My neighbor should be forced to get rid of all the cars in his yard 1. People do not like living next door to such a mess 2. He never drives any of them 3. They all look old and beat up and leak oil all over the place 4. It is bad for the neighborhood, and it will decrease property values 5.
Argument: yes
Conclusion: My neighbor should be forced to get rid of all the cars in his yard.
Additional premises needed: If he never drives any of them, they all look old and beat up and leak oil all over the place, and people don’t like living next to such a mess then it is bad for the neighborhood and decreases property value
Sub arguments: 2,3,4,5 support the conclusion of 1:
Good argument: This is a good argument once the additional premise is written in full because it makes the overall argument clearer. Since 2,3,4,5 are not all independent it makes more sense for 2,3,4 to support 5 which leads to the conclusion of 1.
I found this exercise very useful although it took me awhile to understand how they were analyzing these arguments. After i got the hang of it i thought it was very useful in not only being able to correct examples from the book but it also will help me to notice bad argument if I'm listening to someone or presenting something myself. This exercise will help me make sure I'm being clear when making arguments which in turn will make my argument more effective
I have read a lot of people's posts that deal with the same argument as yours. I think yours is very well made, and I like how you showed the connection between the premises and conclusion. A lot of people wrote about this example and put similar arguments and extra premises to yours. I do have a question though: if people still have the right to keep broken down cars in their yard, can you argue against them from doing it? I just feel that the argument has to go into great depth to force someone to do something such as clean their lawn up.
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