Argument

 Prezi: 

Classical Argument on Prezi

Syllogisms and Enthymemes

I hope you all enjoyed your little logic lesson in Syllogisms and enthymemes. Just to review, I will post an example of the syllogism I wrote on the board today in class.

Major Premise
Minor Premise
Conclusion

A is B
B is C
Therefore, A is C

All men are mortal
Socrates is a man
Therefore, Socrates is mortal

Enthymeme:  A syllogism that is missing one of its premises, which assumes an underlying connection between the first and third premise.


Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal.  The implied premise here being all men are mortal.

The "underlying assumption" is the point I wanted to get across most forcefully in class today. An underlying assumption tends to be a value held by a particular audience or group of people. By identifying these values, one can understand where an argument is coming from. Attacking the underlying assumptions is a great way to attack an argument!

An underlying assumption in a lot of arguments can be framed as an imperative, that is, as what one "should" or "ought" to do. 

For example, in 3rd period class, we did an exercise (on pg 345) "Creating argument schemas.

Claim with reason: We should buy a hybrid car rather than an SUV with a HEMI engine bceaues doing so will help the world save gasoline.

underlying assumption: we should save gasoline (even more specific: we should help the world conserve gasoline). Or, "saving gasoline is good" (the "good" and the "should" sort of amount to the same thing here)