2). Please discuss, in detail, what you learned from reading Chapter 7. Discuss at least 2 things you learned.
Chapter 7 titled, "Counter Argument" by Epstien. This chapter is mainly about raising counter arguments towards what the person is saying. For the refuting an argument directly portion of the reading. In order to refute it directly, you should show at least one of the premises is dubious, show that the argument is either weak or invalid, and lastly show that the final conclusion is false.
For example,
Dick: Fred you shouldn't eat any type of food pass 9PM. Because eating pass 9PM can lead to weight gain. So if you don't eat anything after 9PM then you'll lose weight. Also If you gain weight how would you ever get a girlfriend.
How would Fred refute this argument? Well, Fred can counter attack the premises by making it dubious. So Fred could state all the calories that he consumed before 9PM. For example, what if Fred for breakfast ate five donuts, two bagels topped with bacon, egg, and tons of cheese. Then lunch, Fred ate fried chicken with gravy, four slices of pizza, and five McDonald quarter pounder hamburgers. Lastly, for dinner two hours before 9PM Fred ate a 72 OZ steak. Okay, that was an exaggeration of how much a person could eat but that argument does counter attack Dick's argument. So even though Fred does not eat anything after 9PM his overall calorie count would be off the chart and he still will be gaining weight.
The second topic of discussion is to refute indirectly. This refute can be seen as harder than refuting directly because indirect refutes means when you read an argument you can't point out anything is wrong with it directly.
For example, Jim is a very opinionated person. Once he hears something he does not like he will immediately decide it not worth listening to and argue with anyone that opposes his opinion.
To indirectly argue the example we could say, Jim has a hard time being open minded and seeing both sides. He tends to not accept other's opinion because he likes to stick with what he knows. This indirect comment hints that Jim is opinionated but it presents it in a lighter manner and less direct way.
Thanks for reading everyone! :]
Hello again ellacomm!
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy your posts. Sometimes the book confuses me and when i have time to read some of your posts and examples on the same chapter, it makes it so much easier for me to understand the chapter alot more. So i have to THANK YOU for your great posts and great examples. You are always straight to the point and your examples are easy to understand because you always break it down and explain each and every sentence in your example. I like your example of how much Fred ate, he must of been a big guy to be eating that much food! LOL. Very humorous example. Keep up the good work! :)
Hi ellacomm!! :D
ReplyDeleteI loved your example for directly refuting claims. Your explanation of refuting the argument was very exaggerated, but in a good way! It got to the point very quickly. I guess for disproving an argument, you come up with anything possible in order to prove them wrong, despite how ridiculous or out of proportion the explanations may be. This particular example did make me hungry though, because I haven't eaten anything yet. haha (Maybe I should get to that now...) Overall, great job in explaining these concepts. Keep it up! And I never really got to say this, but thank you for always commenting on my entries too! :)
Have a good weekend!! :D
Ellacomm!! I have to say that I agree with the comments above that I love looking at the examples you create. I find it hard to understand the book at times, but after looking at your examples, I get a better sense of the concepts. I loved your direct refuting claim about Fred since I could see how dubious this claim was after he tried to refute the argument. Possibilities of what could lead to weight gain were left out and you pointed that out through exaggeration. Your indirect example was good as well as you showed by refuting, that the unwanted conclusion about Jim is that he is an opinionated person, but you said it in a nicer way. Very good job with your examples!! I found this chapter a little more confusing then the others, so I think you did a great job!
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