1 I’m on my way to school. 2 I left five minutes late. 3 Traffic is heavy. 4 Therefore, I’ll be late for class. 4 So I might as well stop and get breakfast.
Argument: Yes
Conclusion: I’ll be late to class, so I should stop and get breakfast.
Additional premises needed? If I left five minutes late to school and the traffic is heavy, then I’ll be late for class miss most of my class today. Therefore, If I’m going to miss most of my class I might as well stop and get breakfast.
Identify any sub argument: (1,2,3 support 4.) ( 2.3.4 supports 5.)
Good argument? No, because the argument has content fallacies (Confusing subjective claim) and violates a principle of rational discussion (Relevance). Being late to class doesn’t mean that one should entirely skip it to go eat breakfast. What if there was a pop quiz at the end? Or homework/ group assignments that were worked on or given in the duration of the class? Therefore, just because this person was late and might possibly miss most of their class, it doesn’t mean that they should stop and get breakfast, thus completely missing the entire class.
Like every one of these assignments, these exercises have been useful to understanding the complexities of arguments and the different fallacies and structural mistakes they can possibly have. Now when creating arguments, I’ll make sure to implement these in order to create a much better persuasive argument. Also, I could use these skills learned from the assignment to analyze future political debates so I could see which politician is well versed.
Hi Errol! :)
ReplyDeleteI agree that this argument is not a good one. For one thing, just because you're already running late to school, it doesn't mean that you should make yourself even later by stopping to buy breakfast. It isn't logical.
The fact that you brought up that the argument contains fallacies showed that you were able to connect the things we learned this week to this particular entry. It also shows that you're very familiar with the material we covered. Awesome job!
I liked your additional premise as well. It makes more sense the way you reworded the argument. Although it doesn't stir away from the fact that it's a terrible argument.
:)