Table Of ContentTHINK AGAIN
THINK AGAIN
How to Reason and Argue
WALTER SINNOTT-ARMSTRONG
Duke University
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© Walter Sinnott-Armstrong 2018
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ISBN 978–0–19–062712–6
eISBN 978–0–19–062714–0
In gratitude to Stacey Meyers, Lisa Olds, Diane
Masters, Dana Hall, and all of the unsung heroines
who enable me to do what I want.
CONTENTS
Preface: Why I Wrote This Book
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Our Cultural Rut
How Did We Get Here?
How Do We Get Out of Here?
PART I: WHY TO ARGUE
1. So Close and Yet So Far
What Is Polarization?
Are the Poles Moving Apart?
Can’t We at Least Agree on the Facts?
Do You Hate Your Opponents?
Has the Epidemic Gone Global?
2. Toxic Talk
Can We Be Civil, Please?
Who Doesn’t Like a Good Caricature?
Are We All Crazy Clowns?
Are Insults Funny?
How Low Can We Go?
Is Europe Civilized?
How Much Is Too Much?
3. The Sound of Silencing
Why Try?
Where Did You Hear That?
Why Ask?
So What?
Isn’t Silence Soothing?
4. What Arguments Can Do
Who Is the Slave?
Is There Any Hope?
What Do We Get Out of Arguing?
Learning
Respect
Humility
Abstraction
Compromise
Where Do We Stand Now?
INTERMISSION: FROM WHY TO HOW
5. Why to Learn How to Argue
Do You Want to Make a Deal?
Will Your Wishes Come True?
Can You Trust Representatives?
Should You Turn Over a New Leaf?
Can We Get Better?
PART II: HOW TO ARGUE
6. How to Spot Arguments
How Much Would You Pay for an Argument?
What Is an Argument?
What Purposes Do Arguments Serve?
When Is an Argument (Being Given)?
7. How to Stop Arguments
Can We Stop Soon?
What If We Can’t Stop?
How Can We Stop?
Guarding
Assuring
Evaluating
Discounting
How Can Words Work Together?
8. How to Complete Arguments
Which Arguments Are Valid?
When Is Validity Formal?
What Makes Arguments Sound?
What Are You Assuming?
Do These Methods Scale Up?
Without Argument
Justification
Explanation
9. How to Evaluate Arguments
Was Sherlock Holmes a Master of Deduction?
What’s So Great about Deduction?
How Strong Are You?
How Do I Induce Thee? Let Me Count the Ways
How Can Dates and Polls Go So Wrong?
Generalization
Application
Why Did That Happen?
Hussein’s Tubes
PART III: HOW NOT TO ARGUE
10. How to Avoid Fallacies
What Do You Mean?
Double Entendre
Slip Sliding Away
Can I Trust You?
Attacking People
Questioning Authority
Have We Gotten Anywhere Yet?
Is That All?
11. How to Refute Arguments
Does the Exception Prove the Rule?
Is This Absurdity Made of Straw?
What Is Just Like Arguing . . . ?
Conclusion: Rules to Live By
Notes
Index
PREFACE
Why I Wrote This Book
I have taught courses on reason and argument for over thirty-five years at
Dartmouth College and now Duke University. Many students tell me that
my courses have helped them in various areas of their lives. They motivate
me to keep going.
While my students learned to argue, the rest of the world lost that skill.
The level of discourse and communication in politics and also in personal
life has reached new lows. During election years, my course has always
discussed examples of arguments during presidential debates. During the
1980s, I had no trouble finding arguments on both sides in the debates.
Today all I find are slogans, assertions, jokes, and gibes but very few real
arguments. I see dismissals, put-downs, abuse, accusations, and avoiding
the issue more than actual engagement with problems that matter. There
might be fewer protests in the streets today than in the 1960s, but there are
still fewer serious attempts to reason together and understand each other.
I could not help but conclude that our culture, like my students, could
benefit from a strong dose of reason and argument. When I moved to Duke
in 2010, I was offered a chance to reach a wider audience through the
magical medium of MOOCs (that is, Massive Open Online Courses). With
my friend, Ram Neta, I taught a MOOC (Think Again on the Coursera
platform) that has attracted over 800,000 registered students from over 150
countries. This surprising response convinced me of a hunger around the
world for learning how to reason and argue. Of course, not all of my
students finished the course, much less learned how to argue well—but
many did. My hope is that their new skills helped them understand and
work together with their neighbors.
