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2.1 Premises

If you look closely at all the reasons and objections in Tutorial 1, you'll see that each one contains a claim.  A claim which is inside or part of a reason or an objection is known as a premise. 

This reason contains a claim. The claim is a premise.
Here is an alternative way to map the simple argument. It displays the premise as a distinct claim.

Premise is a technical term.  In ordinary conversation people (mis)use it in many ways, but for us it has a specific meaning: a claim which is part of a reason or objection.

The key point right now is that if you look closely at reasons or objections, you'll see that they are made up of distinct claims, which we call premises.

A premise is a claim which is part of a reason or an objection.

 Last updated 06-Jul-2007