Showing posts with label arguments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arguments. Show all posts

Saturday, November 22, 2025

How curiosity could help your Thanksgiving gathering and our politics - The Washington Post

The "how" question shouldn't be posed as a gotcha but with humility: I don't know this stuff as well as you. How would it work? Once your interlocutors realize they don't know, they become more open to new information and ideas. By abandoning the attempt to persuade Uncle Billy and Aunt Sally to change their minds, we actually make it more likely that they will...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/21/curiosity-politics-polarization-arguments-thanksgiving/ 


 

Friday, June 14, 2024

How to DESTROY Anyone in an Argument

Philosophers are often thought of as truth-seekers, but often people are more interested in the mucky world of simple debate, and there is a sardonic, sarcastic essay by Schopenhauer that can help us out here - "On the Art of Being Right". In here he compiles a series of tactics used (often highly dishonestly) to secure victory in an argument even when one is misinformed, or just downright wrong. And this is just what we will look at today, so that we can learn how to destroy anyone in an argument. And also, why we probably shouldn't

Monday, February 26, 2024

Sunday, July 31, 2022

‘You can’t say that!’: how to argue, better | Friendship | The Guardian

In disagreements, too many of us think like preachers, prosecutors and politicians. In preacher mode, you're trying to proselytise your views. In prosecutor mode, you're attacking someone else's. And in politician mode, you don't even listen to people unless they already share your views. 
When I hear someone talk like a preacher or politician, I often snap into prosecutor mode. There are few things that offend me more than ignorance masquerading as knowledge. If I think you're wrong, I feel it's my professional responsibility as a social scientist – and my moral responsibility as a human being – to correct you. I've been called a logic bully. It took me too long to realise that hammering people with facts rarely wins the argument and sometimes loses the relationship. Whether you're preaching, prosecuting or politicking, you've already concluded that you're right and they are wrong. You've flipped a switch that shuts down your capacity for critical thinking…


Monday, January 3, 2022

Three Common Tactics of Cranks, Liars, and Trolls • Richard Carrier

…Gordon breaks down three epistemic immoralities common to Whataboutism. The first is that it often relies on not just an implied Tu Quoque fallacy, but as I just noted, also an implied Fallacy of False Equivalence. As when Republicans in the U.S. try to evade criticism for their beliefs and policies regarding election integrity with the logically irrelevant retort, "What about when Democrats contested elections?" The retort is logically irrelevant even if this were a legit comparison. But it's all the worse that it isn't even a legitmate comparison. As Gordon notes, "the two situations were very different, since in 2016 there were no Democratic senators who contested the results when Congress met to certify them" (and even the few members of Congress who did, did so in full compliance with the law) and "there was no violent mob that stormed the Capitol to interrupt the counting of the electoral votes after Trump won the election in 2016." One could extend the point all the way back to 2000, when there was a legitimate case to be made that Bush stole the election from Gore (through a suspect Supreme Court decision actually shutting down a proper recount of votes), and yet even then Gore conceded—thus demonstrating the greater concern for rule of law and peaceful succession of power that the Republicans are nowbeing criticized for abandoning. No one stormed the capitol in 2001. Nor did anyone try subverting the U.S. Constitution in any other way (like suggesting the VP simply "not certify" the vote)…
https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/19062


Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Key arguments in Trump's defense as impeachment trial to begin in Senate - Reuters

The White House unveiled its detailed legal defense as the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate gears up to begin President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Tuesday.....
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-impeachment-highlights-idUSKBN1ZJ1X9

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Best of Frank Zappa Amazing Arguments And Clever Comebacks

Frank Vincent Zappa[nb was an American musician, composer, activist, and filmmaker. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity, and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse rock musicians of his era.....
https://youtu.be/lKPVyOsBshs







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