[lit-ideas] Re: Patty Duke & The Apriori

Please see specific replies below:


Quoting Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>:

> Robert: How does the 'concept' of an argument [disallow] already 
> believing the conclusion before providing the premises that support it?
> 
Eric:

> Philosophical Lightweight Intrusion: What is there to believe about 
> conclusions?

Walter: My position avers "Nothing at all." It is always everywhere wrong to
believe without evidence. (Somebody must have said that before me, shirley.)

Eric: 

> How do arguments, whatever they are, relate to (a) notions that have 
> great descriptive value but no predictive value (e.g., the four 
> humours); notions that have little descriptive value but great 
> predictive value (e.g., calculus applied to fireworks); and notions that 
> supply both (e.g., psychological profiles of particular criminals)?
> 
> Baffled as usual,
> E

Walter: Eric will have to define his terms a tad more precisely before we start
chasing down answers to his questions. It may help to say that "argument" is a
very simple logical notion: it's a bunch of statements at least one of which
functions as a premise and one of which finctions as a conclusion. The last
component is the movement from premise(s) to conclusion. We call that
"inference." (Some inferences are valid and some are invalid, and the
difference has naught to do with people's race, sexual orientation (if any),
religious affiliation, class, gender or scotch preferences. Questions and
asertions about the relations between arguments and other stuff having
particular kinds of "value" should work with this definition of "argument." 

Enjoying a short breather before exam time,

Walter O

> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
> digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
> 

------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: