The Classical Argument

1. The Classical Argument

2. Your researched argument paper… • Take a stand on an issue • Offer reasons and evidence in support of your position • Summarize and respond to alternative views

3. Goals… • To persuade your audience, who can initially be perceived as either opposed to your position or undecided about it • To adopt your position or at least to regard it more openly or favorably

4. History… • The need for argument arises whenever members of a community disagree on an issue • The art of arguing was essential for good citizenship • Idea: If disputes could be resolved through an exchange or perspectives, negotiation of differences, and flexible seeking of the best solutions to a problem, nations won’t have to resort to war or individuals to fighting.

5. Two components… • Your study of argumentation involves: • Truth seeking: diligent, open-minded, and responsible search for the best course of action or solution to a problem, taking into account all of the available information and alternative points of view • Persuasion: the art of making a claim on an issue and justifying it convincingly so that the audience’s initial resistance to your position is overcome and they are moved toward your position.

6. What it is not… • A fight in which you ridicule anyone who disagrees with you • A pro/con debate. It is not a two-sided contest with winners and losers.

7. What it is… • What is the best solution to the problem that divides us? • It is a process and product. • Process: the act if inquiry, fact finding, information gathering, and considering alternative points of view. • Product: Someone’s contribution to the conversation in the form of (in this case) and researched paper and speech to the class.

8. Explore… • An effective way to appreciate argument as both persuasion and truth seeking is to address and issue that is new to you and then watch how your own views evolve. • Ideologies (beliefs) are not set in stone…

9. Stages of Development: Your growth as an arguer • Stage 1: Argument as personal opinion • Stage 2: Argument structured as claim supported by one or more reasons. • Stage 3: Increased attention to truth seeking. • Stage 4: Ability to articulate the unstated assumptions underlying their arguments. • Stage 5: Ability to link an argument to the values and beliefs of the intended audience.

10. Stage 1: Argument as personal opinion • “The family shouldn’t have killed the starlings because that is really wrong! I mean that act was disgusting. It makes me sick to think how so many people are just willing to kill something for no reason at all. How are these parents going to teach their children values if they just go out and kill little birds for no good reason?! This whole family is what’s wrong with America!

11. Stage 2: Argument structured as claim supported by one or more reasons • “The family’s act constituted cruelty to animals • Because the starlings were doing minimal harm • Because other options were available • Because the way they killed the birds caused needless suffering

12. Stage 3: Increased attention to truth seeking • Listen to other views • Conduct research • Evaluate alternative perspectives and stances

13. Stage 4: Ability to articulate the unstated assumptions underlying their arguments • Identify and analyze your own assumptions and those of the intended audiences.

14. Stage 5: Ability to link an argument to the values and beliefs of the intended audience • Adapt structure and tone to the resistance level of their audience

15. Creating an argument frame • A clear question that focuses the argument, your claim, and supporting reasons. • Often your reasons, stated as because clauses, can be attached to your claim to provide a working thesis statement.

16. Finding an arguable issue • Issue: defined as a questions that invites more than one reasonable answer and thus leads to perplexity or disagreement. • Excludes disagreements based on personal tastes (Baseball is more fun than soccer) • Excludes purely private questions because issues arise out of disagreement in communities.

17. Finding an arguable issue • Issue questions are often framed as yes/no choices. • Should gay marriage be legalized? • Should the federal government place a substantial tax on gasoline to elevate its price? Or open ended How can we best solve the energy crisis?

18. Finding an arguable issue • In the starling situation we framed the question two ways: • Was the family guilty of cruelty to animals? (Your argument would have to develop criteria for cruelty to animals and then argue whether the family’s actions met that criteria) • What should the family do about the starlings? (Your argument could propose your own solution to the problem ranging from doing nothing to climbing into the attic and drowning the birds for a quick and painless death)

19. Claims and Reasons • Your claim is the position you want to take on the issue. It is a brief, one sentence answer to your issue question: • The family was not ethically justified in killing the starlings. • The city should build skateboarding areas with ramps in all city parks. • The federal government should substantially increase its taxes on gasoline.

20. Articulating Reasons • Your claim needs to be supported by reasons and evidence. • A reason (sometimes called a premise) is a subclaim that supports your main claim. • In speaking or writing, a reason is usually linked to the claim with such connecting words as because, therefore, so, consequently, and thus. • Formulating your reasons in this way allows you to create a thesis statement that breaks your argument into smaller parts, each part devoted to one of the reasons.

21. Suppose… • You are examining the issue “Should the government legalize hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin?” Here are several different points of view on this issue, each expressed as a claim with because clauses: • One view: Cocaine and heroin should be legalized • Because legalizing drugs will keep the government out of people’s private lives • Because keeping these drugs illegal has the same negative effects on our society that alcohol prohibition did in the 1920’s.

22. Another view… • Cocaine and heroin should be legalized • Because taking drug sales out of the hands of drug dealers would reduce street violence • Because decriminalization would cut down on prison overcrowding and free police to concentrate on dangerous crime rather then fighting drug dealers • Because elimination of underworld profits would change the economic structure of the underclass and promote shifts to socially productive jobs and careers.

23. Still another view… • The government should not legalize cocaine and heroin • Because doing so will lead to an increase in drug users and addicts • Because doing so will send the message that it is okay to use hard drugs

24. Food for thought • Although the yes/no framing of this questions seems to reduce the issue to a two-position debate, many different value systems are at work here. • The first argument values maximum individual freedom • The second argument takes a community perspective valuing the social benefits of eliminating black market drug-dealing culture. • In the same way, individuals could oppose legalization for a variety of reasons.