Implicit Premises

Question 1

Cows are mammals. Therefore, cows give birth to their young alive. Fill in the box with the argument.
P1
P2
C (P1,P2)

Answer 1

P1 Cows are mammals.
P2 Mammals give birth to their young alive.
C (P1, P2) Cows give birth to their young alive.

Question 2

What are the characteristics of implicit premises?

Answer 2

They are necessary for the argument to be valid.
it is reasonable to assume the author of the argument holds the implicit premises to be true.
(So that usually leaves out obviously false premises.)

Question 3

Why should we make implicit premises explicit?

Answer 3

We should be charitable interpreting what people are saying before we evaluate their arguments.

Question 4

How do we identify the implicit premises of an argument?

Answer 4

1. Write down the conclusion and explicit premises in the P-C form first.
2. Ask yourself what premise(s) need to be added to the argument for it to be valid. (Knowing the valid argument forms very well will help you immensely.)
3. Ask yourself if the author would be against the premises that you intend to add in.