When I began reading this chapter, I didn't realize how many types of values there are. I thought that values were simply what people thought was important. However, this chapter introduced me to new concepts and ideas centered around the concept of values. Terms such as stated/implied values, positive/negative values, terminal/instrumental values and abstract/concrete values were all new to me.
While I found all of these terms new and interesting, the ones that caught my attention the most were positive and negative values. Specifically, I thought that it was interesting how they can be used in an argument. Upon reading the title of that section, I figured that positive values were things that were good that we would want to play off of in an argument, and negative values were either contradictory values, or values that many people don't hold, and I thought they were things that one would want to stay away from in an argument. For example, I were to make an argument about free college, I would play off of the benefits that everyone having access to education would bring to society, but I may try to stay away from saying something like, "we all need to pay to make sure everyone can have an education to make our society better." I thought that a positive value would be equal opportunity and a developing society, and a negative value would be everyone paying to allow others to go to college.
However, the book stated that, to go against an argument, you may want to point out positive values that oppose the argument or negative values that go along with the argument. This was obviously a bit different of an interpretation than my own. Though it does state that this could "depend on the (argument) strategy devised." In the books example, they talked more about keywords and the connotations that they held to positive or negative values. For example, if I were to say, "Free college for all does not make economic sense. It would force citizens to pay for a service that they may not directly benefit from. We have reason to believe that there are still enough students going to university and bettering our society without the added cost to the public." So, through the book's definition and example of these terms, the negative values here would be "does not make economic sense," "force," "may not directly benefit," and the positive value would be "reason" and "bettering."
While I found all of these terms new and interesting, the ones that caught my attention the most were positive and negative values. Specifically, I thought that it was interesting how they can be used in an argument. Upon reading the title of that section, I figured that positive values were things that were good that we would want to play off of in an argument, and negative values were either contradictory values, or values that many people don't hold, and I thought they were things that one would want to stay away from in an argument. For example, I were to make an argument about free college, I would play off of the benefits that everyone having access to education would bring to society, but I may try to stay away from saying something like, "we all need to pay to make sure everyone can have an education to make our society better." I thought that a positive value would be equal opportunity and a developing society, and a negative value would be everyone paying to allow others to go to college.
However, the book stated that, to go against an argument, you may want to point out positive values that oppose the argument or negative values that go along with the argument. This was obviously a bit different of an interpretation than my own. Though it does state that this could "depend on the (argument) strategy devised." In the books example, they talked more about keywords and the connotations that they held to positive or negative values. For example, if I were to say, "Free college for all does not make economic sense. It would force citizens to pay for a service that they may not directly benefit from. We have reason to believe that there are still enough students going to university and bettering our society without the added cost to the public." So, through the book's definition and example of these terms, the negative values here would be "does not make economic sense," "force," "may not directly benefit," and the positive value would be "reason" and "bettering."
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