While arguing people might sometimes leave out parts of the argument. The reason for this can be that these statements are something that are known by all, or maybe are too obvious that people feel that they do not need to state them. Sometimes people may leave out parts in the arguments as they may have rhetorical reasons for leaving parts out.
For instance, in one of the arguments, some part needs to state that
The earth revolves around the sun
There is no need to state it explicitly because this fact is known by most people. If the above statement is stated then it would seem pedantic. Therefore, sometimes it is better to leave out parts that are too obvious.
An example of this can be:
Everyone should drink raw cow’s milk, because it is natural and unprocessed.
The conclusion of this argument is “Everyone should drink cow’s milk”. The only reason provided in the sentence is that because cow's milk is “natural and unprocessed”, However, when we have a closer look at the sentence we find that a premise is missing in the sentence.
- It is better for everyone to drink things that are natural and unprocessed.
When the part of an argument that is missing is a premise, we call that statement a ‘suppressed premise’. The argument in standard form, including the suppressed premise, is:
P1: Cow's Milk is Natural
P2: Cow's Milk is unprocessed
P3: [It is better for everyone to drink things that are natural and unprocessed.]
C: Everyone should drink cow milk
Hidden premises or suppressed premises should be used economically. They should be used to only when the statements are really obvious. You only want to include a suppressed premise in an argument when it is required for the argument, and it’s obvious that it has been left out on purpose. Sometimes, another part of an argument that may be missing is the conclusion. We then say that the argument has a suppressed conclusion. An argument has a suppressed conclusion if it’s not explicitly stated.
