A repair argument means “ given an (implicit) argument that is apparently defective, we are justified in adding a premise or a conclusion if it satisfies all three of the following: 1. The argument becomes stronger or valid. 2. The premise is plausible and would seem plausible o the other person. 3. The premises are more plausible than the conclusion (Epstein 62).
My example is: All math teachers are hard. So Mr. Moran is a hard teacher.
The premise is “all math teachers are hard”, and the conclusion is “ so Mr. Moran is a hard teacher”.
Looking at the examples on the book made me understand how to repair arguments or if a sentence needs a repair. So the example I made did not have a good argument. It has a conclusion, but there are not enough premises to back up the conclusion. The word “so”, indicates that there is a conclusion. All math teachers are hard but Mr. Moran can be an English teacher, psychical education teacher, or even a history teacher. He does not have to be a math teacher. This example that I made does not have enough examples, premises to it. Therefore, adding more premises will make the sentence makes it weak, so this example that I made up is not repairable.
You did a great job on posting up the summary about Repairing Arguments from Epstein’s text. I like how you provided step-by-step details on how you evaluated the argument whether it could be accepted or not. Your example was simple and something most students would probably say about their math teachers because the subject of math is dreadful and complicated! Since the argument is weak itself from lack of premises, it cannot be accepted and repaired. I also like how you mentioned how a reader is able to spot the conclusion of the argument from the transitional word, “So”, because “so” usually leads to a conclusion of the speaker. Nice work on the blog!
ReplyDeleteHey girl, I actually understand your blogs, haha. It's good that you break it down for others to comprehend. Sometimes, the book confuses me! But yeah, my blog is similar to yours in that it touches upon conclusion indicators such as "so" and it also talks about how some arguments cannot be repaired. A simple example can make a big difference in understanding it. I would probably say the same thing about all of my math teachers because they do seem hard but in some cases, not all math teachers are hard. There are plenty of other explanations for why math teachers may seem hard, such as students not putting in the effort to understand. Overall, good job!
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