THE 4 MAIN TYPES OF ARGUMENTATION AND EXAMPLES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The main types of argumentation are deductive argumentation, inductive argumentation, abductive argumentation and argumentation by analogy. Argument is one of the ways in which human beings can use language. This is the process through which affirmative or negative statements are used to support or refute a proposition.

There are different types of arguments and, therefore, different types of argumentation. To be more specific, for each type of argument, there is a type of argument. Each type of argumentation has a particular use, weaknesses and strengths.

To begin with, there are inductive argumentation, deductive argumentation, and abductive argumentation. These three types of argumentation constitute what is known as logical reasoning.

Of these two types, the second is considered to be the most reliable since it offers logical conclusions drawn from true premises. For its part, inductive argumentation is less reliable than deductive one, since the premises are assumptions.

In this sense, the conclusion will only be correct if the premises are. Finally, abductive argumentation offers the most logical premises from the given conclusion.

Other types of argumentation are by analogy, by signs, by examples, by testimony, by cause and effect, among others.

Main types of argumentation

1- Deductive argumentation

Deductive argumentation is the best type of argumentation because it draws conclusions from premises that are testable and verifiable.

The validity of deductive arguments comes from the reasoning that is made around the premises: if valid premises are presented, the conclusion cannot be anything other than valid.

It is necessary to emphasize that deductive argumentation has a limitation: these arguments lack evidence beyond what is presented in the premises, so it requires the use of other resources to support the arguments.

The basic form of deductive arguments is as follows:

Let's take an example to illustrate this concept:

If dolphins are mammals and mammals produce breast milk, then dolphins produce breast milk.

The deductive argument can also be stated as follows:

For example: All human beings are mortal. I am a human being. So, I am mortal.

This is the prototype of the deductive argument, and it was proposed by Aristotle under the nomenclature of "syllogism".

As can be seen, two premises and a conclusion are presented:

Premise # 1: All that is A is B.

Premise # 2: C is B.

Conclusion: So C is A.

Of these two premises, the first is called "universal proposition" since it offers general information on the subject at hand. For example: All human beings are mortal.

The second premise is called a specific statement, since it offers more detailed information on the subject at hand. For example: I am a human being.

These two premises logically lead to the conclusion. If all human beings are mortal and I am a human being, then indeed I am mortal.

2- Inductive argumentation

In the previous section, we mentioned that the limitation of deductive arguments is that they lack exhaustive evidence, so other elements must be used. This limitation is resolved with inductive argumentation.

Basically, inductive argumentation consists of assuming the premises to generate arguments that serve to support the conclusion.

Thus, it is probable and not certain that the conclusions are true. In this case, the validity of the conclusion comes from the induction capacity of the person making the premises.

Inductive argumentation is weak since the results offered by it are plausible, acceptable but not conclusive. In this sense, they oppose deductive argumentation.

An example of inductive argumentation is the following:

Conclusion: The grass is wet when it rains.

Premise: Every time it rains, the grass gets wet.

As seen, inductive arguments infer the antecedents for an observable condition. In the example, the observable condition is that the grass is wet when it has rained. From this condition, premises are extracted that could be true.

3- Abductive argumentation

Abductive argumentation resembles inductive argumentation in that conclusions are drawn from a premise.

Another similarity between abductive argumentation and inductive argumentation is that both can produce erroneous results.

It should be noted that the main characteristic of abductive arguments is that they are the best explanation for the conclusion that is presented.

For example:

Conclusion: The grass is wet but I have not watered it.

Abductive argument: It must have rained.

The abductive argument that is presented is the most logical explanation for the conclusion that is observed. However, this does not mean that the argument is correct. It could be that someone else in the house watered the lawn and we have not found out.

Examples of abductive argumentation are the astonishing arguments of Sherlock Holmes, a character in many of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works. Contrary to what is commonly considered, Detective Holmes abducts and does not deduce.

"-Lets start by the beginning. I came home, as you know, on foot and with my brain free of all kinds of impressions. I began, of course, by examining the road, and discovered, as I have already explained, the clear tracks of a carriage, and this carriage, as I deduced from my investigations, had been there in the course of the night. Due to the narrowness of the wheels, I was convinced that it was not a private carriage, but a rental one. The four-wheeled Hansom car called the Growler is much narrower than the private car called the Brougham. That was the first point I scored ”.

"A Study in Scarlet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

4- Argumentation by analogy

This type of argumentation occurs when a topic is not well known but, in the light of other evidence that is handled, more or less logical conclusions can be produced.

For example: In my car, the lever on the left is the one that turns on the shift lights. So on this other car the left lever should make the shift lights work.

References

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