The Good Argument Test

The 3 Tests for an Argument to be Good

1)   The premises are plausible.

2)   The premises are more plausible than the conclusion

3)   The argument is valid or strong

Example 1 in determining whether or not an argument is good:

Everyone who works at Pixar is an animator.

My sister works at Pixar.

So my sister is an animator.

Is this example valid or strong? This example represents a valid argument because there is no possible way for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false at the same time. However, this represents a bad argument because the premise: “everyone who works at Pixar is an animator” and the conclusion: “my sister is an animator are false.  Even though the second premise is true, we have no reason to believe that all workers at Pixar are animators. In this example, the premise is also not more plausible than the conclusion, which further makes it a bad argument.

Example 2:

Pixar Animation studios made Toy Story.

So the character, Buzz Lightyear, was created by Pixar.

Is this example valid or strong? This example represents an invalid argument because it is possible for the premise to be true and conclusion to be false at the same time.  Someone else could have created the character that didn’t work at Pixar. Maybe they bought the idea from another company? Maybe they saw a picture someone had drawn of buzz at an art fair? However, although these are possibilities, they are highly unlikely, which makes this a strong argument.  The premise is also plausible as we have good reason to believe that Pixar had created Buzz Lightyear.

Thanks for reading :))