Logic, Parables, and Argument

Logic, Parables, and Argument TRUDY GOVIER & LOWELL AYERS Department of Philosophy University of Lethbridge Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4 [email protected] [email protected] Abstract: We explore the relation‐ Résumé: Nous explorons la relation ship between argument and narra‐ entre l’argument et le récit dans les tive with reference to parables. paraboles. Généralement on croit Parables are typically thought to que les paraboles transmettent un convey a message. In examining a message. En examinant une parable, we can ask what that parabole, nous pouvons nous de- message is, whether the story told mander ce que ce message est, si provides reasons for the message, l'histoire racontée fournit des raisons and whether those reasons are pour ce message, et si ces raisons good reasons. In exploring these sont bonnes. Pour répondre à ces questions, we employ as an inves‐ questions, nous employons une tigative technique the strategy of technique d'enquête qui consiste à reconstructing parables as argu‐ reconstruire des paraboles en arguments. We then proceed to con‐ ments et ensuite à examiner la force sider the cogency of those argu‐ probante de ceux-ci. On peut offrir ments. One can offer arguments des arguments à travers des récits et through narratives and, in particu‐ des paraboles, mais, d'un point de lar, through parables, but that do‐ vue épistémique, ce faisant apporte ing so likely brings more risks probablement plus de risques que than benefits, from an epistemic d’avantages. point of view. Keywords: analogy, argument, conclusion, instantiation, message, narrative, reasons, representation, story, symbolism Some take the view that narratives and arguments fall into mutually exclusive categories, on the grounds that narratives are stories and arguments are attempts to support claims by offering reasons for them. That sort of dichotomous contrast is exaggerated, though: there is ample evidence of overlaps. A narrative may contain one or more arguments, as in a case where legal speeches or intellectual discussions are contained in a novel. Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged provides an obvious example. On the other hand, a work that is primarily argumentative may contain one or more narratives, as in the © Trudy Govier and Lowell Ayers. Informal Logic, Vol. 32, No. 2, (2012), pp. 161–189. story of the Sun and the Cave or the Ring of Gyges, in Plato’s Republic and the short narratives in some of Jean-Paul Sartre’s books. Some narratives play important rhetorical roles in contexts where arguments are offered, adding interest and vividness. From narratives one can extract propositional claims that in other contexts serve as the premises or conclusions of arguments. And despite the bad reputation of “anecdotal arguments,” a story about an individual case can show that something exists or is possible, or provide a counter-example.1 Further questions about narrative and argument have special significance and interest. Here we are concerned to explore the following question. Can a narrative serve to provide an argument for a claim that can reasonably be taken to be its “point” or conclusion? This question concerns the potential relationship between the point of a narrative, as emerging from the story told in that narrative, and the conclusion of an argument, as emerging from reasons or evidence stated in its premises.2 In this essay, we explore this question with reference to one type of narrative, the parable. Parables are of special interest and, due to their relative brevity, provide convenient material for theoretical analysis. Because parables are often used in teaching contexts, it makes sense to explore just how we could find good reasons within such them. To regard a parable as having a message and as providing reasons (potentially good reasons) to support that message is, in effect, to regard it as offering an argument. People often change their minds on the basis of stories such as parables, and we can ask whether they do that for good reasons. To be sure, interpretive, logical, and epistemic difficulties often arise if one seeks to extract an argument from a narrative-even a short one such as a parable or fable.3 The 1 See Govier and Jansen (2011), p. 75–88. 2 It is one thing to extract claims from narratives, or even to extract arguments from narratives. It is another thing to extract from a narrative an argument that putatively expresses the point or message of that narrative, as supported by the events recounted in the narrative. Thanks to Gilbert Plumer for relevant correspondence on this matter. We take it to be quite obvious that one can extract claims in the first sense here, but far less obvious that one can derive an argument from a narrative, in the second sense. Broader questions about the relation between narrative and argument are of great interest but cannot be considered here. These include whether there is such a thing as a distinctive narrative type of argument (as distinct type in the way, say, that abductive arguments are a distinct type), and whether there is such a thing as narrative rationality, which is distinctive from the rationality characteristic of arguments. 3 Ayers (2010). See also Faigley and Selzer (2009), Fisher (1984) and Reissman (2008), and Spigelman (2001). interpretive issues that arise when one tries to construct an argument so as to capture the point of a story are many and complex. It may be alleged that argument and narrative are quite distinct genres and a story will be “killed” if cast into argumentative form. Compared to logically stated arguments, stories tend to be vivid, memorable, and emotionally appealing. From the point of view of logical cogency, there is a trap here: we risk persuasion on the basis of vividness and appeal, as distinct from relevant reasons. When a solution works in some narrative (often a fictive one) we may infer that it would be realistic outside that narrative, an inference that would be logically mistaken. Seeking to derive from a narrative an argument with explicit premises and conclusion is an approach employed here as a method of inquiry. We do not adopt this approach due to any theoretical commitment to the claim that all narratives ought to be recast as arguments. Rather, we adopt it as a kind of investigative tool. If we can plausibly derive an argument from a narrative such as a parable, we can assess the merits of that argument, and scrutinize it to consider whether the narrative offers good reasons to support its message. If we cannot plausibly derive an argument, or can derive only a very weak argument from the narrative in question, that outcome undermines the view that the parable or story supplies a message supported by good reasons. Parables are a convenient and appropriate form of narrative in this exploration because they are short and are characteristically understood as conveying a serious message. 1. Definitions: Narrative, Argument, and Parable We take these definitions to be broadly in accordance with ordinary usage and, if not definitive from a scholarly point of view, adequate for our purposes here. Narrative In a narrative, a sequence of events in described from a point of view that is often but not necessarily that of a person who has experienced it and serves as its narrator. The narrative has a kind of form; sense is made of the events, which are shaped into a story with a beginning, middle, and end.4 Typically there is a 4 We cannot pause to analyze further this commonly made statement which, despite its triteness, seems open to the objection that anything has in some sense or other a beginning, middle, and end. sort of plot in which a problem arises; as the story goes on there is some kind of outcome as the problem is resolved or ends in some way. In many narratives, events are sequenced in a realistic temporal order; however there may be deviations, as in the case of a story about time travel or novel with frequent flashback scenes. (Ayers 2010) Often, but not necessarily, events are causally linked in a narrative account. A narrative may be an autobiographical account; there is a narrator who is recounting a story of something that happened to him or her and may in some contexts be said to be “telling his or her story.” This notion is presumed in Spigelman (2001) and in Faigley and Spelzer (2009). Narrative accounts are typically particular, about what happened in one case. However, one could have a general narrative account of a sequence of events, as in an evolutionary explanation or historical account of economic problems leading up to a revolution. Liszka (2003) claims that general narratives about processes in nature may, in effect, justify claims about conservation ethics. Narratives may be fictional or non-fictional. Many stories are vivid and absorbing, but a narrative account need not have these features. One might, for example, offer an account of a board meeting which, though boring, would still amount to a narrative in the basic sense that it described events leading to some outcome. Parable A parable is a short simple story typically told of specific events and characters likely to be familiar and readily understood by the intended audience. It might, for instance, be about a man disturbing his neighbour in the middle of the night, a person helping a wounded stranger, a wandering son returning to his father, a stranded traveler constructing for himself a raft to cross a river, or some other specific and concrete thing (see Munson (1976), Cartwright (1999), Parker (2011)). Many parables are religious in nature; Jesus of Nazareth is especially renowned as one who sought to teach by parable.

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