Hidden Premise
Sometimes a premise is so obvious that it does not need to be stated at all. An important skill for any philosopher is to be able to identify any unstated premises that an argument might be implying.
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These unstated premises are called hidden premises. Arguments rely on them to be valid and so this is why we must identify them.
What is this argument missing?
Dogs are dangerous.
Therefore, dogs should be kept away from children.
Missing...
Dangerous things should be kept away from children.
What is this argument missing?
Rex is a dog. Therefore, he must have a tail.
Missing...
Dogs have tails.
What is this argument missing?
If you are a vegetarian then you shouldn't eat bacon.
Missing...
Bacon is a meat product.
Task 1
Identify the hidden premises in the arguments below and on the next page.
Remember - sometimes the ridiculously obvious answer is the right one.
Argument 4
What is this argument missing?
You drank all your milk. You'll have strong bones now.
Argument 2
What is this argument missing?
Of course the flowers died. You watered them with petrol!
Argument 3
What is this argument missing?
We should read Plato because he makes a lot of sense.
Argument 5
What is this argument missing?
If you don't study you will fail your exam so you're probably going to fail.
Argument 6
What is this argument missing?
I love anything orange. That's why IrnBru is my favourite juice.
Argument 7
What is this argument missing?
Philosophy is only for smart people. Sorry John.
Standard Form
The arguments we have seen so far are called ordinary language arguments. That means that they are written in the way we might say them in real life.
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When faced with an ordinary language argument it is not always easy to see what is going on within the argument and so it is hard to evaluate if the argument works well or not.
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There are many methods that can be used to help make the structure of an rgument more obvious.
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Standard form is a way of presenting arguments so that they are made clearer.
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When writing in standard form you separate and label the premises and conclusions of an argument.
Ordinary
Language
Capital punishment should be abolished because it is murder and murder it illegal.
Standard
Form
P1 - Murder is illegal.
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P2 - Capital Punishment is murder.
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C - Therefore Capital punishment should be made illegal.
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P1 - stands for Premise 1. Arguments can be made up of any number of premises.
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C - Stands for conclusion. Arguments will usually only have one conclusion.
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When writing arguments in philosophy you should always use standard form unless you are told otherwise.
Ordinary
Language
People need to stop putting cones on top of the Victoria Statue in Glasgow. It looks horrible and it costs a lot of money to remove the cones.
Tips
Three lined arguments like this one are called syllogisms and were made popular by Aristotle.
Ordinary
Language
Mary should be sacked. Anyone who mismanages a company should be sacked.
This
Becomes this
Standard
Form
P1 - The cones on top of the Victoria Statue in Glasgow looks horrible.
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P2 - It costs a lot o money to remove the cones.
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C - Therefore people need to stop putting cones on top of the Victoria statue in Glasgow.
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When writing in standard form the premises always come before the conclusions. The conclusion is always the last line.
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If an argument has a hidden premise then you label the hidden premise as HP#. You can see this in the below example.
Standard
Form
P1 - Anyone who mismanages a company should be sacked.
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HP1 - Mary mismanages the company.
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C - Mary should be sacked.
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Standard Form Task 1
Download the following task and put the following ordinary language arguments not standard form.
You can also find the task on your GoogleClassroom.