Difference between the terms premise and support?

chowden89a

I just finished the Assumptions and Weakening lessons. I feel like I'm following the subject matter and doing well on the questions, but sometimes get confused when I read everyone's comments and they split hairs about the difference between what is the premise and what is support. Are the terms not interchangeable? I understand the basic concept of the premise supporting the conclusion, but feel like maybe I'm missing something. Can someone explain the difference to me?

Alex

@chowden89a said:
Are the terms not interchangeable?

I like to think of it like this:

A premise is what GIVES support to a conclusion. The support can technically be made up of the ideas of one or more premises.

chowden89a

@"Alex Divine" That helps, thank you!

Alex

@chowden89a said:
@"Alex Divine" That helps, thank you!

Excellent!

SherryS1

To say it a different way, I tend to think of the support as having to do with the relationship between the premise and the conclusion. We may have one or more premises but we may or may not have support.

I had the same question as you and went back to the CC a while back. Here are some of my notes from JY videos on support:

◦ Relationship between premise and conclusion
◦ Argument is good or bad based on strength of support
◦ Internal structure of an argument = support
◦ Support = reason to believe something is true

chowden89a

@SherryS1 Great points, thank you! And I'm glad I'm not the only one wondering about that.

SherryS1

@chowden89a Happy to help. And yeah, you're definitely not alone

MrSamIam

I like to think of the premise as the explicitly stated sentence(s) in the argument. The "support" is how that premise aids in making the conclusion more plausible. Often, the support is something that they want you to assume - but, if the argument is solid, than the "support assumption" will be incredibly easy to make.

Example (with a not-so-great argument):

Penguins are incredibly fat. Therefore, penguins cannot fly.

Premise: Penguins are fat (explicitly stated)

Support: Being heavier = more difficult, if not impossible, to fly (that's an assumption that they're sneaking in).

Alex

Love that way of explaining it @MrSamIam !

rochelleb180

Hi All, I think this question is great! I am new to 7sage and I love my curriculum, however, I'm still not clear based on all of the comments. I'm thinking that support regards the validity of the argument. Is that true? Also, support can be more than just the premise(s) because it can also include assumptions (unstated premises) as well. Support involves making judgments, right? Please advise.

Cant Get Right

@rochelleb180 I guess you could think of validity as perfect support.

Support is much more abstract than a premise. A premise is a statement from the argument. You can point to it, underline it, and quote it. Support isn't anything that exists in such concrete terms.

So perfect support would be a valid argument:

If I go to the store today, I'm going to get some eggs. I am going to the store today. Therefore, I'm going to get some eggs.

The premises provide support for the conclusion because they form a valid logical structure which forces the conclusion to be true.

There's many different levels of support though. Another argument might state:

By attempting to predict future conflicts, scholars sometimes create the very political environments within those cultures that make conflict inevitable. So scholars should only make these predictions once the evidence suggests that the political environments already incline cultures to conflict.

This is a much, much weaker argument, but there is clearly some support: Sometimes an action has bad consequences, so people shouldn't take that action unless those consequences are likely to happen anyway. It's far from perfect support, but it is something.