What Is an Argument, Formally?
In philosophy, an 'argument' is not a fight — it is a structured set of premises offered in support of a conclusion. You will be able to identify the premises and conclusion inside any claim you hear in a BQ round.
Premises and Conclusions
A premise is a statement offered as evidence or reason; a conclusion is the claim the premises are meant to support. In the simplest form, called a syllogism, two premises combine to necessitate a conclusion, such as: 'All humans are mortal. Socrates is a human. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.'
Spotting Hidden Premises
Real speeches rarely state every premise out loud; a debater who says 'AI can't be conscious because it's just code' is hiding the unstated premise that 'nothing made of code can be conscious,' which is exactly the kind of premise a skilled opponent should surface and challenge.
A debater argues: 'Morality must be objective, because if it weren't, no one could ever really be wrong about anything.'
Premise 1 (stated): If morality is not objective, no one can be really wrong about anything. Premise 2 (hidden): Some people are really wrong about moral claims (e.g., genocide is wrong). Conclusion: Therefore, morality is objective. Surfacing the hidden premise lets an opponent decide whether to attack it directly.
1. What is a premise?
2. Why is it useful to identify a hidden, unstated premise in an opponent's argument?
Answer all 2 to check.
Every argument reduces to premises supporting a conclusion, and skilled debaters find the premises that are left unstated.