Question

what makes an argument good and what makes an argument bad. Be mindful that terms like valid and invalid have specific definitions in this course. So, please avoid using such terms to mean true/false or good/bad as this can lead to confusion.

Answer 1

An argument is a group of statements in which the premises are offered in support of the conclusion.

Almost all arguments simply have a relationship where the premises supports the conclusion to varied degrees of capability. Good premises make a few and very sensible assumptions. Thus, their premises supports their conclusion strongly. Whereas, bad premises make many and highly dubious assumptions. Thus, their premises supports their conclusion, weakly, if at all. The perfect ones are said to be valid because they make no assumptions at all.

So, The degree good or bad just describes how well the premises supports the conclusion.

There are two cases if the argument is valid:-

1. the argument has false premises and thus the argument is said to be bad.

2. If the premise of the argument is true then the argument is said to be good.

Sometimes, the state of representing the argument also plays an pivotal role to decide if an argument is good or bad because there is no standardized parametric quantity to check good or bad argument. So when we listen to the word “good or bad” arguments, we must see this for the rational motive provided by the coherent and deductive approach.