Giving an argument is supporting a belief with reasons.
Reasons must be:
| Some arguers inject statements that do not support their conclusion, but can shift debate away from a losing argument and onto a different, winning, one.
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| A lot of arguments can be won, provided the supporting statements are true. Sometimes, they're weak, even if they were relevant, and this undermines the confidence in the conclusion.
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| An argument can have face validity until considered in light of arguments for the other side.
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Critical analysis is a set of strategies that can be employed to examine an argument, and evaluate its merit. This involves three steps:
| distilling what was said down to what was meant, what premises were presented, and what was the intended conclusion.
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| are the premises relevant, acceptable, and sufficient? Are there any fallacies at work?
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| considering the above, and in contrast with reasons for the other side, is the conclusion tenable?
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Let's start by extracting a simple argument.
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GTK
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