Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Strong and Valid arguments: Roommate edition.

The difference between strong and valid arguments are way less clear cut to me than the concept of subjective and objective claims. A valid argument is one that holds no possible way for the premises to be true while the conclusion is false. A strong argument, however, is one that could possibly have true premises and a false conclusion, just at an extremely unlikely rate.


For example, me and my girls will be getting ready to leave for a night out and that’s when I ask who unplugged the hair straightener. Julissa replies, “Danielle unplugged it. She was the last person to use it. I didn’t see anybody else go into the bathroom to unplug it after her and nobody else is home.” This is a strong argument. We could trust Julissa’s premises, and we could trust it was extremely unlikely that the straightener unplugged itself, or that our pet fish did it, or... Something merely possible, but obviously unlikely.


Other times, me and my girls will be figuring out how many units to take. “Financial aid is only given to full-time students taking 12 units, and Danielle only enrolled in 9 units. Danielle has to get 3 more units to get financial aid as a full-time student.” This is a valid argument. There’s no way that she could receive financial aid without fulfilling all 12 units, because 9 units doesn’t declare her as full-time. The premises is true, thus the conclusion is true. And otherwise, we know where her rent money is going!

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