Seven types of argument

Balderdash practice: Specific

We've explored 4 types of arguments about reality and practised distinguishing between them.

Before we move on, we're going to practice them, or rather we're going to practice asking the types of questions that would require factual, causal, definitional, or resemblance arguments.

And we're going to do it Balderdash-style.

Balderdash is a party game where you make up definitions of words.

But in a Writelike/Frankenstories context, we use it to mean make an argument with completely made-up facts.

It's just a fun way to practice making arguments without having to worry about being right about anything.

For example, here's a picture of a guy who's fallen over in the storage room in an office.

We'll make up 4 questions based on each of our 4 reality-based argument types.

High angle view of fallen businessman and file in storage room

Factual: Is Floyd really injured or is he faking it again?

Causal: How did Floyd fall on the floor?

Definitional: Is this a work injury if Floyd was dancing on top of the footstool when he fell?

Resemblance: Is the storeroom really "like a house of horrors, filled with deadly traps"?

Writelike

Specific vs general scale arguments

Before we do another example, we should point out that you can argue about issues of any scale:

  • You can argue about specific situations with specific people, places, things, and actions.
  • Or you can argue about general trends involving wider populations, regions, forces, and events.

In the example above, we asked questions about the specific situation in the image—asking questions about a specific accident involving a specific person in a specific room.

For this page, let's stick with the specific scale (we'll try a general scale later).

Here's another example. Let's ask a question for each argument type, based on this specific situation:

Illustration of a single mom, with a look of concern on her face, scanning the surroundings of a silent and eerie playground at night

Factual: Is the Spookton playground haunted?

Causal: What made the poltergeists so angry?

Definitional: Is Erica a paranormal investigator?

Resemblance: Is this place like the Upside Down in Stranger Things?

Writelike

Do you get the idea?

  • Treat the image as a specific situation with a specific person.
  • Make up four questions, each based on one of the argument types we've seen.
  • Try to think of questions that might actually be contested in this imagined scenario, questions you can imagine characters arguing about.

fisherman holding a big red snapper fish

Write a factual, a causal, a definitional, and a resemblance question based on this specific situation.

The point of this is to make you really think carefully about the difference between each argument type.

  • Factual: What happened? Does X exist? Is Y real?
  • Causal: How did X happen? What will Y cause to happen next?
  • Definitional: Is X a member of category Y?
  • Resemblance: Is X like Y?

When you're done, it'll be good to compare with classmates and see if you agree on how you've classified each of your questions.

If you think you've got the hang of it, let's move on to some new argument types!

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