Week 3, Post 3

There are three tests for an argument to be good: the premises must be plausible, the premises are more plausible than the conclusion, and the argument is valid or strong (42). Although there are three tests to find out if an argument is good, they are all independent of one another. An example of a valid argument would be: Mr. Jones is a bus driver. All bus drivers are men. Mr. Jones is a man. This is valid because the premise and conclusion are both true. An example of a premise being more plausible than the conclusion would be: Stephanie is a really nice person. Her parents must be really nice. Both the premise and conclusion are true but the premise of Stephanie being a nice person does not reflect her parents being nice people. Therefore, the premise is more plausible than the conclusion. The simplest test in testing for a good argument is having a plausible premise, meaning your premise has to be believable. The sky is blue. So, the sky is not red. The premise of the sky being blue is true.