What is argumentation?
Examiners often comment on the quality of the
argument made in support, or as refutation, of the thesis. Here's an example:
"The thesis is frustrating for a number of reasons that I think are quiet independent of the difficulty of the task:
- In my view, the argumentation is often unclear or not convincing, and observations and hypotheses are often stated in vague terms.
- Many terms and concepts are used without definition, probably on the assumption that the readers will have knowledge of all primary sources relied upon.
- The analysis provided in exploration of the central hypothesis lacks necessary detail and formality, so it is very hard to assess."
Recall that a
thesis is a proposition laid down or stated as a theme to be discussed and proved, or to be maintained against attack. An
argument is a series of statements leading to a proposition, made convincing by logical reasoning and evidence. It is clear that the examiner above had difficulty with the definitions of the concepts used in the argument and the value of the logic used to link those concepts into a conclusion.
Thus, an argument consists of the following parts:
- A claim
- The logical reasoning and evidence in support of the claim
- The presentation of opposing views
- A refutation of opposing views
In practice, the claim itself usually arises
after you have observed a body of evidence, but in the thesis you present the claim first and then lay down the evidence to support it.
Deductive arguments are based on the laws of logic and the argument is valid if and only if the premises logically imply the conclusion. For example, Modus Ponens is the form of logic that states:
- If X is true, then Y is true;
- X is true.
- Hence, Y is true.
For example, we know that the implication "If today is Friday, then tomorrow is a holiday" is true. If we also know that the fact "Today is Friday" is true, then we can deduce that "Tomorrow is a holiday" is also true. However, if the implication is false (perhaps we live in a country where people work on Saturdays), or the evidence is false (perhaps today is Tuesday), then we cannot deduce that tomorrow is a holiday.
There are other rules of logic that can be applied to produce valid arguments.
Deductive arguments require the extremely strong condition that it is strictly
impossible for the conclusion to be false. Inductive arguments are more common and are what you are likely to use in the argumentation of your thesis. Inductive arguments use evidence and logical reasoning to lead to
highly probable conclusions. However, inductive arguments can also be refuted.
Common forms of inductive argument include the following:
- Direct inference. You infer from a proportion of individuals having a certain property to a particular individual having that property. For example "99% of all birds can fly, and this is a bird, therefore it can fly." Your inference can be defeated by an additional biasing factor: your bird is an emu.
- Inverse inference. You infer from a proportion of individuals having a certain property to the whole population having that property. For example, "99% of my patients responded positively to this drug, therefore 99% of all people will respond positively to this drug." This inference can be defeated by showing that your sampling procedure is biased; for example, all your patients are children.
- Analogies. By drawing attention to similarities between structural or law-like features
of two systems, some support may be found for claiming that
a further, unobserved feature of one is likely to be similar to a corresponding
feature of the other. For example, you might decide that the human brain is like a computer and thus certain ways in which a computer works explain the way in which the brain works. These arguments are defeated by disanalogies, pointing out the ways in which the systems are different. - Correlations. Use carefully! Some correlations may support your argument because there is a causal link: Every time the moon is full or new, the high tides are very high and the low tides are very low. This occurs because there is a direct causal link: the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon combine. However other correlations can be very problematic: Every time ice-cream consumption goes up, there are more deaths from drowning!