Chapter 1: Reconstructing and analyzing arguments

Although sometimes we can just lift the premises and conclusion verbatim from  the argument, we cannot always do this. Paraphrases of premises or conclusions  are sometimes needed in order to make the standard form argument as clear as  possible. A paraphrase is the use of different words to capture the same idea in  a clearer way. There will always be multiple ways of paraphrasing premises and  conclusions and this means that there will never be just one way of putting an  argument into standard form. In order to paraphrase well, you will have to rely  on your understanding of English to come up with what you think is the best way  of capturing the essence of the argument. Again, typically there is no single right way to do this, although there are certainly better and worse ways of doing  it. For example, consider the following argument:

What is the conclusion of this argument? (Think about it before reading on.)  Here is one way of paraphrasing the conclusion: 

This statement seems to capture the essence of the main conclusion in the  above argument. The premises of the argument would be:

1. Jeremy’s prints would be expected to be on a gun that was registered  to him
   
   
2. Someone could have stolen Jeremy’s gun and then used it to kill Tim

Notice that while I have paraphrased the first premise, I have left the second  premise almost exactly as it appeared in the original paragraph. As I’ve said,  paraphrases are needed in order to try to make the standard form argument as  clear as possible and this is what I’ve tried to do in capturing premise 1 as well  as the conclusion of this argument. So here is the reconstructed argument in  standard form:

1. Jeremy’s prints would be expected to be on a gun that was registered  to him
   
   
2. Someone could have stolen Jeremy’s gun and then used it to kill Tim 3. Therefore, the fact that Jeremy’s prints were on the gun that killed Tim  and the gun was registered to Jeremy doesn’t mean that Jeremy killed  Tim. (from 1-2)

However, as I have just noted, there is more than one way of paraphrasing the  premises and conclusion of the argument. To illustrate this, I will give a second way that one could accurately capture this argument in standard form. Here is  another way of expressing the conclusion:

That is clearly what the above argument is trying to ultimately establish and it is  a much simpler (in some ways) conclusion than my first way of paraphrasing the  conclusion. However, it also takes more liberties in interpreting the argument  than my original paraphrase. For example, in the original argument there is no  occurrence of the word “know.” That is something that I am introducing in my  own paraphrase. That is a totally legitimate thing to do, as long as introducing  new terminology helps us to clearly express the essence of the premise or conclusion that we’re trying to paraphrase.¹ Since my second paraphrase of the  conclusion differs from my first paraphrase, you can expect that my premises will  differ also. So how shall I paraphrase the premises that support this conclusion?  Here is another way of paraphrasing the premises and putting the argument into  standard form:

1. Tim was killed by a gun that was registered to Jeremy and had  Jeremy’s prints on it.
   
   
2. It is possible that Jeremy’s gun was stolen from him.
   
   
3. If Jeremy’s gun was stolen from him, then Jeremy could not have  killed Tim.
   
   
4. Therefore, we do not know that Jeremy killed Tim. (from 1-3)

Notice that this standard form argument has more premises than my first  reconstruction of the standard form argument (which consisted of only three  statements). I have taken quite a few liberties in interpreting and paraphrasing  this argument, but what I have tried to do is to get down to the most essential  logic of the original argument. The paraphrases of the premises I have used are  quite different from the wording that occurs in the original paragraph. I have  introduced phrases such as “it is possible that” as well as conditional  statements (if…then statements), such as premise 3. Nonetheless, this  reconstruction seems to get at the essence of the logic of the original argument.  As long as your paraphrases help you to do that, they are good paraphrases.  Being able to reconstruct arguments like this takes many years of practice in  order to do it well, and much of the material that we will learn later in the text  will help you to better understand how to capture an argument in standard form,  but for now it is important to recognize that there is never only one way of  correctly capturing the standard form of an argument. And the reason for this is  that there are multiple, equally good, ways of paraphrasing the premises and  conclusion of an argument.

                                                       

¹ How do we know that a paraphrase is accurate? Unfortunately, there is no simple way to  answer this question. The only answer is that you must rely on your mastery and understanding of English in order to determine for yourself whether the paraphrase is a good one or not. This  is one of those kinds of skills that is difficult to teach, apart from just improving one’s mastery of  the English language.