Argument Analysis Checklist
This post in the main is from an older blog I no longer maintain.
Why an argument analysis checklist? They’re easy for people to memorize. So I’m providing the checklist I follow when doing argument analysis. Will the argument fly? Or will it crash and burn? This checklist also works well for Apologetics. Some of you may recognize it. If you do, then I hope you’re using it. The checklist focuses on 4 areas: Arbitrariness, Inconsistencies, Consequences, Intelligibility.
Argument Analysis Checklist
1. Is it Arbitrary?
Is it mere Opinion?
Is it Relativism?
Is it Ignorant Conjecture?
Is it Unargued Bias?
2. Is it Inconsistent?
Is it a Logical Fallacy?
Is it a Reductio Ad Absurdum?
Is it actions speak louder than words?
Is it in Presuppositional Tension?
3. What are the Consequences?
What fruit does it produce?
Where does it lead?
What art does it produce?
What type of politics does it produce?
What type of ethics does it produce?
What type of lifestyle does it produce?
4. What are the preconditions of intelligibility of the argument?
What has to be true about the nature of reality to make sense of this argument?
What has to be true about the nature of knowledge to make sense of this argument?
What has to be true about the nature of ethics to make sense of this argument?
What are the preconditions of the intelligibility of ‘X’?
These are the questions that should be asked when dealing with advocates of Restorationist Textual Criticism. You may need to re-ask the questions again and again. But eventually RTC advocates will reveal they have no clothes on.
This checklist came from the late Dr. Greg Bahnsen.
The proof of God’s existence is that without Him you couldn’t prove anything. God is the precondition of all lines of proof. Proof itself requires the existence of God to be intelligent. – Dr. Greg Bahnsen
