![]() Just as a water pump won’t pump water unless you put water in, a valid argument won’t work as a truth pump if you don’t put true premises in. So, any argument with true premises and a false conclusion must be invalid. The only combination of true and false that validity rules out is all true premises and a false conclusion. ![]() It is also a valid argument because if the premises were both true, the conclusion would also be true. In this argument, the first premise and the conclusion are false, but it has the same logical structure as the preceding example. Valid arguments may have one or more false premises and if so, even a false conclusion. If the premises, #1 and #2, are true, then the conclusion, #3, will also be true. You can think of validity as a truth pump: Put true premises into a valid argument, and out comes a true conclusion. ![]() Validity is the strongest possible logical connection between the premises of an argument and its conclusion. However, if it is true, the argument is called “valid.”Ī valid argument is one that the truth of its premises necessitates the truth of its conclusion. Notice the word “claims” here: Just because an argument or arguer makes such a claim, it isn’t necessarily so. In a previous lesson, you learned that a deductive argument is one that claims its conclusion follows from its premises with necessity. Episode #8 of the course Logic basics: Understanding arguments by Gary Curtis
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