In and philosophy, an argument is an attempt to persuade someone of something, by giving reasons or evidence for accepting a particular conclusion. The general structure of an argument in a natural language is that of premises (typically in the form of propositions, statements or sentences) in support of a claim: the conclusion. Many arguments can also be formulated in a formal language. An argument in a formal language shows the logical form of the natural language arguments obtained by its interpretations.*
In a typical deductive argument, the premises are meant to provide a guarantee of the truth of the conclusion, while in an inductive argument, they are thought to provide reasons supporting the conclusion's probable truth. The standards for evaluating other kinds of arguments may rest on different or additional criteria than truth, however, such as the persuasiveness of so-called "indispensability claims" in transcendental arguments or even the disclosure of new possibilities for thinking and acting.
The criteria used in evaluating arguments and their forms of reasoning are studied in logic. Ways of formulating arguments effectively are studied in rhetoric (see also: Argumentation theory).
Read more about Argument: Formal and Informal Arguments, Standard Argument Types, Deductive Arguments, Inductive Arguments, Defeasible Arguments, Argument By Analogy, Transitional Arguments, Other Kinds of Arguments, Explanations and Arguments, Fallacies and Nonarguments
Other articles related to "argument, arguments":
... A fallacy is an invalid argument that appears valid, or a valid argument with disguised assumptions ... and hence typically separate the premises from the conclusion of an argument, but this is not necessarily so ... therefore Socrates is mortal is clearly an argument (a valid one at that), because it is clear it is asserted that Socrates is mortal follows from the preceding statements ...
... The first argument arg0 should be the name of the executable file ... Usually it is the same value as the path argument ... Some programs may incorrectly rely on this argument providing the location of the executable, but there is no guarantee of this nor is it standardized across platforms ...
... In computer programming, a default argument is an argument to a function that a programmer is not required to specify ... languages, functions may take one or more arguments ... Usually, each argument must be specified in full (this is the case in the C programming language) ...
... Climbing is an adventure sport that is inherently risky ... A climber should understand and accept this risk ...
... mandatory, it is not required to hear oral argument ... of law or the justices desire clarification, oral argument is called ... Each attorney in oral argument is given 20 minutes to present its side, except for capital cases, in which each side is given 30 minutes ...
Famous quotes containing the word argument:
“My argument is that War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“If this phrase of the “balance of power” is to be always an argument for war, the pretext for war will never be wanting, and peace can never be secure.”
—John Bright (1811–1889)
“No one thinks anything silly is suitable when they are an adolescent. Such an enormous share of their own behavior is silly that they lose all proper perspective on silliness, like a baker who is nauseated by the sight of his own eclairs. This provides another good argument for the emerging theory that the best use of cryogenics is to freeze all human beings when they are between the ages of twelve and nineteen.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)