Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Updated Edition
- Preface to the Paperback Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- Introduction
- I Fields of Argument and Modals
- II Probability
- III The Layout of Arguments
- IV Working Logic and Idealised Logic
- V The Origins of Epistemological Theory
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
I - Fields of Argument and Modals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Updated Edition
- Preface to the Paperback Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- Introduction
- I Fields of Argument and Modals
- II Probability
- III The Layout of Arguments
- IV Working Logic and Idealised Logic
- V The Origins of Epistemological Theory
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
Steward of Cross-Channel Packet: ‘You can't be sick in here, Sir.’ Afflicted Passenger: ‘Can't I?’ (Is)
PunchA man who makes an assertion puts forward a claim—a claim on our attention and to our belief. Unlike one who speaks frivolously, jokingly or only hypothetically (under the rubric ‘let us suppose’), one who plays a part or talks solely for effect, or one who composes lapidary inscriptions (in which, as Dr Johnson remarks, ‘a man is not upon oath’), a man who asserts something intends his statement to be taken seriously: and, if his statement is understood as an assertion, it will be so taken. Just how seriously it will be taken depends, of course, on many circumstances—on the sort of man he is, for instance, and his general credit. The words of some men are trusted simply on account of their reputation for caution, judgement and veracity. But this does not mean that the question of their right to our confidence cannot arise in the case of all their assertions: only, that we are confident that any claim they make weightily and seriously will in fact prove to be well-founded, to have a sound case behind it, to deserve—have a right to—our attention on its merits.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Uses of Argument , pp. 11 - 40Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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