Читать книгу The Philosopher's Toolkit - Julian Baggini, Julian Baggini - Страница 58

There are two basic ways of doing this, both of which are covered in more detail elsewhere in this book. First, you can show that the argument is invalid: the conclusion does not follow from the premises as claimed (see 1.5). Or, second, you can show that one or more of the premises are false (see 1.4).

There is a third method of refutation, too – or at least quasi‐refutation. All you have to do is simply show that the conclusion must be false. From this it can be argued that therefore, even if you can’t identify exactly what is wrong with the argument, something must be wrong with it (see 3.25). This last method, however, isn’t strictly speaking a refutation, since one has failed to show what is wrong with the argument, only that it must be wrong. Nevertheless, this understanding that something must be wrong often accomplishes all that’s needed.