We can all agree that we don’t always approve on what everyone tells us. We have the right to agree or disagree, or raise objections on a statement that we think is false or dubious. By raising objections it is also another way of implementing that the statement is a weak or bad argument. For example:
Jeremy: We need to get a bigger flat screen TV.
Jasmine: What’s the matter with the one we have now?
Jeremy: It’s outdated and can’t play Blu Ray disks.
Jasmine: It still works perfectly fine though, and we’re just going to waste money.
Jeremy: The one I saw was actually on sale that’s why I’ve been considering on getting it.
Jasmine: What are we going to do with the old TV?
Jeremy: We can always donate it to Goodwill.
By proving to Jasmine that Jeremy can find a way to convince her to purchase a new TV, challenges his argument despite of Jasmine’s objections to his proposal.
According to Epstein on page 149, there are three ways to directly disprove or refute an argument and these are:
· Showing that one of the premises is uncertain.
· The argument is not valid or strong.
· The conclusion is false.
For example:
It’s useless to ask for advice or questions if you’re not going to take the advice people will tell you. You might as well not ask if you’re just going to do so. There is no point asking for advice.
The example shows how we are not sure if the person who is asking for advice is willing to consider taking a bad advice that someone told him or her. We are not sure what kind of advice or question the person asked, and it is not completely true that there is no point asking for advice.
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