{"id":4731,"date":"2021-10-18T10:49:09","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T08:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/?p=4731"},"modified":"2025-03-29T21:37:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-29T20:37:18","slug":"4731-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/4731-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Case-by-Case argument"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; font-size: 14pt;\">CASE-BY-CASE Argument<\/span><\/h1>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\">1. Definition<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>Case-by-case argumentation<\/em> is an investigative technique that develops in several stages, from questions such as \u201c<em>Something happened under such and such circumstances; what could it be?<\/em>\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">First, make an exhaustive inventory of possible cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Second, consider each of these cases. Could it have happened under the circumstances considered?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Eliminate the cases that are incompatible with the circumstances.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Consider the remaining cases.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8211; If there are none, the inventory was not exhaustive.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8211; If there are several, they are equally possible at this point.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">If only one remains, take it as the correct answer to the question<br \/>\n\u00ab\u00a0<em>This is what happened!<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Example:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">S1 \u2014 All this money either comes from an inheritance, or from your work, or has been stolen. If it&rsquo;s from your work or from an inheritance, you can easily prove it by showing us the relevant documents. No such documents? Then you stole it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">This argument illustrates the classic law of negation of a disjunction, S. <a href=\"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/connective-e\/\">Connectives<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">\u201c<strong>P<\/strong> or <strong>Q<\/strong> or <strong>R<\/strong>\u201d is true; but <strong>P<\/strong> is false and <strong>Q<\/strong> is false; so necessarily, R is true.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>Definitions<\/em> can be given on a case-by-case basis. A crime, such as impiety, might be defined as a lack of respect for either the gods, their priests or their shrines. To accuse someone of impiety (or to exonerate oneself from this crime) one must show that at least one of the three defining conditions has been disrespected (or none) (after Aristotle, <em>Rhet<\/em>., II, 23, 1399a5; RR p. 367).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Case-by-case argument is a \u00ab\u00a0proof by elimination\u201d, an indirect proof, as opposed to a direct, substantial proof.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\">2. Argument by division<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Perelman (1977, p. 65) gives the following example of an <em>argument by division<\/em>:<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">The tire exploded because it was worn out, because there were nails on the road, or because of a manufacturing defect. Now, the tyre had just been bought and there were no nails in it. So, there was poor workmanship. (Perelman, 1977, p. 65)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">This shows that the label \u201cargumentation by division\u201d is homonymous: it can refer either to the argumentation by <a href=\"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/composition-and-division-e\/\"><em>composition<\/em><em> or division<\/em><\/a>, or to the case-by-case argument.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;\">3. Refutating the case-by-case argument<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">A case-by-case argument is perfectly conclusive if all cases have been considered; it can be rejected on the same case-by-case basis by showing that the enumeration of cases is incomplete:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">S2 (in response to <strong>S1<\/strong>, above): \u2014 <em>No Sir, I just won the lottery, here is the winning ticket!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">S3 (in reply to Perelman, above) \u2014 <em>Well, Sir, here are some other possibilities. The tire could have <\/em><em>exploded because it was badly inflated, because there was a pothole in the road, because it hit the curb, because it was overheated (if the driver happened to have just used a torch to loosen a wheel bolt), because the brake was stuck, because it came into contact with an electrical source, because the car was too loaded or too fast\u2026 My conclusion is that the investigation must continue.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CASE-BY-CASE Argument 1. Definition Case-by-case argumentation is an investigative technique that develops in several stages, from questions such as \u201cSomething happened under such and such circumstances; what could it be?\u201d: First, make an exhaustive inventory of possible cases. Second, consider each of these cases. Could it have happened under the circumstances considered? Eliminate the cases [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4731"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13856,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4731\/revisions\/13856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}