Saturday, September 18, 2010
Rationality
Stating relevant premises in your argument is a very important part to any argument. You don't want to mislead the listeners with irrelevant premises; it takes away from your claim and can potentially distract from what you are trying to argue. Making irrelevant premises also shows the listener that you don't know very much on the subject being argued about. I heard an outrageous argument against gay marriage about a year ago. Someone argued that if people of the same sex are allowed to marry, we would start allowing people to marry their pet dog. I thought this was irrelevant because the argument is dealing with the marriage of two human beings. In my opinion this makes the person sound strange because it is something totally irrelevant and outrageous. Making relevant premises not only helps your conclusion and claim, but it also gives a better and stronger argument.
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oh goodness, this makes sense to me! haha. this was a very helpful post. you stated the premises very clear and fully talked about the importance of it all. i also really likes your example, even though its completely inappropriate for someone to even think that. but i see how that comment would be irrelevant to the conclusion on claim. but would this kind of premiss also be like a sarcastic comment? i guess its up to someones judgment because i tend to say irrelevant stuff all the time. either way, again. this was a helpful post and i can see how the premiss to the argument u used as an example its completely outrageous as you called it..
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