Are you Implying that I Inferred?

A concept I found interesting was the Inferring and Implying section in chapter 5 of the Epstein book. Infer and imply can be easily be mistaken to be synonymous. This section helped me greatly understand and distinguish the difference between the two. According the Epstein, “When someone leaves a conclusion unsaid, he or she is implying the conclusion. When you decide that an unstated claim is the conclusion, you are inferring that claim. We can also say someone is implying a claim if in context it’s clear he or she believes the claim. In that case we infer that the person believes the claim.” There are probably countless times when I have switched the two and used them improperly. I also liked how the section describes how implying and inferring can be tricky and lead you to hot water. Sometimes claims or conclusions just seem too obvious that we infer or imply although we should not.

Spray and Pray

The piece of advertisement that I found on the internet is for axe body spray (pictured above, click for full view). The picture contains a woman who is only wearing red lingerie. She is portrayed to what seems like a primitive woman in the wild in modern sexy lingerie. Next to her in big writing is the phrase "SPRAY MORE GET MORE, THE AXE EFFECT." What the ad is essentially is claiming is that getting women is like hunting. With the help of axe body spray, the more you spray the more women you will get. I personally reject this claim. Women are not hunted. Although most women prefer a guy that smells nice, it a lone wont decide whether or not a woman is attracted to a man. The "spray more get more" claim is false. We can not trust their company on this claim and their is no respectable authority figure that supports this claim. My personal experiences as well as what I have observe with friends who use axe body spray, provide no evidence to support this claim. However, because this ad is directed towards young boys that are full of hormones, the ad somewhat is successful at selling the product. They are at that age where they pray that anything will help them get a girl.

Weezy F Baby the F is for Fix-it

According to Epstein, repairing arguments must meet three guidelines
1. The argument becomes stronger or valid.
2. The premise is plausible and would seem plausible to the other person.
3. The premise is more plausible than the conclusion.

Here is an example of an argument that needs to be repaired.

Lil' Wayne is a gangster. So he will either end up in prison or be shot to death.

Analysis
The obvious add will be "All gangsters either end up in prison or be shot to death," but we can not do that because it will make the argument invalid. It is false because not all gangsters end up in prison or get shot to death. If we change it a little bit and say "Almost all gangsters either end up in prison or be shot to death," then it will make the argument good. It links the premise to the conclusion and satisfies the three guidelines to repairing an argument.