360 /l/-41
- The argument is improper by omission in which something is
left out which is needed for the conclusive deduction of the conclusion.
For example, this is a sound argument, as they think, in 'wealth is either
good or bad or indifferent; but it is not bad or indifferent; therefore, it
is good'; but the following is a bad argument on the grounds of omission:
'wealth is either good or bad; it is not bad; therefore, it is good'. 151.
If, then, I show that on the basis of what they say it is not possible to
discern a difference between non-conclusive and conclusive arguments,
I have shown that the conclusive argument is ungraspable, so that their
limitless treatises on dialectic are superfluous. I show this in the follow-
ing way. - The argument that was said to be non-conclusive because of
logical disconnectedness is understood to be so from the fact that there
is no logical connection between the premisses and between the premisses
and the conclusion. Since, therefore, the judgement about the conditional
ought to precede the understanding of these logical connections and the
conditional is undecidable, as I have argued, the non-conclusive argument
based on logical disconnectedness will be indiscernible from a [conclusive
argument]. 153. For he who is stating that some argument is non-
conclusive because of logical disconnectedness, if he is merely making
an assertion, will have contradicting him an assertion opposed to what
he previously said; whereas if he demonstrates by means of an argument,
he will be told that this argument must first be [shown to be] conclusive,
and then he can use it to demonstrate that the argument said to be
logically disconnected has premisses that are without logical connections.
But we shall not know if it is demonstrative, not having an agreed upon
means of judging the conditional, by which we can judge if the conclusion
is logically connected to the combination of the premises. And, therefore,
on this basis we shall not be able to discern the difference between
an argument that is improper because of logical disconnectedness and
conclusive ones. - We shall say the same things to someone who states that some
argument is improper because of being asserted in improper form. For
he who is trying to establish that a form is improper will not have an
agreed upon conclusive argument by means of which he will be able to
deduce what he states. 155. And by means of these criticisms we have
implicitly refuted those who attempt to show that arguments are non-
conclusive by omission. For if the complete and finished argument is
indiscernible [from a non-conclusive argument], the argument defective
by omission will also be non-evident. And further, he who desires to
show that some argument is defective by omission by means of an argu-