Composition Rhetoric by Stratton D. Brooks

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+171. Proposition of Fact and Proposition of Theory.+--Some propositions
state facts and some propositions state theories. Every argument therefore
aims either to prove the occurrence of a fact or the truth of a theory.
The first would attempt to show the actual or probable truth of a specific
proposition; for example:--

Nero was guilty of burning Rome.
Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.
Barbara Frietchie actually existed.
Sheridan never made the ride from Winchester.
Homer was born at Chios.

The second would try to establish the probable truth of a general theory;
for example:--

A college education is a profitable investment.
Light is caused by a wave motion of ether.

+172. Statement of the Proposition.+--The subject about which we argue may
be stated in any one of the three forms discussed in Section 74; that is,
as a declarative sentence, a resolution, or a question. The statement does
not necessarily appear first in the argument, but it must be clearly
formulated in the mind of the writer before he attempts to argue. Before
trying to convince others he must know exactly what he himself believes,
and the attempt to state his belief in the form of a proposition will
assist in making his own thought clear and definite.

If we are going to argue concerning elective studies, we should first of
all be sure that we understand the meaning of the term ourselves. Then
we must consider carefully what we believe about it, and state our
proposition so that it shall express exactly this belief. On first thought
we may believe the proposition that pupils should be allowed to choose
their own studies. But is this proposition true of pupils in the grades as
well as in the high schools? Or is it true only of the upper classes
in the high school or only of college students? Can you state this
proposition so that it will express your own belief on the subject?

EXERCISES

_A_. Use the following terms in expressed propositions:--

1. Immigration.
2. Elevated railways.
3. American history.
4. Military training.
5. Single session.
6. Athletics.

_B_. Explain the following propositions:--

1. The United States should adopt a free-trade policy.
2. Is vivisection justifiable?
3. The author has greater influence than the orator.
4. The civil service system should be abolished.
5. The best is always cheapest.

_C_. Can you restate the following propositions so that
the meaning of each will be made more definite?

1. Athletics should be abolished. (Should _all_ athletic exercises be
abolished?)

2. Latin is better than algebra. (_Better_ for what purpose? _Better_ for
whom?)

3. Training in domestic arts and sciences should be provided for high
school pupils. (Define domestic arts and sciences. Should they be
taught to _all_ high school pupils?)

4. Punctuality is more important than efficiency.

5. The commercial course is better than the classical course.

6. A city should control the transportation facilities within its limits.

+Theme XCVI.+--_Write out an argument favoring one of the propositions as
restated in Exercise C above._

(Before writing, make a brief as indicated in Section 77. Consider the
arrangement of your argument.)

+173. Clear Thinking Essential to Argument.+--Having clearly in mind the
proposition which we wish to prove, we next proceed to give arguments in
its support. The very fact that we argue at all assumes that there are two
sides to the question. If we hope to have another accept our view we must
present good reasons. We cannot convince another that a proposition is
true unless we can tell him why it is true; and certainly we cannot tell
him why until we know definitely our own reasons for believing the
statement. In order to present a good argument we must be clear logical
thinkers ourselves; that is, we must be able to state definite reasons for
our beliefs and to draw the correct conclusions.

+174. Inductive Reasoning.+--One of the best preparations for trying to
convince others is for us to consider carefully our own reasons for
believing as we do. Minds act in a similar manner, and what leads you and
me to believe certain truths will be likely to cause others to believe
them also. A brief consideration of how our belief in the truth of a
proposition has been established will indicate the way in which we should
present our material in order to cause others to believe the same
proposition. If you ask yourself the question, What leads me to believe as
I do? the answer will undoubtedly be effective in convincing others.

Are the following propositions true or false? Why do
you believe or refuse to believe each?

1. Maple trees shed their leaves in winter.
2. Dogs bark.
3. Kettles are made of iron.
4. Grasshoppers jump.
5. Giraffes have long necks.
6. Raccoons sleep in the daytime.
7. The sun will rise to-morrow.
8. Examinations are not fair tests of a pupil's knowledge.
9. Honest people are respected.
10. Water freezes at 32 deg. Fahrenheit.
11. Boys get higher standings in mathematics than girls do.

It is at once evident that we believe a proposition such as one of
these, because we have known of many examples. If we reject any of the
propositions it is because we know of exceptions (we have seen kettles not
made of iron), or because we do not know of instances (we may never have
seen a raccoon, and so not know what he does in the daytime). The greater
the number of cases which have occurred without presenting an exception,
the stronger our belief in the truth of the proposition (we expect the sun
to rise because it has never failed).

The process by which, from many individual cases, we establish the truth
of a proposition is called +inductive reasoning+.

+175. Establishing a General Theory.+--A general theory is established by
showing that for all known particular cases it will offer an acceptable
explanation. By investigation or experiment we note that a certain fact is
true in one particular instance, and, after a large number of individual
cases have been noted, and the same fact found to be true in each, we
assume that such is true of all like cases, and a general law is
established. This is the natural scientific method and is constantly being
made use of in pursuing scientific studies. By experiment, it was found
that one particular kind of acid turned blue litmus red. This, of course,
was not sufficient proof to establish a general law, but when, upon
further investigation, it was found to be true of all known acids,
scientists felt justified in stating the general law that acids turn blue
litmus red.

In establishing a new theory in science it is necessary to bring forward
many facts which seem to establish it, and the argument will consist in
pointing out these facts. Frequently the general principle is assumed to
be true, and the argument then consists in showing that it will apply to
and account for all the facts of a given kind. Theories which have been
for a time believed have, as the world progressed in learning, been found
unable to account for all of a given class of conditions. They have been
replaced, therefore, by other theories, just as the Copernican theory of
astronomy has displaced the Ptolemaic theory.

Our belief may be based upon the absence of facts proving the contrary as
well as upon the presence of facts proving the proposition. If A has never
told an untruth, that fact is an argument in favor of his truthfulness on
the present occasion. A man who has never been dishonest may point to this
as an argument in favor of placing him in a position of trust. Often the
strongest evidence that we can offer in favor of a proposition is the
absence of any fact that would support the negative conclusion.

The point of the whole matter is that from the observation of a large
number of cases, we may establish the _probable_ truth of a proposition,
but emphasis needs to be laid upon the probability. We cannot be sure. Not
all crows are black, though you may never have seen a white one. The sun
may not rise to-morrow, though it has never failed up to this time. Still
it is by this observation of many individual cases that the truth of the
propositions that men do believe has been established. We realize that our
inductions are often imperfect, but the general truths so established will
be found to underlie every process of reasoning, and will be either
directly or indirectly the basis upon which we build up all argument.

We may then redefine inductive reasoning as the process by which from
many individual cases we establish the _probable_ truth of a general
proposition.

EXERCISES

Notice in the following selections that the truth of the conclusion is
shown by giving particular examples:--

1. It is curious enough that _we always remember people by their worst
points_, and still more curious that _we always suppose that we ourselves
are remembered by our best_. I once knew a hunchback who had a well-shaped
hand, and was continually showing it. He never believed that anybody
noticed his hump, but lived and died in the conviction that the whole town
spoke of him no otherwise than as the man with the beautiful hand,
whereas, in fact, they only looked at his hump, and never so much as
noticed whether he had a hand at all. This young lady, so pretty and so
clever, is simply the girl who had that awkward history with So-and-so;
that man, who has some of the very greatest qualities, is nothing more
than the one who behaved so badly on such an occasion. It is a terrible
thing to think that we are all always at watch one upon the other, to
catch the false step in order that we may have the grateful satisfaction
of holding our neighbor for one who cannot walk straight. No regard is
paid to the better qualities and acts, however numerous; all the attention
is fixed upon the worst, however slight. If St. Peter were alive he would
be known as the man who denied his Master; St. Paul would be the man who
stoned Stephen; and St. Thomas would never be mentioned in any decent
society without allusions to that unfortunate request for further
evidence. Probably this may be the reason why we all have so much greater
a contempt for and distrust of each other than would be warranted by a
correct balance between the good and the evil that are in each.

--Thomas Gibson Bowles: _Flotsam and Jetsam_.

2. In the first place, 227 withered leaves of various kinds, mostly of
English plants, were pulled out of worm burrows in several places. Of
these, 181 had been drawn into the burrows by or near their tips, so that
the footstalk projected nearly upright from the mouth of the burrow; 20
had been drawn in by their bases, and in this case the tips projected from
the burrows; and 26 had been seized near the middle, so that these had
been drawn in transversely and were much crumpled. Therefore 80 per cent
(always using the nearest whole number) had been drawn in by the tip, 9
per cent by the base or footstalk, and 11 per cent transversely or by the
middle. This alone is almost sufficient to show that _chance does not
determine the manner in which leaves are dragged into the burrows_.

--Darwin: _Vegetable Mold and Earthworms_.

3. _The catastrophe of every play is caused always by the folly or fault
of a man; the redemption, if there be any, is by the wisdom and virtue of
a woman, and, failing that, there is none_. The catastrophe of King
Lear is owing to his own want of judgment, his impatient vanity, his
misunderstanding of his children; the virtue of his one true daughter
would have saved him from all the injuries of the others, unless he had
cast her away from him; as it is, she all but saves him. Of Othello, I
need not trace the tale; nor the one weakness of his so mighty love; nor
the inferiority of his perceptive intellect to that even of the second
woman character in the play, the Emilia who dies in wild testimony against
his error:--

"Oh, murderous coxcomb! what should such a fool
Do with so good a wife?"

In _Romeo and Juliet_, the wise and brave stratagem of the wife is brought
to ruinous issue by the reckless impatience of her husband. In _The
Winter's Tale_, and in _Cymbeline_, the happiness and existence of two
princely households, lost through long years, and imperiled to the death
by the folly and obstinacy of the husbands, are redeemed at last by the
queenly patience and wisdom of the wives. In _Measure for Measure_, the
foul injustice of the judge, and the foul cowardice of the brother, are
opposed to the victorious truth and adamantine purity of a woman. In
_Coriolanus_, the mother's counsel, acted upon in time, would have saved
her son from all evil; his momentary forgetfulness of it is his ruin; her
prayer, at last, granted, saves him--not, indeed, from death, but from the
curse of living as the destroyer of his country.

--Ruskin: _Sesame and Lilies_.

4.

_Bas. _So may the outward shows be least themselves;
_The world is still deceived with ornament_.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being season'd with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts:
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk;
And these assume but valor's excrement
To render them redoubted! Look on beauty,
And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight;
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it:
So are those crisped snaky golden locks
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known
To be the dowry of a second head,
The skull that bred them in the sepulcher.
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee;
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
'Tween man and man: but thou, though meager lead,
Which rather threatenest than dost promise aught,
Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence;
And here choose I: joy be the consequence!

--Shakespeare: _The Merchant of Venice_.

+Theme XCVII.+--_Write a paragraph proving the truth of one of the
following statements:_--

1. It is a distinct advantage to a large town to be connected with the
smaller towns by electric car lines.

2. Vertical penmanship should be taught in all elementary schools.

3. Examinations develop dishonesty.

4. Novel reading is a waste of time.

5. Tramps ought not to be fed.

(Make a brief. Consider the arrangement of your arguments. Read Section
72.)

+176. Errors of Induction.+--A common error is that of too hasty
generalization. We conclude that something is always so because it
happened to be so in the few cases that have come under our observation. A
broader experience frequently shows that the hastily made generalization
will not hold.

Some people are led to lose faith in all humanity because one or two of
their acquaintances have shown themselves unworthy of their trust. Others
are ready to pronounce a merchant dishonest because some article purchased
at his store has not proved to be so good as it was expected to be. There
are those who are superstitious concerning the wearing of opals, claiming
that these jewels bring the wearer ill luck, because they have heard of
some instances where misfortune seemed to follow the wearing of that
particular stone. What may seem to be causes and effects at first may,
upon further investigation or inquiry, prove to be merely chance
coincidences. In your work in argument, whether for the class room or
outside, be careful about this point. Remember that your induction will be
weak or even worthless if you draw conclusions from too few examples.

Often one example seems sufficient to cause belief. We might believe that
all giraffes have long necks, even though we had seen but one; but such a
belief would exist because, by many examples of other animals, we have
learned that a single specimen will fairly represent all other specimens
of the same class. On the other hand, if this one giraffe should possess
one brown eye and one white eye, we should not expect all other giraffes
to have such eyes, for our observation of many hundreds of animals teaches
us that the eyes of an animal are usually alike in color. In order to
establish a true generalization, the _essential_ characteristics must be
selected, and these cannot be determined by rule, but rather by common
sense.

+177. Deductive Reasoning.+--When once a general principle has been
established, we may demonstrate the truth of a specific proposition by
showing that the general principle applies to it. We see a gold ring and
say, "This ring is valuable," because we believe the general proposition,
"All articles made of gold are valuable." Expressed in full, the process
of reasoning would be--

_A._ All articles made of gold are valuable.
_B._ This ring is made of gold.
_C._ Therefore this ring is valuable.

A series of statements such as the above is called a syllogism. It
consists of a major premise (_A_), a minor premise (_B_), and a conclusion
(_C_).

Of course we shall not be called upon to prove so simple a proposition as
the one given, but with more difficult ones the method of reasoning is the
same. The process which applies a general proposition (_A_) to a specific
instance (_C_), is called deductive reasoning.

+178. Relation between Inductive and Deductive Reasoning.+--Deductive
reasoning is shorter and seems more convincing than inductive reasoning,
for if the premises are true and the statement is made in correct form,
the conclusions are irresistible. Each conclusion carries with it,
however, the weakness of the premises on which it is based, and as these
premises are general principles that have been themselves established by
inductive reasoning, the conclusions of deductive reasoning can be no more
_sure_ than those of inductive reasoning. Each may prove only that the
proposition is probably true rather than that it is surely true, though in
many cases this probability becomes almost a certainty.

+179. The Enthymeme.+--We seldom need to state our argument in the
syllogistic form. One of the premises is usually omitted, and we pass
directly from one premise to the conclusion. If we say, "Henry will not
succeed as an engineer," and when asked why he will not, we reply,
"Because he is not good in mathematics," we have omitted the premise, "A
knowledge of mathematics is necessary for success in engineering." A
shortened syllogism, that is, a syllogism with one premise omitted, is
called an enthymeme.

Thus in ordinary matters our thought turns at once to the conclusion in
connection with but one premise. We make a thousand statements which a
moment's thought will show that we believe because we believe some
unexpressed general principle. If I should say of my dog, "Fido will die
sometime," no sensible person would doubt the truth of the statement. If
asked to prove it, I would say, "Because he is a dog, and all dogs die
sometime." Thus I apply to a specific proposition, Fido will die, the
general one, All dogs die, a proposition about which there is no doubt.

Frequently the suppressed premise is not so well established as in this
case, and the belief or nonbelief of the proposition will be determined by
the individuals addressed, each in accordance with his experience. Suppose
that in reading we find the statement, "A boy of fourteen ought not to be
allowed to choose his own subjects of study, because he will choose all
the easy ones and avoid the more difficult though more valuable ones." The
omitted premise that all boys will choose easy studies, needs to be
established by induction. If a high school principal had noticed that out
of five hundred boys, four hundred elected the easy studies, he would
admit the truth of the omitted premise, and so of the conclusion. But if
only one hundred had chosen the easy subjects, he would reject the major
premise and likewise the conclusion.

It is evident that in order to be sure of the truth of a proposition we
must determine the truth of the premises upon which it is based. An
argument therefore is frequently given over wholly to establishing the
premises. If their truth can be demonstrated, the conclusion inevitably
follows.

EXERCISES

_A._ Supply the missing premise for the following:--

1. John will succeed because he has a college education.
2. Henry is happy because he has plenty of money.
3. Candy is nutritious because it is made of sugar.
4. These biscuits will make me ill because they are heavy.
5. This dog must be angry because he is growling.
6. This fish can swim.
7. The plural of the German noun _der Garten_ is _die Gaerten_.
8. It will hurt to have this tooth filled.

_B._ Supply the reasons and complete the syllogism for each of the
following:--

1. This book should not be read.
2. This hammer is useful.
3. That dog will bite.
4. This greyhound can run rapidly.
5. The leaves have fallen from the trees.
6. That boy ought to be punished.
7. It is too early to go nutting.
8. This boy should not study.
9. You ought not to vote for this man for mayor.

+Theme XCVIII.+--_Write a paragraph proving the truth of one of the
following propositions:_--

1. Labor-saving machinery is of permanent advantage to mankind.

2. New Orleans will some day be a greater shipping port than New York.

3. Poetry has a greater influence on the morals of a nation than prose
writing.

4. Boycotting injures innocent persons and should never be employed.

5. Ireland should have Home Rule.

6. The President of the United States should be elected by the direct vote
of the people.

(Consider your argument with reference to the suppressed premises.)

+180. Errors of Deduction.+--The deductive method of reasoning, if
properly used, is effective, but much care needs to be taken to avoid
false conclusions. A complete exposition of the variations of the
syllogism is not necessary here, but it will be of value to consider
briefly three chief errors.

If the terms are not used with the same meaning throughout, the conclusion
is valueless. A person might agree with you that domestic arts should be
taught to girls in school, but if you continued by saying that scrubbing
the floor is a form of domestic art, therefore the girls should be taught
to scrub the floor, he would reject your conclusion because the meaning of
the term _domestic art_ as he understood it in the first statement, is not
that used in the second.

It will be noticed that each syllogism includes three terms. For example,
the syllogism,--

All hawks eat flesh;
This bird is a hawk;
Therefore this bird eats flesh,--

contains the three terms, _hawk, eats flesh, this bird_; of these but two
appear in the conclusion. The one which does not (in this case _hawk_) is
called the middle term. If the major premise does not make a statement
about every member of the class denoted by the middle term, the conclusion
may not be valid even though the premises are true. For example:--

All hawks are birds;
This chicken is a bird;
Therefore this chicken is a hawk.

In this case the middle term is _birds_, and the major premise, _All hawks
are birds_, does not make a statement which applies to all birds. The
conclusion is therefore untrue. Such an argument is a fallacy.

The validity of the conclusion is impaired if either premise is false. In
the enthymeme, "Henry is a coward; he dare not run away from school," the
suppressed premise, "All persons who will not run away from school, are
cowards," is not true, and so invalidates the conclusion. It is well to
test the validity of your own argument and that of your opponent by
seeking for the suppressed premise and stating it, for this may reveal a
fatal weakness in the thought.

EXERCISES

Which of the following are incorrect?

1. The government should pay for the education of its people;
Travel is a form of education;
Therefore the government should pay the traveling expenses of the
people.

2. All horses are useful;
This animal is useful;
Therefore this animal is a horse.

3. I ought not to study algebra because it is a very difficult subject.

4. Pupils ought not to write notes because note writing interferes with
the rights of others.

5. All fish can swim;
Charles can swim;
Therefore Charles is a fish.

6. Henry is a fool because he wears a white necktie.

7. All dogs bark;
This animal barks;
Therefore this animal is a dog.

+Theme XCIX.+--_Write a paragraph proving the truth of one of the
following propositions:_--

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