The Language of Argument

8 5

Arranging Subarguments

Socialism is doomed to failure because it does not provide the incentives

that are needed for a prosperous economy.

The simplest representation of this argument yields the following standard

form:

(1) Socialism does not provide the incentives that are needed for a

prosperous economy.

∴(2) Socialism is doomed to failure. (from 1)

It is tempting to break up the first premise into two parts:

(1) Socialism does not provide incentives.

(2) Incentives are needed for a prosperous economy.

∴(3) Socialism is doomed to failure. (from 1–2)

In this form, the argument is open to a fatal objection: Socialism does provide

some incentives. Workers often get public recognition and special privileges

when they produce a great deal in socialist economies. But this does not re-

fute the original argument. The point of the original argument was not that

socialism does not provide any incentives at all, but only that socialism does

not provide enough incentives or the right kind of incentives to create a pros-

perous economy. This point is lost if we break up the premise in the way

suggested. A better attempt is this:

(1) Socialism does not provide adequate incentives.

(2) Adequate incentives are needed for a prosperous economy.

∴(3) Socialism is doomed to failure. (from 1–2)

The problem now is to specify when incentives are adequate. What kinds of

incentives are needed? How much of these incentives? The answer seems

to be “enough for a prosperous economy.” But then premise 2 reduces to

“Enough incentives for a prosperous economy are needed for a prosperous

economy.” This is too empty to be useful. Thus, we are led back to some-

thing like the original premise:

(1) Socialism does not provide enough incentives for a prosperous

economy.

∴(2) Socialism is doomed to failure. (from 1)

In this case, we cannot break the premise into parts without distorting the

point.

ARRAnGinG sUBARGUMents

When the premises of an argument are dissected, it often becomes clear that

some of these premises are intended as reasons for others. The premises then

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