Against Making the Linked-Convergent Distinction

Abstract

The intuition guiding the avowed distinction between linked and convergent argument structures is easy enough to grasp – in various arguments some of the premises appear to link together to form a single reason for the conclusion, while other premises appear to constitute separate reasons which independently converge on the conclusion. Though the intuition is easy enough to grasp, as James Freeman has recently pointed out: “the problem of clearly distinguishing linked from convergent argument structure has proven vexing” (Freeman, 2001, p. 397). Indeed, the question remains whether the intuition truly captures a real distinction.