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Blog post 4: Chapter 5


The reading in this week explores further on analysis of argumentation. The authors introduce the concept of analysis as an examination of an argumentative situation for it claims to discover the issues. An engagement in such analysis could be achieved from two parts: the critical process of developing a proposition from a problem or a “feeling of doubt”, and the process of finding the crucial issues in the argumentation after identifying the proposition. For coming up with a critical proposition, we need to refer to six potential steps. The first one is identifying the questions, which requires us to entertain genuine doubt to refine a clearly stated question. The ability of critical thinking is important during this process since we must pay attention to our surroundings to find out potential issues that are noteworthy for argumentation. The second step is surveying implicated objectives, values and biases. It is vital to avoid biases, and we should be aware of not only our values but also those of decision makers in order to locate the ultimate purpose of our argumentation. The third one is searching for new information so that developing a measure of the quality of evidence and eliminating errors as much as possible. The following step lets us canvass alternative decisions through a wide range of alternative propositions, including those we are tempted to dismiss before. Then we need to weigh the costs and risks to all of these alternative decisions, and finally select a proposition that best answers the problem posed from the first step. The authors continue illustrate how to analyze the proposition more specifically after it is determined. Except for rank-ordering both sides of the issues, an arguer should also achieve five generic values of clarity, significance, relevance, inherency, and consistency. Furthermore, the strength of the claim in an issue could be analyzed by four locations: the formation of appropriate criteria; the relative importance of various criteria; whether the claims meet the criteria, and the strength of support for the criteria. In summary, by giving a clear proposition, discovering the issues, and identifying their specific natures, we can have a better decision making of what should be argued and how to develop a case for it.


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