Week of Feb. 28-Mar. 6 Question#1

I was asked to come up with an example of an argument, and to discuss what needs to be repaired. With Roy Ashburn in the news a lot lately, I thought this would make a good example.



Example: A senator has never publicly denied that he is not gay. So, it is likely that the senator is gay. This is a weak argument because not denying something doesn’t make it true. But this argument could be repaired if you added more evidence, like the fact that he was arrested for drunk driving leaving a gay bar with another man in his car, then the argument would be stronger. This makes the argument stronger because both of the premises are good: someone who was arrested for DUI near a bar was probably at the bar, and if he had another man in the car who was also at the bar, it is probably that they were both homosexual, since it was a gay bar. Since both of these premises are plausible, this strengthens the original argument that the senator is gay.