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In chapter two of Appraising Argumentation, the authors emphasize the importance of being reasonable, since it guides us to approach the ultimate purpose of argumentation: generating the best possible decision (p. 31). At a basic level, a best possible decision could satisfy the requirements of decision makers; at a higher level, a best possible decision derived from reasonable argumentation also let us utilize positive sides as well as reduce negative pressures in society. The authors then heavily illustrate that we should pay attention to belief, thinking, mind and social influence since there are not necessarily reasonable. I specially relate to how easily an argument could be unreasonable due to people’s various beliefs and their thinking modes. According to the textbook, beliefs are behind “a good deal of our tendency to conform to political and ideological positions even when the beliefs are without clear support” (p. 27). Everyone develops their own worldview based on their own background and experience, it is normal that one thing is normal for some people while it becomes obscure for others, so we need to set up critical scrutiny in order to make arguments as reasonable as possible. When it comes to thinking, I agree with how thinking could be affected by facts that “happen to be readily available or easy to access rather than those most significant to supporting your point” (p. 28). In my opinion, it is quite difficult to always keep systematic processing since a great deal of people unconsciously go with easy options during the process of decision making. Furthermore, the fast development of technology nowadays let people get harder to stay reasonable since people become more easily to be affected by others or fake information. In general, we need to take responsibility for our arguments, and we could increase the possibility of developing systematic argumentation by starting points of language interpretation strategies, facts, presumptions, probabilities and commonplaces (p. 33). They are powerful concepts, and in order to use them properly, we need to understand other people’s language, avoid biased facts, know what is to be expected and understand common beliefs.


Rieke, R. D., Sillars, M. O., & Peterson, T. R. (2013). Argumentation and critical decision making. Boston: Pearson.

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 18, 2018 at 6:13 PM

    While I have always been aware of the importance of critical thinking, I found it interesting to think about how thinking is not always reliable. I think it is important to be able to decipher what thoughts are our thoughts compared to what thoughts are manufactured based on our exposure to different things like social media and the news. As you mentioned in your post, it is significantly easier to go with the first and easiest thoughts we have, but that does not mean they are accurate or the most beneficial for argumentation. Additionally, I think it is very important to keep this in mind when hearing an argument or when someone is trying to persuade you to do something. If they are good at what they do, it is likely that it would be easy to take everything they say at face value, but we always need to take a second to digest the information that was given to us, find the facts, and decide if it is a good thing for us to continue with.

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 19, 2018 at 8:23 AM

    Great outline of the Chapter! I really connected with your thoughts on how our worldview may not create reasonable arguments depending on the sphere a person is in. We all grow up in different environments that have different arrays of thinking and clearly these do not always line up with each other. For instance, I grew up in Eastern Europe around various stereotypes about the United States and the people living here. If I was to use any of them in arguments with actual American citizens, my arguments would quickly be labeled as unreasonable since there is not factual evidence supporting the rumors I heard while growing up. I think it is important for us to be critical of our own beliefs when structuring arguments and put emphasis on creating them using facts and proper commonalities as mentioned in the chapter.

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