Notes for Think Again: How to reason and argue (Sharpen Edges & Organise Parts)

These are my course notes for the Coursera course "Think Again" by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong at Duke University and Ram Neta at University of North Carolina.

This follows on from my earlier notes. And these.

Sharpen Edges

• We should seek adequate precision and adequate clarity, because absolute or perfect precision and/or clarity is futile and endless.
• When clarifying a claim, do not claim more than the speaker has to claim. ALWAYS CHOOSE THE MORE CHARITABLE OPTION.
• Clarification happens better when you are working with smaller premises (without distortion).
• Dependent clauses: These are premises that are dependent on another premise (usually given to help support our assertions). However, it depends on context on whether you break up dependent clauses into it's own premise.
• Dependent clauses are usually marked by that, which and who.

Organise Parts

• Liner structure:
  Premise 1 leads to conclusion 2, which is a premise for conclusion 3... etc
  1 -> 2 -> 3
• Branching structure:
  Each premise given can independently support the conclusion, Missing one premise will not diminish the argument.
  3 <- 1
  ^
  |
  2 
• Joint structure:
  Premises work togetherto provide support for the conclusion, and neither premise alone is sufficient for the conclusion.
  1 + 2
  ______
  3

We can combine one or more of the structures.