Arguments are seldom stated in standard form.  A fair and impartial restatement of ordinary language reasoning is essential for argument analysis and evaluation.

Many of these translation techniques are mastered by careful study;  others are quite challenging and require great skill and insight.

Links to Lecture Notes …
ORDINARY LANGUAGE ARGUMENTS

• Reducing the Number of Terms
  Translation techniques, including immediate inferences, are discussed  and used for syllogistic inference.
  
• Translation into Standard Form 
  Some well-known techniques for translating ordinary language sentences into standard form categorical propositions are explained.
  
• Strategies for Uniform Translation
  An inductive strategy for mechanizing translation is illustrated.
  
• Enthymemes
  Strategies for completing and evaluating incomplete syllogisms are discussed.
  
• Sorities
  A chain of several enthymematic syllogisms is explained.
  
• Disjunctive and Hypothetical Syllogisms
  Two other syllogistic forms are introduced with examples.
  
• The Dilemma
  One of the most influential forms of persuasion is analyzed.
  

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11.24.04       © 2004 Licensed under GFDL