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Some Basic
First Principles
2.1|Initial Comments on Arguments
Since this book deals with arguments, lets begin with a basic
question: What is an argument? Put most simply, an argument
is an attempt to persuade someone of something. It is prompted
usually by disagreement, confusion, ignorance, or curiosity about
an issue that the arguer wishes to resolve or illuminate. In the
most general sense, arguments, friendly and otherwise, go on all
the time. They are a staple ingredient of many conversations, as
well as the heart of any inquiry into the truth or probability of
something (for example, a judicial process, scientific research
2.2|Trivial Arguments
2.5.1|Definition
Argument 1
Killing an innocent person is always wrong.
Argument 2
A woman has the right to full control
over her own body at all times.
2.5.2|Deduction
The result did not prove the hypothesis, for the result could have
been a coincidence or other factors might have been at work. But
it did indicate to Jenner that he should not reject the hypothesis,
for, on the basis of this experiment, he could conclude that the
hypothesis had not been proven false. To demonstrate the truth
of the hypothesis more convincingly he had to conduct many
more tests.
A different result (i.e., a smallpox infection in the experi-
mental subject, James Phipps) would have demonstrated that the
hypothesis should be rejected, as in the following example:
2.5.3|Induction
1. The last three days Ive had trouble starting my car. Its likely
that I need a new battery.
4. For the past ten years, this river has flooded its banks every
spring. The odds are good that it will do so again this spring.
Here, as a bonus for those readers who like to think about amus-
ing logical puzzles, are five brain-teasers. The important thing
here is not necessarily to get the right answer on your own
Problem A
You are a police officer on a highway patrol. You come
across an accident in which two cars have collided in an
off-highway rest area. Each driver claims that he has been at
the rest area for over two hours eating lunch and sleeping
and that the other driver drove in from the highway and
ran into his car a few minutes ago. You cannot tell from the
position of the vehicles or from the asphalt which one is
telling the truth. There are no witnesses. Can you think of
how you might sort out the claims on the spot? What form(s)
of reasoning have you used?
Problem B
Two friends of yours are having a bitter argument over the
question of whether or not two people could have exactly
the same number of hairs on their heads. They want you
to determine the answer to the question. Can you think
of some way to settle the question with certainty, without
resorting to counting hairs?
Problem C
A man is walking to the town of Ipswich. He comes to a fork
in the road, with the two branches leading in two different
directions. He knows that one of them goes to Ipswich, but
he doesnt know which one. He also knows that in the house
right beside the fork in the road there are two brothers,
identical twins, both of whom know the road to Ipswich. He
knows that one brother always lies and that the other always
tells the truth, but he cannot tell them apart. What single
question can he ask to whoever answers his knock on the
door that will indicate to him the correct road to Ipswich?
Problem E
[The following problem was recently part of an interview
with students wishing to enroll as undergraduates in
the Computer Science degree program at the University
of Oxford.]