Normal conditions are claims that remain unstated in an argument. They remain unstated because in most cases, they are not needed in the argument. However, these small details make the argument stronger. A normal condition is more focused on making the cause and effect relationship between two events more valid or stronger. However, because the normal condition claim may be common sense, or may describe a "normal condition" of the current situation, it usually does not need to be stated in the premises or claims. Below is an example of an argument explaining a cause and effect.
My Nintendo DS's light turned red.
It turned red because the battery is dying.
It only turns red when I play my DS for a long time without charging it.
The cause and effect you see above describes the cause and effect simply. I can add more claims which do make the relationship stronger but are not necessary. Here are some examples.
The company, Nintendo, programmed the DS to turn red when the battery is dying or needs to be charged.
As far as I know, a DS is not like a PS3's or Xbox 360's where when you see a red light, it means it needs to addressed.
Since a DS is portable, it would be reasonable to use the red light feature to indicate the battery is dying.
Anyways, there are more to list, but that's just the basic idea. Let's just say if I added those premises, it establishes that the red light for the DS really does mean that the battery is dying. There is no other meaning towards it. However, because those claims are probably already known through common sense, it does not need to be added to the premise.
- Pink Bean
This is what I think of normal conditions. Yes it is true that normal conditions remain unstated, but what if someone argued that Nintendo DS blinks green light because it needs to addressed? Does that mean the red light indicator of a nintendo ds is no longer a normal condition? For example, someone says the light flashes green when the battery needs to be addressed, then you bring up that DS flashes red when the battery needs to be addressed. So I'm actually unsure if it's considered a normal condition anymore. As for the Xbox 360, random, it has a red indicator as well when it's broken down, but has nothing to do with a battery.
ReplyDelete