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Premise 2: And, because all the other Zelda games came out after this original one (1987-2007);

Premise 3: And, because 1986 is earlier than 1987-2007;

Conclusion: Hence, The Legend of Zelda represents the earliest adventure for Link.

Check out a few things about this argument. First, it has been placed into standard form, which means putting the premises of the argument first, the conclusion last, and clearly dividing the premise(s) and conclusion with a horizontal line. Restating arguments in standard form is handy because it aids in making the logical form and parts of the argument transparent. Also, standard form makes the argument easier to evaluate in terms of whether all the premises are true as well as whether the conclusion follows from the premises (which we’ll get into later).

Second, notice the word because before the premises and the word hence before the conclusion. Because is an example of a premise-indicating word, along with words like since, as, for, and for the reason that, among others. Hence is an example of a conclusion-indicating word, along with words like therefore, thus, so, this shows us that, we can conclude that, and we can infer/deduce/reason that, among others. These words are an important first-step in identifying an argument because they usually let us know that premises and a conclusion are coming in an argument. In fact, what was just said in this last sentence can be taken as a simple argument: because these words usually let us know that premises and a conclusion are coming in an argument (premise), therefore these words are an important first-step in identifying an argument (conclusion). Often times, it’s difficult to tell if someone is putting forward an argument when they’re speaking or writing, so you can be on the lookout for these indicating words to see if there’s an argument in front of you or not.

More Hy-Rules of Reasoning

There are two basic types of arguments, deductive and inductive. With deductive arguments, the speaker intends the conclusion to follow from the premise(s) with certainty so that, if all of the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true without any doubt whatsoever. Also, the conclusion of a deductive argument is already found in the premise(s) in a way that there is absolutely no other conclusion that could be inferred from the premise(s). To say that a conclusion follows from a premise means that we are justified in having reasoned appropriately from one statement (the premise) to another statement (the conclusion).

Recently, while he was in a gaming shop, Rob overheard two boys (no more than ten years old) talking about their desire for the new Nintendo Wii system. One of the boys put forward a deductive argument that went something like this:

Premise 1: If we both do our chores, then we’ll get $20.00 (total) from our parents;

Premise 2: And if we get $20.00, then we’ll be able to buy a (new) Nintendo Wii console;

Conclusion: So, if we both do our chores, then we’ll be able to buy a Nintendo Wii console.

Provided that the two premises are true, we can see that the conclusion absolutely must be true. We can also see that there’s no other conclusion that could possible follow from the premises—from looking at the premises alone you can recognize the conclusion before even seeing it. The previous argument about The Legend of Zelda representing the earliest adventure for Link is also a deductive argument. Just like with the Nintendo Wii argument, if all the premises are true then the conclusion has to be true, there isn’t any other conclusion that could possibly be drawn from the premises, and you can figure out what the conclusion is without even seeing it.

Unlike deductive arguments, with inductive arguments the speaker intends the conclusion to follow from the premises with a degree of likelihood or probability only so that, if all of the premises are true, then the conclusion likely or probably is true. But it’s still possible that the conclusion