Depth 2 · 36 s
Chains and teams
Long arguments are short ones joined together, and reasons either stand alone or only work as a team. Knowing which tells you where an argument breaks.
About this video
Lena finds a nail in her front tyre. So the tyre will go flat. And you can't ride a bike with a flat tyre, so they can't cycle to the lake today. That is two arguments joined together. "The tyre will go flat" is concluded from the nail and then used as a reason for the final conclusion: it is a middle conclusion, both a conclusion and a reason. On an argument map, a chain has more than one level.
To check a chain, check each step on its own. A nail doesn't always make a tyre go flat, so the first step is only likely; the second step follows. The whole chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
This animation then shows the second thing to look for: how reasons work together. Walking is healthy, it costs nothing, and it's a sunny day: independent reasons, each with its own arrow, so losing one only dents the argument. The museum opens only Monday to Friday, and today is Saturday: linked reasons, joined by a bracket, that support the conclusion only together, so losing one breaks it. This is the concept of an argument at its second depth. The video goes with the Arguments in a Chain and Reasons That Work Together lessons of Logic Level 2 on Knaph.
This video shows depth 2 of Argument.
Learn ArgumentTranscript
- 0:00A nail in the tyre, so it goes flat, so no cycling to the lake.
- 0:05The middle claim is a conclusion of one step, and a reason for the next.
- 0:11Check each link. The first is only likely. So the whole chain is only likely.
- 0:17Healthy, free, sunny. Each reason stands alone. Lose one, the others still help.
- 0:24Open only on weekdays, and today is Saturday. Lose one, and it breaks.
- 0:31Find the weakest link, and which kind of reasons you have.