[MUSIC] In this lesson, we'll continue looking at evaluating arguments. In the last lesson, we looked the importance of establishing the context of the evidence, as well as the suitability. The aspects we covered are all important to consider when evaluating arguments, but alone they're not enough. They help define the context and the suitability but they don't necessarily examine the logical progression of the argument itself. To do that, you need to draw on your understanding of what makes a quality argument. Think back to module three when you looked at the concepts of premises and conclusions, as well as common fallacies. These are essential concepts that you need to draw on when evaluating an argument. If you think back to the lessons on premises and conclusions and formal logic, you'll recall that premises are statements that are used to support a conclusion. There are often multiple premises that together justify the conclusion. When evaluating arguments, it's crucial that you analyze the strength of the premises. As we discussed in that lesson, a conclusion is only as strong as its weakest premise. If even one of the premises is invalid or of poor quality, then the conclusion will also be invalid or of poor quality. So in order to evaluate arguments, you need to pay attention to any fallacies or illogical steps within the premises. One way of doing this is to determine whether the conclusion immediately follows on from the premise. It's not enough to have a logical argument, if the argument ignores other important premises. Similarly, it's not enough for the conclusion to just make sense. Instead, it has to be the most logical or the most likely conclusion leading from the premises. Okay, let's now look at some arguments about homelessness. Our first example argument is that people who are experiencing homelessness often sleep on the street. Sleeping on the street exposes people to many health risks. Therefore, providing housing will improve the health of people experiencing homelessness. As we learn in a lesson on premises and conclusions, an argument is only as strong as its weakest premise. If one of the premises is weak or illogical, then the whole argument is at best weak or illogical. In this example, the premise people who are experiencing homelessness often sleep on the street, is a weak one. It is not completely wrong, but it's not adequate. Because as we've seen in previous lessons, sleeping rough or primary homelessness does not account for the majority of people who fall within the category of homeless. Having to live in temporary housing in vehicles or with family and friends because you have no fixed housing of your own are also forms of homelessness. Because this premise overlooks this fact and the following statements build on this premise, the whole argument is weak. Let's look at another example. There are homeless people in our city. There is not enough adequate housing for homeless people in our city. Therefore, more adequate housing would solve the issue of homelessness. The argument is logical, but there are two problems with the quality of the argument. The first problem is that there is a claim and there is evidence, but the connection between the two has not been adequately expressed. The relationship between the claim, evidence, and conclusion needs to be made more explicit. The second problem is that while the conclusion is logical, it cannot be considered the most immediate and logical conclusion base don the premises. The problem with the quality of the argument is in the logic and the language of the conclusion. It cannot be assured that by providing more housing the issue of homelessness would be solved. A better conclusion might say therefore, more adequate housing should reduce the number of homeless people. To sum up then, we saw in the last lesson that it's important to evaluate evidence to determine its suitability within the argument. This can be done by looking at basic points such as origin, mode, purpose, and source. These points should be able to determine the relevance of the evidence for your discipline. You expand your criteria by looking at validity, currency, reliability, and relevance. To complete your criteria, you'll need to be able to evaluate the quality of the argument. By doing that, you need to draw on your understanding of the structure of logical arguments. In particular, you'll need to judge the quality of the premises, as well as determine whether the conclusion is not only logical but the most reasonable conclusion based on those premises. [MUSIC]
