5. ARGUMENTS WHICH ARE INCOMPLETE AND MORE OR LESS IRREGULAR.
(1) “He must be a star player; for he played fullback on the team which won the championship.”
(2) “The man is not to be trusted; because he served a term of 90 days in jail.”
(3) “Only material bodies gravitate, and ether does not gravitate.”
(4) “If only fools despise knowledge, this man cannot be a fool.”
(5) “A charitable man has no merit in relieving distress; because he merely does what is pleasing to himself.”
(6) “It is evident that all who get justice buy it; since only the rich get it.”
The above arguments thrown into logical form and validity or invalidity stated: (The student should test these in detail.)
(1) A All M
belonging to the team which won the championship were star G
players,
A S
He played with the M
team which won the championship,
A ∴ G
He is a star player. Valid in form.
(2) E M
One who serves a term of 90 days in jail is not to be G
trusted,
A This S
man served a M
term of 90 days in jail,
E ∴ This S
man is not to be G
trusted. Valid in form.
(3) A All M
gravitating bodies are G
material,
E S
Ether does not M
gravitate,
E ∴ S
Ether is not G
material. Illicit major.
(4) A All M
who despise knowledge are G
fools,
E This S
man does not M
despise knowledge,
E ∴ This S
man is not a G
fool. Illicit major.
(5) E No M
one who merely does what is pleasingto himself has G
merit in relieving distress,
A A S
charitable man merely does what is M
pleasing to himself,
E ∴ No S
charitable man has G
merit in relieving distress. Valid in form.
(6) A All M
the rich buy G
justice,
A All S
who get justice are M
rich,
A ∴ All S
who get justice buy G
it. Valid in form.
In supplying suppressed premises the critic is duty bound to give the author the benefit of the doubt, if by so doing no principle in logic is violated and the proposition conforms to good English and good sense. Often it is not easy to perceive in the abbreviated argument the meaning intended; in such instances all legitimate effort should be directed to making the argument valid. To illustrate: In supplying the major premise of argument “6” it would be easy to make it, “All justice is bought by the rich”; in consequence the critic could pronouncethe argument invalid as the middle term would be undistributed.
Before asserting that an argument is fallacious because it has four terms rather than three, the student must make sure that there are no synonyms or equivalents used. In argument “4,” for instance, there are apparently the four terms: (1) “foolish,” (2) “despise knowledge,” (3) “man,” (4) “fool”; but to regard “foolish” and “fool” as synonyms does not seem like undue liberty. The following arguments further illustrate this need of recognizing synonyms:
“Human beings are accountable for their conduct; brutes, not being human, are therefore free from responsibility.” (Not accountable for their conduct.)
“Not all educated men spell correctly; because one often finds mistakes in the writings of college graduates.” (Educated men.)
“Modern education is not popular in this state; for it increases the tax rate, and the popularity of everything, which touches the pocket of these frugal Yankees, (increases the tax rate) is very short lived.” (Not popular.) In common parlance the use of synonyms is so prevalent that ready ability to substitute equivalents in word, phrase, and clause form is needed by him who would be skillful in testing all kinds of arguments.
It has already become apparent to the student that the number of the noun or the tense of the verb is of small logical consequence. A very large proportion of the formal fallacies in argumentation concern the rulesof distribution which are summarized in the dictum “What may be said of the whole may be said of part of that whole.”