Exercise 1: My neighbor should be forced to get rid of all the cars in his yard 1. People do not like living next door to such a mess 2. He never drives any of them 3. They all look old and beat up and leak oil all over the place 4. It is bad for the neighborhood, and it will decrease property value 5.
Argument? (yes or no) Yes
Conclusion: The neighbor should be forced to get rid of all of his cars.
Additional Premises needed? If this neighbor has old cars that do not work, leak oil, beat up, and does not use the cars; and also is messy causing a decrease in property value, then the neighbor should be forced to get rid of his cars.
Identify any subargument: 2 and 4 support 5, while 2, 3, 4, and 5 are independent and supports 1
Good Argument? I believe this is not a good argument
I do agree that 2, 3, 4, and 5 are independent and you can say that they support 1, but I do not think that it leads to a conclusion. Because being messy, not driving his car, or look old, how would that decrease the property value and how would they know that the people do not like living next door to a mess. They might not mind the mess at all. This is a bad argument because it is his property and the mess is in his yard, it is his property and he can do with it how he pleases.
I agree with you that this exercise was really helpful because it consisted a lot of time to analyze the paragraph, and I was able to learn the material as well. I think the writer has a lot of details to support his argument, but I am sure that this is a subjective claim. This is based on his own opinions and feelings about his neighbor, and it might not even affect other people in which he is complaining to. He is the only one complaining about a neighbor's house; it doesn't necessarily mean that other neighbors hate his mess. Therefore, this is definitely a weak argument.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree too, this exercise helped a lot. It helped me learn how to break down arguments deeper. I would say that the writer had a lot of support for his argument, but I thought that this argument could have been somewhat of a good argument if he would have added a little more support to his premises. I think that if he stated that all of his neighbors were complaining too and that no body likes living next to the mess then the argument would have been quite strong. Or even a sentence saying that in other neighborhoods which have neighbors just as messy, the property values have declined because of it.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. It is a bad argument since there is no evidence to prove that the neighbors do not like living right next to such a mess. Plus, it is his own belongings and yard so he should be able to do whatever he wants to do his yard and keep as many cars as he wants. And I agree with Amapelle that it is a subjective claim because he is stating his own opinion about his neighbor.
ReplyDeleteAnd the exercise was really helpful. It helped me learn how to break down an argument and analyze it. I was still a little confused though.