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Chapter 5: Blog 4

Chapter 5 discusses the importance of analysing an argument and how the analysis is made of two parts which include “developing a proposition from a  problem that requires a resolution” and “finding crucial issues, understand their relative importance, and emaxmining the claims to see what must be proven to decision makers” (Peterson et al, pg. 72). Additionally, in order to determine a proposition that could be argued to decision makers, critical analysis can be crucial. As stated by the others, there are six stages to the selection of a proposition including: identifying the question; survey implicated objectives, values , and biases; search for new information; canvas alternate decisions; weigh the costs and risks to alternatives; and then, select a proposition (Peterson et al, pg. 73). Once the proposition is selected three additionally steps must be considered; make plans to implement the proposition, prepare contingency plans, and build a case for the decision (Peterson et al, pg. 75). One method that I found helpful for determining issues was to make a list of the arguments for and against the proposition and then matching them up. From my experience one of the most challenging parts when presenting propositions to decision makers is even knowing what the issues of my argument are. Also, when evaluating issues ranking them of their significance (degrees of involvement and disagreement) among decision makers is important when locating the issues more specifically (Peterson et al, pg. 77).  It is helpful to rank issues since this order indicates “where the greatest emphasis of argument and support must be placed” (Peterson et al, pg. 79).
The decision makers approach to the values of clarity, significance, relevance, inherency, and consistency can be evaluated when analysing a situation. I believe significance is the most relevant value to look at when evaluating the decision makers process and how your claim might be tested by the decision makers. For example, if I am presenting a claim that relates to college students needing more transportation on campus, my audience of decision makers should be college students since this is an issue that might be relevant to the majority of them. If I present this claim to middle-class families that live in the suburbs the impact might be different since this is an issue that is not relevant to them. If a claim has a higher degree of significance to the decision makers, then it is more likely that they will agree and support the argument being made. On the contrary, the authors would disagree with my statement since they believe that inherency puts a higher obligation on an arguer than significance or relevance. Inherency states that there is permanent damage or weakness to something (Peterson et al, pg. 79). I would agree that this is crucial when evaluating the arguments you are presenting to decision makers, but before you can even evaluate inherency you must first establish the relevance to the audience. If the claim being made is irrelevant to the audience you are presenting it to, then the possibility of these individuals even hearing statements that prove inherency are lowered.

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 10, 2018 at 8:35 AM

    I think honing in on audience is not a poor idea at all. It is crucial to know the thought landscape of the receivers of the information. And it is certain that a proprosition will land differently depending on the audience. It is not just race/ gender/ age that is taken into consideration but the variety of world views and individual preferences that combine to make a collective energy among the audience. Take a party for instance; most party environments are determined solely by the people themselves. If you have ever been to more than one large gathering in your life, you know that the people who comprise the space have an almost surreal effect on the mood of the space; it is as if there is nothing else- (the window curtain doesn’t have an opinion or a temper. ) In terms of inherency, it is true that if we were to arrive on mars and told to search for things that are edible, our common “inherent” senses would be useless. Inherency seems to be a commonplace fallacy whereby one assumes that their audience shares the same common sense as they posess. I do think, like you said, that maybe even before inherency is considered, relevancy should be. After all a speech about mortgages would be gibberish to a group of pre schoolers.

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