Arguments — Part 1 of 2 Arguments are everywhere: science, philosophy, religion, politics, business, and, of course, in everyday’s life. But I want to make clear from the beginning that I’m not referring to these arguments… In an argument we have a series of statements from which one is the conclusion that the others, the premises, try to establish. Let’s see an example. (1) All Simpsons are yellow (2) Lisa Simpson is a Simpson (3) Therefore, Lisa Simpson is yellow In this case, sentences (1) and (2) are our premises, and they give us reasons to believe in sentence (3), the conclusion. This is a very good argument because it follows necessarily that if all Simpsons are yellow and Lisa is a Simpson, Lisa must be yellow. Now, the magic word that transforms this series of sentences into an argument is therefore, because it indicates that the following sentence is the conclusion. Otherwise, this would be just a bunch of sentences with no connection whatsoever. But this implies that the following is also an argument: (1) I like cookies. (2) Thus, you must obey me. In this case, the word thus indicates that the fact that I have a beard is reason enough for you to obey me. But even when this is an argument, that doesn’t mean it’s a good argument. This could be considered a fallacy of (ir)relevance, because the fact that I like cookies has no connection with obedience.