What is an Argument?

#Argumentation #CriticalThinking #Argument
Are you confused about what an argument is?
We’ll leave aside the traditional sense found in the phrase: they had an argument, they broke up. This video will discuss the concept of argument within argumentation, rhetoric and critical thinking.
Perhaps you’ve heard people saying that everything is an argument.
Technology has made it possible to replace a lot of the human manual work with machine handled tasks, but one thing that remains altogether human is our capacity to see an issue and adopt a position towards it.
So what is an argument?
In this video we will discuss the concept of argument within the critical thinking context.
As such, an argument is not a contradictory discussion or a fight.
Also, be sure to make the distinction between the idea,, the position, the opinion on one hand and on the other, the person associated with these.
The concept of argument is used in quite a few constructs: critical thinking focuses on argument. So do informal logic, rhetoric and argumentation. They all share this focus on argument evaluation.
Definition: An argument is made to respond to a problem or issue. Within the argument, a position or opinion is adopted with regards to the issue. Reasons are also presented in order to support the position.
Another element of an argument is the purpose. Some arguments are aiming to convince and persuade others. But there are also arguments which are used to inform, to explore or to make decisions.
Arguments to convince vs arguments to persuade.
Are you aware of the distinction between convincing and persuading?
The term convince means “to cause someone to believe firmly in the truth of something.”
Here is an example from Bloomberg:
How to Convince Customers You’re Not Spying on Them
By contrast, the word persuade means “to cause someone to do something through reasoning or argument.”
An argument to persuade could be one where people are influenced to buy a product or to vote for or against someone (buying, voting - these mean taking action).
Persuading is taking it one step further from convincing and prompting people to take action.
So we have 4 elements which constitute the argument:
Issue
Position
Reasons supporting the position
Unstated attempt to persuade others to accept the position or the point of view.
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