Friday, October 7, 2011
Chatper 7 Concepts
Chapter seven in the "Critical Thinking" textbook by Richard L. Epstein discusses about counterarguments. A counterargument is an objection to an objection and it is also known as a rebuttal. A counterargument may seek to doubt on the facts of one or more of the premises presented. The two concepts in chapter 7 that caught my attention are raising objections and refuting an argument. When one raises an objection, it is a way to show that an argument is bad. When one objects then another argument is formed that questions one of the premises. It may also show that a premise is doubtful or that an argument is weak. There are two ways to refute an argument: directly and indirectly. The direct ways of refuting an argument are: show that at least one of the premises is dubious, show that the argument isn't valid or strong, and show that the conclusion is false. There are times when one cannot decided whether which premises is false or dubious, but one knows that there is something wrong with the premises. In this case one will have to refute indirectly by showing a person's beliefs leading to an unwanted conclusion. Raising an objection and refuting an argument is very common in arguments.
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I find your explanation of chapter 7 very good I think you gave a good explanation and it has helped me to understand more than before, when I gave my explanation I wrote about the thing I found most important to me but know I see that I could have added a few more lines about the other subjects. I also agree with you that raising an objection and refuting an argument is very common because people are most likely to disagree than agree about all any topic. That can be supported by the fact that everyone has their individual brain and set of mind.
ReplyDeleteHi! I really liked reading your post as it summed up the concepts of raising objectives and refuting arguments in a very simplistic way. You showed me that by raising objections, you can discover that your argument is weak and needs to be repaired and that you can refute an argument when you feel that it is dubious or there might be something wrong with the argument. I agree that raising objections and refuting arguments are very common arguments because everyone is different and we all are wired to question what we don't understand in order to know what someone is trying to convey. We do this each and every day as we are always wanting to have a stronger understanding for what we don't understand. Good job!! :))
ReplyDeleteWow! This is such a great post!! I feel like you really got the concept of what refuting an argument is. I also really liked how you compared refuting an argument to a rebuttal. Rebuttals never get discussions anywhere. They are like going in circles. At meetings, I hate when people rebuttal. Anyways, you did a really good job. At first I had a hard time trying to tell the difference between direct and indirect. Even though I understand it now, I feel like your blog really helped. I now feel like I have a better understanding. That is really good because refuting claims happens daily. sooo thank you for helping understand better :)
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