Discussion questions week 2: #1 Analysis of a good argument

For an argument to be considered good three tests must be passed: the premises must be plausible, the premises must be more plausible than the conclusion, and the argument must be valid or strong. These three tests are independent of one another, which means you must test for all three in order to determine whether the argument is good, as one can fail while the other two are fine. 

An example of a good argument would be:

"Jessica had a GPA of 4.2 in high school and an SAT score of 1800, Jessica is applying to SJSU and will attend in the fall if accepted. SJSU accepts all students with a GPA over 3.5 and an SAT score of 1700, Jessica will be attending SJSU in the fall."

This is a good argument because it fulfills all three tests of a good argument. First the premises are plausible, there is nothing to dissuade us from believing Jessica's scores, her want to attend SJSU, or SJSU's minimum admittance requirements. Secondly the premises are more plausible than the conclusion because the conclusion is based upon the premises being true, meaning even though the conclusion is spot on, it would be false if any of the preceding facts were incorrect. Finally the argument is valid because if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true, and the same stands true if analyzing the sentence in reverse.