business ethics in-class activity
Cooper2021
1-23.pptxBusiness Ethics Summer 2022 (1) Week 1, Lecture 2
Chaeyoung Paek
In today’s class…
We’ll learn…
What arguments are
How to evaluate them in terms of validity and soundness
How to reconstruct an informal argument
There will be two in-class activities; I’ll ask you to complete “1-2 in-class activity (1)” and “1-2 in-class activity (2)” during the lecture.
Both are on the course Blackboard page, in “Materials for 1-2”.
James Rachels, Some Basic Points about Arguments
What is an argument?
An argument is a series of statements, made of premises and conclusion.
A statement is a sentence which could be true or false.
(Q) Are all these sentences statements? Why or why not?
“All trees are plants.”/“Are all trees plants?”/”Look at those trees!”
What is an argument?
(Q) Is this following sequence of statements an argument?
All dogs are mammals.
Charlie is a dog.
Therefore, Charlie is a mammal.
Yes!
What is an argument?
Q. Is this following sequence of statements an argument?
All dogs are plants;
Charlie is a dog;
Therefore, all trees are plants.
Yes!
What is an argument?
As long as there are premise(s) and the conclusion, any series of propositions can be arguments.
But not all arguments are naturally good arguments; some are good, some are bad.
…But what is a “good” argument?
What is a “good” argument?
The goodness or badness of an argument is not about the actual truth or falsity of the premises and the conclusion, it is about a relationship between the premises and the conclusion.
What is a “good” argument?
Compare two arguments below.
| (P1) All human beings die. (P2) Socrates is a human being. C. Socrates will die. | (P1*) All human beings die. (P2*) UMass Amherst is in Massachusetts. C*. Chaeyoung is a human being. |
What is a “good” argument?
Compare two arguments below.
Both arguments consist of true statements; but while it seems like the first one is a ”good” argument, the second one… is not so good.
So exactly how do we evaluate an argument?
: In terms of validity and soundness!
| (P1) All human beings die. (P2) Socrates is a human being. C. Socrates will die. | (P1*) All human beings die. (P2*) UMass Amherst is in Massachusetts. C*. Chaeyoung is a human being. |
Evaluating an argument: Validity
Validity is a property of an argument.
An argument is valid if and only if it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false.
In other words, an argument is valid if and only if the conclusion follows from the premises.
Or: an argument is valid if and only if the premises entail the conclusion.
Evaluating an argument: Validity
(P1) UMass is in Massachusetts.
(P2) Massachusetts is in France.
C. UMass is in France.
Q. Is this argument valid?
A. Yes! It is impossible for the conclusion to be false if (P1) and (P2) are true; in other words, the conclusion follows from the premises.
Evaluating an argument: Validity
When you assess the validity of an argument, it doesn’t matter whether the premises or the conclusion are actually true.
(ex) ”Keeble jumbles; what jumbles rumbles; therefore, Keeble rumbles.”
This series of statements consist of pure gibberish, but it is a valid argument!
Why? Because the premises entail the conclusion!
Evaluating an argument: Soundness
Soundness is a property of an argument.
An argument is sound if and only if…
it is valid; and
the premises are true.
Evaluating an argument: Soundness
(P1) UMass is in Massachusetts.
(P2) Massachusetts is in France.
C. UMass is in France.
Q. Is this argument sound?
No!
It is a valid argument, but not all premises are true; (P2) is false.
Exercise: Assessing arguments
PAUSE the lecture video. Go to the course Blackboard page, click “1-2 In-class Activity (1)”. Fill in your answers and click Submit at the end.
This should take 10 minutes for you to complete; after answering the questions, come back to the lecture. We’ll look at them together.
We’ll do the second activity later; just work on the first one for now.
Exercise: Assessing arguments
Valid?:
Yes!
Sound?
No
- Why?: (P1) is not true.
| A. | (P1) All dogs go to heaven. (P2) Charlie is a dog. C. Charlie will go to heaven. |
Exercise: Assessing arguments
Valid?:
Yes!
Sound?
No
- (P2) is not true!
| B. | (P1) If the moon is made of green cheese, then cows jump over it. (P2) The moon is made of green cheese. C. Cows jump over the moon. |
Exercise: Assessing arguments
Valid?
No
- It is possible that the conclusion is false even when all premises are true.
Sound?
No
- The argument is invalid.
| C. | (P1) If it’s raining, then the streets are wet. (P2) The streets are wet. C. It’s raining. |
Exercise: Assessing arguments
Valid?
No
- The conclusion can be false even when all premises are true.
Sound?
No
- The argument is invalid.
| D. | (P1) All apples are fruits. (P2) Some fruits are red. C. Some apples are red. |
Exercise: Assessing arguments
Valid?
Yes!
Sound?
Yes!
| E. | (P1) Thanksgiving is in November. C. Thanksgiving is in November. |
Reconstructing arguments
In many cases, we present an argument in an informal form; that is, some arguments may not be in premise(s)/conclusion form.
(ex) “All EDM songs suck. Your playlist is full of EDM songs. So, your playlist sucks too.”
Reconstructing arguments
Sometimes an informal argument contains a hidden premise(s); a proper reconstruction should contain that hidden premise(s)!
(ex) “That is an innocent, helpless puppy! We should save him!”
A hidden premise: ”We should save any innocent, helpless puppies.”
Reconstructing arguments
We will read a lot of philosophy papers and reconstruct philosophers’ informal arguments into formal arguments together.
It is a writer’s job to present a good (informal) argument, but it is a reader’s job to do their best to reconstruct the best version of the writer’s argument.
Think of it in this way; if you reconstructed an argument out of an informal one, and you find that argument wildly invalid, then maybe you were not charitable enough.
Exercise: Reconstructing arguments
PAUSE the lecture. Go to the course Blackboard page, click “1-2 In-class Activity (2)”. Fill in your answers and click Submit at the end.
This should take 5 minutes for you to complete; after answering the questions, come back to the lecture. We’ll look at them together.
Exercise: Reconstructing arguments
“You shouldn’t feed chocolate to the dog. Chocolate makes dogs sick.”
The conclusion?:
The premise(s)?:
Exercise: Reconstructing arguments
“You shouldn’t feed chocolate to the dog. Chocolate makes dogs sick.”
(P1) Chocolate makes dogs sick.
C. You shouldn’t feed chocolate to the dog.
Q. Does the conclusion follow from the premise? Is it possible that the conclusion is false while the premise is true?
Nope; so there must be at least one hidden premise!
Exercise: Reconstructing arguments
“You shouldn’t feed chocolate to the dog. Chocolate makes dogs sick.”
(P1) Chocolate makes dogs sick.
(P2) You shouldn’t do what may make dogs sick.
C. You shouldn’t feed chocolate to the dog.
Q. Is this argument valid? Sound?
: Valid; (unfortunately) not sound.
Exercise: Reconstructing arguments
B. “Anyone who goes to Yale is a total jerk. I know because I met my roommate’s brother, who goes to Yale, and he is a total jerk.”
The conclusion?:
The premise(s)?:
Exercise: Reconstructing arguments
B. “Anyone who goes to Yale is a total jerk. I know because I met my roommate’s brother, who goes to Yale, and he is a total jerk.”
(P1) I met my roommate’s brother who goes to Yale.
(P2) My roommate’s brother is a jerk.
C. Anyone who goes to Yale is a total jerk.
Q. Does the conclusion follow from the premise? Is it possible that the conclusion is false while the premise is true?
A. Nope; there must be at least one hidden premise!
Exercise: Reconstructing arguments
B. “Anyone who goes to Yale is a total jerk. I know because I met my roommate’s brother, who goes to Yale, and he is a total jerk.”
(P1) I met my roommate’s brother who goes to Yale.
(P2) My roommate’s brother is a jerk.
(P3) Anyone who goes to Yale shares the same personality.
C. Anyone who goes to Yale is a total jerk.
For the next class..
Read Rachels, “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism.”
