Everything’s An Argument Reading Arguments

 Life is full of arguments. All verbal and visual messages, in a sense, contain arguments, sometimes implicit arguments about who you are and what you value.

Purposes of Argument:  Win (in changing someone’s mind)  Inform - tell the audience something they didn’t know - street signs, newspaper headlines “Deficit at 3 Trillion $”  Convince – persuasion – any written or visual argument trying to make someone believe something – ads “You must buy now to save $100”, “You should try a tasty Big Mac”  Explore – look at multiple sides or aspects of an issue to better understand it – James Fallows article about the US in 2016 to theorize about how the economy will be doing and to look at the issues that would change the future for the better  Make Decisions – often connected to arguments to explore, once you understand the issues you come up with a sound decision about how to proceed. Fallows for example talks about how education is essential to the US remaining competitive, so his decision in the present might be to increase funding for public schools and universities.  Meditate or Pray – when the writer, speaker, or thinker aims to transform or better understand something within him or herself. These types of arguments involve deep introspection in which the thinker attempts to grapple with complex issues or see the world in a new more accurate way. Simply stopping at a church to look at stained glass windows demands reflection and thought in a way that ordinary windows do not.

Persuasion:  The aim of persuasion is to change a point of view or to move others from conviction to action. So writers or speakers argue to discover some truth; then they persuade when they think they already know it. Both argument and persuasion are basically synonyms for our purposes.

Rhetoric:  The art of persuasion. The study of rhetoric is the study of how and why argument works

Occasions for Argument:  Argue about the Past – called forensic arguments – “Was the defendant at the diner on the night of the murder?”, “Did the little brother actually put away all the toys before dinner even though one is now out on the floor?” These rely on evidence and testimony to re-create what can be known about events that have already occurred. They also rely on cause and effect.  Argue about the Present – often take the form of arguments about contemporary values – the ethical premises and assumptions that are widely held or contested within a society. Generally an argument about the present will praise what is admirable and blame what is not. Example about how rap has gotten worse after Tupac died, now it is all about money and fame.  Argue about the Future – debates about what will or should happen in the future are called deliberative arguments. Politics is in many ways a big deliberative body trying to decide how the future should look. “Should abortion be legal?”, “Should same sex couples be allowed to marry?” These arguments try to project or extrapolate things into the future… “If same sex couples are allowed to marry, it will …” and some would say encourage marriage or destroy marriage based on their beliefs.

Kinds of Argument:  Arguments of Fact: Usually involves a statement that can be proved or disproved through specific evidence or testimony. The defendant either was or was not at the scene of the crime. Global warming – is it occurring or not?  Argument of Definition: Concerns an argument that tries to determine whether one known object or action belongs in a second – and more highly contested – category. Is a human fetus a human being?  Arguments of Evaluation: These arguments are questions of quality. We will have students in this class love a book while the student sitting next to them dislikes it. They both evaluate the book differently and must support their evaluations with arguments.

Three Types of Appeals : defined by Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, 2500 years ago as three ways that you can argue successfully. Whenever we do rhetorical analysis, always look to see if you recognize the various appeals at work.  Pathos: emotional appeals or appeals to the heart – You could argue that the US needs to provide funds for medicine to Africa by citing a list of facts and figures about Africans suffering from disease, but a picture of a little girl thin and dying and the explanation that she would be fine if she just had the right medicine might work better.  Ethos: ethical appeals or appeals based on the writer’s authority and credibility – In this sense, ethos means presentation of self. Audiences will respond well to writers or speakers who seem authoritative or trustworthy, and that show they share values and respect the audience.  Logos: logical appeals or appeals to reason – Inductive reasoning is the process of drawing a generalization on the basis of a number of specific examples. Deductive reasoning is when you reach a conclusion by assuming a general principle (called the major premise) and then applying that principle to a specific case (called the minor premise).

DO: 1) Analyze/Discuss – What kind of arguments are made by the following things?  Security cameras in a school  Holding open the door for someone (a woman, a child, an older person)  Driving a sleek looking fast sports car  Owning a library card

2) Analyze/Discuss – What do the following objects, brand names, symbols evoke for different audiences?  Wearing a cowboy hat  The McDonalds Golden Arches  A one hundred dollar bill  Dying your hair pink or blue