In the Epstien text, chapter 7, refuting an arguement is discussed. It talks about how people directly and indirectly refute arguements every day.
To directly refute an argument there are three ways to do this: You can prove that one premises is wrong, Prove the claim is not valid or strong, or Prove a false conclusion. The reason these are direct ways to refute an argument is because it is the most clear and concise way to disprove someones argument. If you can disprove one of the above then the person arguing does not have a leg to stand on.
To indirectly refute an argument you have to make the person arguing realize that they are wrong and the conclusion is not what they want. I believe that this is the harder way to argue most of the time. To do this you kind of "beat around the bush" until the person understands that they are not in the right.
Hey Big Cat! =) You did an awesome job defining, "Refuting an Argument" and even better, how you explained three ways. Your blog was very easy to understand and it helped me understand the concept a lot more so thank you! I actually did not know the meaning of "Refute," lol but it's always nice to learn something new everyday. I agree that it's easier to "directly" refute an argument because it's almost like hard proof... If someone's premise is wrong, or their claim is not valid, or if we can prove someone's conclusion wrong, we pretty much got them on their toes. Although, refuting someone's argument can take more knowledge and reference to prove them wrong, it's worth being right lol. Great blog =)
ReplyDeleteGreat job describing and explaining the subject of refuting an argument. I think that this subject is used a lot in society today. One of the biggest ways to make an argument start is to refute it. There are 2 different ways of refuting an argument directly and indirectly. I liked how you explained each one of these ways in detail and made it easy to distinguish between the two of them. If you can conclude that someones argument is wrong then you can properly refute it and make it so they understand what is right. Great job on your blog.
ReplyDeleteYour way of explaining how to refute an argument is so clear that it helped me understand it even more. You included the main points on how to refute an argument which made it so much easier to understand once you summarized. I did not really understand the concept of refuting and argument until I read you blog! And it was even better that you distinguished between directly refuting and argument and doing it indirectly as well. Now I know I do in fact refute arguments all the time directly and indirectly. Lol who would have known! Thank you for the clarification!
ReplyDeleteBig Cat, your interpretation of the text was much easier to understand. I liked the way you put the concept into words that were much easier for me to comprehend. For this discussion I chose the concept of directly refuting an argument so it's good for me to see people do other topics. I wanted to blog about indirectly refuting an argument but i just wasn't sure how I was going to go about doing that but now that I've seen your post I regret not trying. The phrase "beat around the bush" helped extremely. I always enjoy your posts. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteLike the people above me said, you said it a lot more clearly and concisely than the book did. I agree with you that indirectly refuting an argument is a lot harder to do than directly refuting it. To indirectly refute someone's argument you have to basically control the argument until they realize by themselves that their own conclusion isn't what they want. Although I think if you're able to do that then you have a really good control over language and a good knowledge of arguing in general. I think it would have been good for you to include a personal example, maybe something between you and your friends, just a suggestion!
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