Skip to main content

Blog Post 2 - Chapter 3

Blog Post #2

Chapter 3 is a great runthrough of all the bits and pieces that make up argumentation, and how they all work in collaboration to make a strong, sound argument. The main objective of the chapter is figuring out how people decide what is a “reasonable decision” due to the experiences of the other(s) in your argument. One concept I found interesting was “A good story”. This concept is basically saying that each person is going to interpret a story or argument in a different way, in a way that makes sense specifically to that person. Their cultural upbringing and interactions thus far are going to shape their reality, and influence their decision-making process when evaluating your story (Silars & Gronbeck, 39). To have a convincing argument when story-telling, it is essential to keep your audiences views of society in mind.
Just as in the example story given on page 40, with the mother and the missing daughter. Her story to the police about her being frantic, frightened, and trying to complete the investigation of her missing daughter on her own doesn’t seem logical. It doesn’t seem this way because there are other townspeople that share their narratives to the police of her actions and mannerisms in the time since her daughter's disappearance. Since she was seen going to parties and getting tattoos, her story seems much less believable. Her story is also a little confusing in the middle, when she said her daughter Caylee was kidnapped by a babysitter, but then found very close to her grandparents house. These things would lead me (the audience) to think that she was a negligent parent, and went to the only safe place she could think of (near her parents house) to try and hide and dispose of the body. Without these other narratives from outside sources, her story might’ve been a lot more believable, because most people don’t want to believe a parent could even be capable of treating their own child in such a way.

A way that people have been corroborating their stories and narratives, especially in the last 300 years by using science, and scientific methods. The main way people go about this is by creating a hypothesis about certain topics, such as, Casey and her missing daughter. One might hypothesis that the mother was responsible for the daughters death. You must then conduct various tests/experiments to try and advance your claim into being the bonafide truth in a court of law (41).

Comments

  1. CharlieSeptember 26, 2018 at 6:57 AM

    Hey, I think this is a good summary of the chapter and you explain the story telling well. I would add that the consistency within a single story and between stories of the same experience is extremely important. Usually when it is obvious that someone is lying in a story, it is because the continuity of their story does not line up, there are plot holes, or someone else's story contradicts the original. I also like how you liken the scientific process to testing the truthfulness of a given story. I think this is a good comparison, and it shows that many of the ways laid out in the chapter with which we can understand argumentation can be mixed and used together. By combining methods of argument interpretation, we can better understand and thus criticize or strengthen arguments.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chap 5

Chapter five focuses primarily on identifying and developing propositions for problems that people think are relevant. It goes over 6 steps for choosing a valid proposition based on a perceived “feeling of doubt.” While all six steps may not be necessary, the collectively ensure a well thought out and firm proposition. The six steps include identifying the question, surveying implicated objectives (or understanding what is the goal accomplishment in regard to the question), searching for new information, considering alternative options, considering costs and risks of each potential proposition, and then finally choosing one of the propositions. The authors then go on to talk about analyzing and strengthening the proposition chosen. This includes identification and ranking of the issues that the proposition addresses as well as understanding how the decision makers will react to these issues and propositions. In general, with all these methods of critically analyzing the proposition, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chaper 8

Chapter 8 of Argumentation and Critical Decision Making continues down the route of talking about support for argumentation. This chapter specifically focuses on values as support for arguments, how to recognize them and the best ways to attack them. Values are defined as “ concepts of what is desirable that arguers use and decision makers understand” (121).  There are several types of values mentioned such as stated, implied, positive, negative, terminal, instrumental, abstract and concrete values.  Stated values are state directly what concepts they hold. For example, words such as “freedom” or “health” are stated values because they mean exactly what they're trying to portray. Not all values are as explicit. Some are more vague and called implied values. One of the examples that the book uses to show the contrast between the two is in the case of work equality. When talking about the subject saying, “ Equal pay for equal work” would be a stated value and “ Women deserve th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Case Building

Chapter 6 of Argumentation and Critical Decision Making focuses on the steps required in building a case. Among the concepts that are discussed, visualization stands out as one of the most important. On page 101, the authors even state “Powerful arguments are only half of the job in preparing a case or presentation. The other half is developing a convincing vision through which you can tell the story of your ultimate purpose” In other words, having a great argument alone is not going to necessarily gain you adherence. Instead, it needs to be supplemented with a story that vividly shows the decision maker the outcome if they were to agree to the proposition.   The chapter goes on to say that to create a powerful vision you must know the decision maker’s narrative of the subject you are arguing about. The example that is given is college. Some decision makers might have had the greatest time of their lives in college during which they made a ton of friends and found love. On the ...
1 comment
Read more