Critical Thinking (PHI 210) Unit 2.2 Identifying Arguments and S

Translating natural language arguments into standard form.In this tutorial, you began learning how to translate arguments from natural language into standard form. This sometimes requires close reading of an argument. We listen for indicator words so we can identify the conclusion, which is often cued by conclusion indicators like “therefore,” “thus,” or “and that’s why I believe.” Other sentences have premise indicators, like “since,” or “so.” Knowing how to identify and sequence sentences can help us present the argument in a more logical way. Of course, identifying logical arguments is also necessary, seeing the big picture. By asking yourself, "Is it a logical argument?, you may see that perhaps the passage or speech is not an argument at all, but an order, or a narrative. Others may not seem like arguments but have logical structure, like explanations, which indeed are a kind of argument. Lastly, you learned that sentences constructed with words like ‘should’ or ‘ought’ are called normative arguments, or ones that state what one ought to do instead of what is already factually true.