Acceptablity of Premises - Critical Thinking

Lecture 8

May 13, 2007

 

I. List of Acceptability Conditions

II. List of Rejection Conditions

 

Two Questions Raised:

1. Should the intended audience accept the premise?

2. Should we accept it?

 

 

I. List of Acceptability Conditions

 

Note: Premises for arguments can come from any field at all.  The criteria of determining acceptability depends on the field being considered.  Judgment must be exercised.

 

Here are some rules of thumb before considering the conditions:

1. Acceptability may not always be a yes or no thing.  It could also be stated in terms of confidence levels or in terms of probability.

2. If a premise meets one of the conditions below, it should count as acceptable.

 

The acceptability conditions:

 

1. The premise has already been proven or shown to be acceptable elsewhere.

2. If something is necessarily true, then you should accept it.

ie. 2+2 = 4.  But it should also be a known necessary truth unless you can prove it.  ie. Existence of God.   God necessarily exists, some do not know that though.

3.  If the premise is common knowledge, it should usually be counted as acceptable.  (Not always true though.)

4. If the presenter of an argument is an expert and can reliably testify to it. (Depends on their authority and if you have any reason to doubt them.)

5. Expert authority - is there agreement in the field.  Is there any reason to doubt objectivity.

6. Could be asked to accept premise on a provisional / conditional basis.

 

II. List of Rejection Conditions

 

1. The premise is clearly false. (Unless accepting for the sake of argument.)

2. Premises in the argument are inconsistent with one another.  (Logically impossible for them to be true at the same time.)

3. If a premise is unclear or hopelessly vague.

4. Premises that pre-suppose the conclusion, or are themselves matters of extreme controversy.

5. Arguments or premises that beg the question. (Have conclusion in the premises, or as a presupposition.)  This is only a problem if the goal of an argument is to persuade someone.

 

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