Arguments

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Arguments

• and Fallacies

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Argument Clinic

• http//youtu.be/kQFKtI6gn9Y

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What is an argument?

• Anger Fight or quarrel
• Debate Pro and con
• Programming
• A parameter is a variable which takes on the
  meaning of a corresponding argument passed in a
  call to a subroutine.
• Although parameters are also commonly referred to
  as arguments, arguments are more properly the
  actual values or references assigned to the
  parameter variables when the subroutine is called
  at runtime.

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• An argument isn't just contradiction.
•  It can be.
•      No it can't. An argument is a connected
  series of statements intended to establish a
  proposition.
• No it isn't.
•      Yes it is! It's not just contradiction.
• Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a
  contrary position.
•      Yes, but that's not just saying 'No it
  isn't.'
• Yes it is!
•      No it isn't! Argument is an intellectual
  process. Contradiction is just the automatic
  gainsaying of any statement the other person
  makes.
• No it isn't.
•      It is.

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• Parts of an Argument ?
• An argument is a connected series of statements
• Assumptions, Evidence, Grounds
• Rules, logic,
• Conclusion(s)
• Purpose?
• Question, contrary position
• Persuade
• Convince

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What makes an argument Good vs. Bad?

• Valid
• Conclusion follows from the rules of logic
• If assumptions are accepted, then conclusion
  should be accepted
• Sound
• Assumptions are true
• Fallacy
• Faulty reasoning

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Fallacy

• The term "fallacy" does not mean false statement.
  
• It means faulty reasoning.

It is possible for an argument to contain all
true statements and still be fallacious.
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Deductive ArgumentsValid, Sound, Strong, Weak
Deductive Arguments
Valid
Invalid
Inductive Fuzzy
Unsound
Sound
Fallacious
Strong Arguments
Weak Arguments
Weak Arguments
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Fuzzy arguments

• Invalid
• wrt DEDUCTIVE logic
• No LOGICAL necessity
• Still can be STRONG arguments
• Still can be persuasive
• Still can be convincing

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Some Common Informal Fallacies

• Ad Hominem Argument
• Slippery Slope Argument
• Fallacy of Appeal to Authority
• False Cause Fallacy
• Begging the Question
• Fallacy of Composition/Fallacy of Division
• Fallacy of Ambiguity
• Appeal to the People (Argumentum ad Populum)
• The Many/Any Fallacy
• The Virtuality Fallacy

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Ad Hominem

• From Latin, "Ad Hominem" means "against the man"
  or "against the person."
• fallacies in which a claim or argument is
  rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact
  about the person making the claim.
• Typically
• Person A makes claim X.
• Person B makes an attack on person A.
• Therefore A's claim is false.
• Fallacy circumstances or actions of a person do
  not (in most cases) have a bearing on the truth
  or falsity of the claim.

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Example of Ad Hominem

• Jessie "I believe that file sharing of music
  should be stopped."
• Ben You say that, but I noticed that you
  downloaded an MP3 today."
• Jessie "What about the arguments I gave to
  support my position?"
• Ben "Those don't count. You dont practice what
  you preach, so I can't believe what you say."

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Another example of Ad Hominem?

• Clinton is an adulterer
• He lacks moral character
• ____________________
• So, his policies are not good, and he will make a
  bad president

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Slippery Slope Fallacy (Camels nose)

• If you allow a camel to poke his nose into the
  tent, soon the whole camel will follow.
• Something is wrong because it could slide towards
  something that is wrong.
• Momentum event A will initiate a process which
  will lead inevitably to event B.
• Domino Theory
• Gateway drugs, gun control will lead to gun
  confiscation
• Induction like mathematical induction (almost)
• If Blacksburg is far from New York,
• then 1 mile closer is still far.
• So 2 miles closer is far, and 3, and 4.
• Therefore n miles is far
• If 5 is a lot then 4 is a lot. If 4 is a lot,
  then 3 is a lot
• If 1 is a lot then 0 is lot. If 0 is a lot
  then.

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Affirming The Consequent

• logic reversal. A correct statement of the form
  "if P then Q" gets turned into "Q therefore P".
• For example,
• All people whose surname begins with Mac are of
  Scottish ancestry.
• Dougal is of Scottish ancestry.
• Therefore his surname begins with Mac."
• But actually his name is Campbell.

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Affirming The Consequent (example)

• Marijuana is a Gateway drug
• Marijuana use leads to use of harder drugs.
• Marijuana use causes cocaine and heroine use.
• "Marijuana users are sixty-six times more likely
  to use cocaine subsequently than subjects who
  have never consumed marijuana.
• Cause vs. Symptom ?
• 79 of regular marijuana users do not use any
  other illicit drug.

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False Cause (Correlation vs. Cause)

•  

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False Cause (Correlation vs. Cause)

• "Every time my brother Bill accompanies me to
  Fenway Park, the Red Sox are sure to lose."
• The bigger a child's shoe size, the better the
  child's handwriting.
• When sales of hot chocolate go up, street crime
  drops.

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Begging the question Assuming the
answerTautology

• Circular reasoning
• The thing to be proved is used as one of your
  assumptions.
• Big circles vs. small circles

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Circular reasoning

• For example
• You cant give me a C.  Im an A student!
• "We need the death penalty to discourage violent
  crime".
• This assumes it discourages crime.
• "The stock market fell because of a technical
  adjustment."
• But an "adjustment" IS just a stock market drop

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Fallacy Of Composition

• Assuming that a whole has the same simplicity as
  its constituent parts.
• "A car makes less pollution than a bus.
  Therefore, cars are less of a pollution problem
  than buses."
• "Atoms are colorless. Cats are made of atoms, so
  cats are colorless."
• Assuming that what is true of the whole is true
  of each constituent part.
• Human beings are made of atoms, and human beings
  are conscious, so atoms must be conscious.

Fallacy Of Division
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Non SequiturLatin for "it does not follow."

• For example, "Tens of thousands of Americans have
  seen lights in the night sky which they could not
  identify. The existence of life on other planets
  is fast becoming certainty!"
• "Bill lives in a large building, so his apartment
  must be large."

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Statistics

• President Dwight Eisenhower expressed
  astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully
  half of all Americans had below average
  intelligence.
• Most 3rd graders read at or below 3rd grade level
• Regression to the mean extremes tend to go
  back to normal. E.g. cures.
• a variable that is extreme on its first
  measurement will tend to be closer to the centre
  of the distribution on a later measurement

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Straw Man Fallacy Of Extension

• Attacking an exaggerated or caricatured version
  of your opponent's position.
• Evolution means a dog giving birth to a cat."
• "Senator Jones says that we should not fund the
  attack submarine program. I can't understand why
  he wants to leave us defenseless like that."

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• Fallacy of Appeal to Authority
• Fallacy of Ambiguity
• Appeal to the People (Argumentum ad Populum)

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The Virtuality Fallacy

• Because something happens in "virtual space"
  (computer, Internet) that it is not real
• Slander on websites
• Using false virtual identity to trick someone

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How do you make a good argument?

• Change thinking
• Follow the leader
• Clear connection between the parts

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Developing an argument

• Claim
• Statement you want someone to accept
• Why? - Context
• Who? - Audience
• Who are you to them? - Author
• Reason, Evidence
• Context
• Motivation
• Interests

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Rhetorical context and Genre

• Personal correspondence
• Letter to editor
• Op-ed
• Niche magazine (e.g. Beginners Guides)
• Scholarly journal
• White papers
• Proposals
• Legal briefs
• Advocacy
• Advertisement
• Blogs, forums
• Visual argument
• Speech

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Social context
Argument

• Message
• Logos
• Logic
• Internal consistency
• Reason, evidence

Audience
Author

• Writer / speaker
• Ethos
• Credibility
• Trustworthiness

• Reader / listener
• Pathos
• Appeal to
• Engage emotionally

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• An argument isn't just contradiction.
•  It can be.
•      No it can't. An argument is a connected
  series of statements intended to establish a
  proposition.
• No it isn't.
•      Yes it is! It's not just contradiction.
• Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a
  contrary position.
•      Yes, but that's not just saying 'No it
  isn't.'
• Yes it is!
•      No it isn't! Argument is an intellectual
  process. Contradiction is just the automatic
  gainsaying of any statement the other person
  makes.
• No it isn't.
•      It is.

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Claim

• Cyberethics does NOT introduce new ethical
  issues.
• Computing introduces new puzzles and dilemmas
• Such as?
• What is an ethical issue?
• What might a new ethical issue be?

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Cyber-Ethics Assignment

• Write a well-formed, OUTLINE  for a 5-paragraph
  (intro, 3 body points, conclusion) essay that
  argues the followingCyberethics does NOT
  introduce new ethical issues.Be sure to
  recognize the following understandingComputing
  introduces new conceptual puzzles and dilemmas
  related to ethics (cyber-ethics) that Tavani
  refers to as "conceptual muddles".
• These can lead to "policy vacuums".
• We can distinguish between unique technological
  features and unique ethical issues.
• New technologies and their capabilities can
  introduce "conceptual muddles" and/or "policy
  vacuum", but we should be careful to distinguish
  "policy vacuums" and "unique ethical issues".

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Arguments can be explicit or implicit

• Implicit
• Describe a photograph that would create an
  implicit argument persuading
• The general public toward banning handguns
• The general public against banning handguns
• Advertising
• Psychology, communication

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Explicit Argument

• Requires Justification of its claims
• An argument?
• Argument is an intellectual process.
  Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of
  any statement the other person makes.

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Truth seeking persuasion
Inquiry Think out loud
Dialog seeking common ground
One-sided preaching to the choir
Propaganda
Exploratory Essay
Classical Argument aimed as skeptic
Aggressive one-sided Political rally
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Reading Arguments5 strategies

• Read as a believer
• Read as a doubter
• Explore how the rhetorical context and genre are
  shaping the argument.
• Seek alternative views and analyze sources of
  disagreements
• Use disagreement productively to prompt further
  investigation

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Read as a believer

• Empathetic listening
• Suspend your doubt when summarizing
• Give the other side its BEST shot
• Dont be afraid to offer positive examples etc.
• What you are trying to say is
• Say it in such a way that THEY agree that is what
  they said
• Make implicit assumptions explicit
• THEN proceed to argue

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Read as a believer

• E.g CS needs a code of ethics (or not).
• Cyberethics does NOT introduce new ethical
  issues.
• Evidence?
• Best example?

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Read as a doubter

• Seek not the answers, but to understand the
  QUESTIONS
• List assumptions, and challenge
• Categorize counter-examples (and support)
• Focus on key terminology that
• reveals bias
• too strong
• Loaded (value laden, ideology, etc.)

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Rhetorical context and Genre

• Personal correspondence
• Letter to editor
• Op-ed
• Niche magazine (e.g. Beginners Guides)
• Scholarly journal
• White papers
• Proposals
• Legal briefs
• Advocacy
• Advertisement
• Blogs, forums
• Visual argument
• Speech

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Questions to ask

• What is the authors interests / investment?
• Who is the audience?
• What is motivating the writing?
• What genre?
• What info about the publication helps explain the
  angle?

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Seeking Alternative Views

• Disagreement about facts
• Global warming?
• Disagreement about Values
• Ethics? Politics? Religion?

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Using disagreements productively

• Accept ambiguity or uncertainty
• Consider synthesis as a solution
• Describe as a dilemma
• You have 2 (or more) choices
• You MUST make a choice
• ALL of your choices stink
• Sources, References for facts / data
• Statistics
• Studies
• Context of data

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Sources, facts, data

• Statistics, Studies
• Stories
• Testimony / witness
• Memory
• Evidence
• Physical
• Analogical / Model
• Circumstantial (indirect inference from another
  fact)
• Opinions
• Description, analysis, decomposition, logic?

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Consider ways to synthesize views

• Define YOUR values
• Reader Response Theory
• recognizes the reader as an active agent who
  imparts "real existence" to the work and
  completes its meaning through interpretation. (no
  meaning w/out reader if a tree falls)
• Reader-response criticism argues that literature
  should be viewed as a performing art in which
  each reader creates his or her own, possibly
  unique, text-related performance.
• It stands in total opposition to the theories of
  formalism and the New Criticism, in which the
  reader's role in re-creating literary works is
  ignored (meaning is objective).
• There is NO authoritative or privileged
  interpretation
• Take a 3rd position that reconciles two sides
• Provide multiple or hypothetical resolutions