bupbebeo wrote:Could you tell me what are assumptions in this argument?


Trees that shed their foliage are deciduous trees. Black Oak trees shed their leaves every year. Therefore, Black Oak trees are deciduous.

There is no assumption in this statement .

Premise : Trees that shed their foliage are deciduous trees.

Premise : Black Oak trees shed their leaves every year.

Conclusion : Therefore, Black Oak trees are deciduous.

The argument is totally valid argument and the conclusion can be proven by the premise . There is no gap in the argument and hence no conclusion.

rockeyb wrote:

bupbebeo wrote:Could you tell me what are assumptions in this argument?


Trees that shed their foliage are deciduous trees. Black Oak trees shed their leaves every year. Therefore, Black Oak trees are deciduous.

There is no assumption in this statement .

Premise : Trees that shed their foliage are deciduous trees.

Premise : Black Oak trees shed their leaves every year.

Conclusion : Therefore, Black Oak trees are deciduous.

The argument is totally valid argument and the conclusion can be proven by the premise . There is no gap in the argument and hence no conclusion.

What you think if I say the assumption for this argument is

People do not use chemicals that make Black Oak trees shed their leaves every year.

I mean, when people use chemicals Black Oak sheds their leaves due to this chemicals not by its own nature.

bupbebeo wrote:
What you think if I say the assumption for this argument is

People do not use chemicals that make Black Oak trees shed their leaves every year.

I mean, when people use chemicals Black Oak sheds their leaves due to this chemicals not by its own nature.

I would still say that this is not an assumption to the argument .

An assumption is necessary for the argument to be true , without the assumption the argument will not stand .

If we look at this argument and your so called assumption . If we remove the assumption then simply on the basis of the primes the argument can be proved true right ?

So we can not say that your assumption is the correct one .

An assumption is just like an unstated premise .

Now if we consider the argument as

Trees that shed their foliage are deciduous trees. Therefore, Black Oak trees are deciduous.

Now can the premise alone prove the argument ? No .

Some thing is missing right ? The missing part is the assumption .

Now if we put in your assumption in to the argument .

Premise : Trees that shed their foliage are deciduous trees.

Assumption : people use chemicals Black Oak sheds their leaves due to this chemicals not by its own nature.

Conclusion :Therefore, Black Oak trees are deciduous.

Look at what this assumption has done to the argument , it weakens the conclusion and if this was a weaken question then this would have been the correct assumption .

I hope all this makes sense.