Critical Thinking for Marketers, Volume I

CHAPTER 2

The Nature of Marketing Arguments

As we discussed in Chapter 1, an argument is a set of statements comprising premises and a conclusion. Because arguments are meant to persuade, some philosophers do not insist that arguments contain True, with a capital “T” premises. Rather, an argument’s premises simply need to be persuasive to your audience—that is, you need to supply your audience with good reasons and logic to believe that your argument’s claims are true. Here’s how Professor Kevin deLaplante explains this qualification:¹

Let me just wrap up with an objection to this modification that [premises just need to be plausible to one’s audience and not necessarily true] ... Some people might object that what I’ve done here is redefined ...