupported statement of belief or opinion is a statement or
set of statements in which the speaker or writer expresses his or
her personal opinion, but offers no reasons or evidence to back
up that opinion.
Almost all groups agree in holding other groups to be
inferior to themselves. The American Indians looked upon
themselves as the chosen people, specially created by the
Great Spirit as an uplifting example for mankind. One
Indian tribe called itself "The Only Men"; another called
itself "Men of Men"; the Caribs said, "We alone are
people." (Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, 1935)
This passage is an illustration.
An illustration is a passage intended to provide examples that illustrate or
support a claim, not to provide convincing evidence that the claim is true.
The three examples cited in this passage are clearly insufficient to
support the author's claim that "almost all groups agree in holding other
groups to be inferior to themselves." This indicates that the passage is
intended to illustrate the author's claim, rather than to prove it.
If Hal comes to the party than Sarah will come to the party.
This passage is a conditional statement.
A conditional statement is an if-then statement. It is an assertion that
such-and-such is true if something else is true.
Conditional statements are not arguments because arguments always
contain at least two statements and conditional statements consist of
only a single statement: " Statement A is true on the condition that
statement B is true."
In the passage above, the speaker or writer isn't asserting that Hal will
come to the party. Nor is she asserting that Sarah will come to the party.
Rather, she is asserting that Sarah will come to the party provided that
Hal comes to the party. This is a single statement, and thus is not an
argument.
I speak English because my parents sent me to boarding
school in London.
This passage is an explanation.
An explanation is a statement or set of statements that seeks to
provide an account of why something has occurred or why
something is the case.
In this passage, the speaker or writer isn't trying to prove that he
can speak English (that's obvious from the fact that he is
speaking English!). Rather, he is trying to explain why he speaks
English.
In other words, arguments seek to provide evidence or reasons
that something is the case; explanations seek to explain why
something is the case.
For the person who called and said Larry Bird was better
than Michael Jordan, wake up. No one was ever better than
Michael Jordan, not even Kareem in his glory and not even
Dr. J (From a newspaper call-in column)
Is this passage an argument or not an argument?
If it is not an argument, is it a report, an unsupported
statement of belief or opinion, an illustration, a conditional
statement, or an explanation?
For the person who called and said Larry Bird was better
than Michael Jordan, wake up. No one was ever better than
Michael Jordan, not even Kareem in his glory and not even
Dr. J (From a newspaper call-in column)
Non-argument (unsupported statement of belief or
opinion).
In this passage, the speaker simply asserts his opinion; he
makes no effort to defend it.
When a democratic society is correctly understood to be
one in which the people live under constitutional
government with universal suffrage and with the securing
of human rights, economic as well as political, for all
citizens, it must then be recognized that a democratic
society is not yet fifty years old in this country
(Mortimer J. Adler, The Paideia Proposal, 1984)
Is this passage an argument or not an argument?
If it is not an argument, is it a report, an unsupported
statement of belief or opinion, an illustration, a conditional
statement, or an explanation?
When a democratic society is correctly understood to be
one in which the people live under constitutional
government with universal suffrage and with the securing
of human rights, economic as well as political, for all
citizens, it must then be recognized that a democratic
society is not yet fifty years old in this country
(Mortimer J. Adler, The Paideia Proposal, 1984)
Argument.
The writer is giving a reason to support his claim
that democracy is less than fifty years old in the United
States.
If a claim or position is being set forth and no other explicit
or implicit statement is used to support it, then the spoken
or written material in question is not an argument
(T. Edward Damer, Attacking Faulty Reasoning, 4th ed.,
2001)
Is this passage an argument or not an argument?
If it is not an argument, is it a report, an unsupported
statement of belief or opinion, an illustration, a conditional
statement, or an explanation?
If a claim or position is being set forth and no other explicit
or implicit statement is used to support it, then the spoken
or written material in question is not an argument
(T. Edward Damer, Attacking Faulty Reasoning, 4th ed.,
2001)
Non-argument (conditional statement).
The writer is simply making an if-then statement, not
giving reasons why some other statement should be
believed.
Women my age know whom to blame for our own selfloathing, eating disorders and distorted body image:
Barbie. So we're raising our vulnerable, body-conscious
girls to beware the perpetually pointy-toed goddess with
the impossible body and perfect face
(Amy Dickinson, "Measuring Up," Time, November 20,
2000)
Is this passage an argument or not an argument?
If it is not an argument, is it a report, an unsupported
statement of belief or opinion, an illustration, a conditional
statement, or an explanation?
Women my age know whom to blame for our own self-loathing,
eating disorders and distorted body image: Barbie. So we're
raising our vulnerable, body-conscious girls to beware the
perpetually pointy-toed goddess with the impossible body and
perfect face
(Amy Dickinson, "Measuring Up," Time, November 20, 2000)
Non-argument (explanation).
The writer isn't seeking to prove that women her age are raising
their vulnerable, body-conscious daughters to beware of Barbie;
rather, she's offering an explanation why they are doing so.
Although you usually cannot eliminate the personal
feelings that are influencing your perceptions, you can
become aware of them and try to compensate for their
bias. For instance, if you are asked to evaluate a group of
people, one of whom is a good friend, you should try to
keep these personal feelings in mind in order to make your
evaluation as accurate as possible
(John Chaffee, The Thinker's Way, 1998)
Is this passage an argument or not an argument?
If it is not an argument, is it a report, an unsupported
statement of belief or opinion, an illustration, a conditional
statement, or an explanation?
Although you usually cannot eliminate the personal
feelings that are influencing your perceptions, you can
become aware of them and try to compensate for their
bias. For instance, if you are asked to evaluate a group of
people, one of whom is a good friend, you should try to
keep these personal feelings in mind in order to make your
evaluation as accurate as possible
(John Chaffee, The Thinker's Way, 1998)
Non-argument (illustration).
In this passage, the words "for instance" signal us that the
author is trying to illustrate a claim, not to prove it.
In his book Natural Theology, which set forth the standard
academic and theological wisdom of the early nineteenth
century, William Paley had compared nature to a watch. If you
chanced upon a watch lying alone on the ground, he wrote, and
then examined its intricate structure, you could not help
concluding that it had been made by an intelligent designer. It
couldn't possibly be the product of mere chance. And yet, the
natural world exhibits much more complex order than any watch.
Thus, Paley concluded, there has to be an intelligent designer
responsible for nature's fine arrangement
(John F. Haught, Science and Religion, 1995)
Is this passage an argument or not an argument?
If it is not an argument, is it a report, an unsupported
statement of belief or opinion, an illustration, a conditional
statement, or an explanation?
In his book Natural Theology, which set forth the standard
academic and theological wisdom of the early nineteenth
century, William Paley had compared nature to a watch. If you
chanced upon a watch lying alone on the ground, he wrote, and
then examined its intricate structure, you could not help
concluding that it had been made by an intelligent designer. It
couldn't possibly be the product of mere chance. And yet, the
natural world exhibits much more complex order than any watch.
Thus, Paley concluded, there has to be an intelligent designer
responsible for nature's fine arrangement
(John F. Haught, Science and Religion, 1995)
Non-argument (report).
In this passage, the writer is reporting someone else's argument,
not endorsing it as correct. Thus, the argument is a report rather
than an argument.
[This is the end of the tutorial]
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