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Lecture 1 Argumentation

Lecture 1 Argumentation

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16 views

Lecture 1 Argumentation

Lecture 1 Argumentation

Uploaded by

Moton
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© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Argumentation

By Garrett Li
Credit to Emon Zhou and Tristan Li
Content
1. Case
2. Elements of argument
3. Forms of argument
4. Argumentation
--> Modes or argumentation
5. Types of argumentation debate
1. What is a case?
• A case in debate is the story that you
tell about the debate, namely what it
is about, how the different viewpoints
fit together, and why the judges
should accept what they are saying
about it.
• Technically, a case is a policy, course of
action, or state of affairs that a team
supports/ against and the reasons for
which they support/against it.
1. What is a case?
The foundation of a case is a central statement which is supported by your
arguments.
• Example: Military intervention will prevent humanitarian disaster and
create a better life for the people in North Korea
• Upon that foundation, show how your statement fits in with the other
competing cases in the debate
• Example: Opp “International laws must be upheld regardless of the
consequences” and backed it up with detailed argument. A response is
needed.
• Every speech you give should tell a story about the debate, creating a
narrative and inviting the adjudicators to share it.
SELF-CHECK
• What is our case?
• How can we express it in a single sentence?
• How can we justify it?
• How does it work?
• Why it is important?

Example: THW ban the use of fossil fuel


2. Elements of an argument
Three components
• Claim
• Support
• Linkage
Claim
Claims are ideas that the audience doesn’t accept yet but you want
them to accept in the end through your arguments.
• Example: The state should permit euthanasia for terminally ill people.
• It’s not an argument yet. The first question I have now is “why ”.
• To make the audience accepts this claim, you should now proceed to
give your support.
Support
• Support is an idea or sets of ideas that the audience accepts as true
and that provides foundation for the audience to accept the claim.
• support (what the audience already believes now)

• claim (what the audience doesn’t accept as true yet)


• Example: Upon death, the terminally ill person’s suffering ceases to
exist.
• The discovery of the connection between
claim and support is know as the linkage.
• The support: Upon death, the terminally
ill person’s suffering ceases to exist.

Since death ends the physical sufferings of the

Linkage terminally ill and euthanasia can do that to


the patient, therefore it is desirable to the patients
and maybe we should let them have it.

• The claim: The state should permit


euthanasia for terminally ill people.
• Explicit (explanation of the relationship
exists) and Implicit (audience’s own
rational process)
3. Forms of argument
• Simple form
• Few good arguments are as simple as this.
3. Forms of argument
3. Forms of argument
3. Forms of argument
4. Argumentation
• Arguments are to argumentation like sentences are to conversation.

• Argumentation occurs when at least two individuals advance, critique, and


defend arguments in an effort to prove that their claims should be
preferred.

• Three typical modes of argumentation:


à Descriptive (concerns nature and definition of things)
à Relational (concerns the relationship between things)
à Evaluative (concerns the wealth or value of things)
DESCRIPTIVE ARGUMENTATION
• Occurs when people disagree about what something is, e.g. whether
euthanasia is murder.

• Create descriptive arguments: Differentiation, Examples, Analogies


• - banning smoking and banning milk teaà not only because of addiction
and harm to smokers, produces second-hand smoke--> directly harms
others/environment

• Opposing descriptive arguments:


à intrinsic or not, e.g. capital punishment is racist in US.
à thoroughness or not, e.g. drug banning laws can protect people but also
send a moral opposition to recreational use of drugs.
RELATIONAL ARGUMENTATION
• The relationship that exists between things, usually causal
relationship.

• Creating:
à Reduction: a general causal relationship to a more narrow
consideration, e.g. causal relationship about a class to a member of
that class; use characteristics of the members to substantiate.
à Analogies
RELATIONAL ARGUMENTATION
• Sufficient or not
• Necessary or not
• Absence test
• Correlativity
• Alternative
EVALUATIVE ARGUMENTATION
• Define the object under evaluation
• Offer a criterion (standard) for value judgement
• Comparing the object to the criterion (standard)
• Example: TH fears the rise of China or THW ban violent video games.
à object: the rise of China
à Standard: if a nation increases its power to an unchecked or
hegemonic extent, then it should be feared.
à Comparison through arguments
Speech Structure
• Problem: What —specifically —is the problem and why does it
matter?
• Policy :What —specifically —should happen and who should do it?
• Principles: Is it the right thing to do? —and on what basis?
Practicalities: Can it be implemented? —and how?
• Consequences: How will it affect, directly and indirectly, positively
and negatively, all the stakeholders?
PRINCIPLES
• Utilitarian: the value of the action derives from the consequences of that
action. e.g. killing a terrorist with a bomb can save one hundred people.
• Kantian: humanity as an end
• make your moral principle stronger:
à Challenge the alternative moral code, demonstrating its perverse effects
in its own terms as well as the reasons it fails in your terms. E.g. innocence
and guilty.
à Root your case in specific examples that are of central importance to the
debate. E.g. police shoots people in error every day. Shoot to kill policy.
PRACTICALITIES
• Practicalities are oftentimes decisive in BP debate
• Example: This House Would Take a Risk for Peace in the Middle East
• Besides saying something won’t work, you need to:
Øconsider what if you are wrong (“even if” argument)
à Even if you were able to persuade the leadership of Hamas to publicly
recognise the state of Israel, it would lead to fractures within the movement
and end up causing greater violence
Øconsider why does it matter even if you are right.
à Is it morally better, in the absence of peace, that settlement building
continue, that Hamas remain in control of Gaza—not “Is it conducive to
peace?” but “Is it right?”.
CONSEQUENCES
• Think about the positive and negative sides of your consequences instead
of assuming everything is rosy on your side.
• “Legalising prostitution will improve the safety of sex workers”. Fine. But it
needs more development. How many current sex workers will join the
regulated market for sex? If only some, then we must qualify this to “some
sex workers.” What about the rest? What will the effects be on those who
stay outside the regulated market and continue to work illegally because
they are on drugs or they want to charge more for unsafe sex.
• So admit it: not all will join the legal market, but we can ensure the
majority’s safety and focus enforcement on those who do not join. And
there’s an incentive for them to join.
CONSEQUENCES
• Try to identify all of the many possible types of responses that
different people will have to the passing of a certain law.
• identify intended and unintended consequences.
• Make it link to your principle and practical arguments.
• Example: THW Ban the wearing of religious symbols in state school.
à Gov: Children will no longer be isolated by their religion. Principle:
parents’ right to choose the kind of education their children to
experience is paramount. Model: warning from the teachers.
à How about those children who attend a single faith private school?

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