In strong arguments, the premises could all be true, but the conclusion could possibly be false. For example:
BMW prefers to manufacture all their vehicles with rear wheel drive. All BMWs to date have been rear wheel drive. In conclusion, BMW will only make rear wheel drive cars. *Statement disregards the small number of models that were made in all-wheel drive, pretend they never existed :P*
In this example, the premises are both true, and the conclusion is also true. BMW has been in business for decades, and has always boasted about the superiority of rear wheel drive over front wheel drive. It looked like they would never make a front wheel drive car, thus making it a strong argument. Here's what makes the conclusion possibly false. BMW has FINALLY decided to introduce a new front wheel drive car some time in the near future, thus making the conclusion false. No one saw that coming! Highly unlikely move from BMW!
With valid arguments, there is no way the premises can be true while the conclusion is false. For example:
There is 12 inches in a foot. There is 5,280 feet in a mile. Therefore there is 63,360 inches in a mile.
Drawing from this example, you can see that if the premises were always to be true, then you cannot change the outcome of the conclusion to be false, unless you were really bad at math. Either way, the conclusion would be false, making it invalid.
You used a good example for a valid argument because the conclusion will never become false. The only way it can become false is it people decide to change the metric system (which is entirely impossible and unnecessary). I like your BMW example for a strong argument. It's funny how some companies just like to do random and unexpected things like that (like the cheeseburger chill from jamba juice if you heard of it, it was fake though). In this case, it made the argument from valid to just strong. Anyways, I can see why the argument is strong. It's because that it was unlikely that this would happen but it did anyways. If people were really expecting it making it likely, then this argument wouldn't be as strong.
ReplyDelete- Pink Bean