Seven types of argument

Contested views of the world

This lesson is about arguments and it's very important to point out that when we use the word "argument" we don't mean fighting, bickering, debating, or anything like that.

By "argument", we mean a case for a particular view of the world.

Selective knowledge meme Poorly Drawn Lines

by Reza Farazmand

Why is argument important?

We all have a range of experiences that lead us to particular conclusions about the world.

Sometimes—many times—those experiences mean people see the world in completely different ways.

TWFS World opposite conclusions

This wouldn't matter if we weren't social creatures who needed to work together to survive, but we are, and competing views about the world can impair our ability to cooperate.

Therefore it's important that people can (at least sometimes) agree on important questions like, "What is real?" and "What do we value?"

  • 'Argument' is the process of people trying to reach an agreement on challenging questions.
  • 'An argument' is a body of reasoning and evidence that makes a case for a specific answer or conclusion.

TWFS World same conclusions GRIN

Arguments are fundamentally social, but an individual can argue with themselves.

For example, if you don't understand something about the world, you can use the same process of argumentation to convince yourself of a conclusion that you would use to convince someone else.

Since argument is a process of people trying to agree, agreement is subjective because it's based on an individual's acceptance of evidence and reasoning, regardless of objective ground truth.

That also means an argument can't be separated from its context. An argument will be defined by the relationship between speaker, audience, and the world around them.

But we'll talk about the social side of argument in a different lesson! For this lesson, the goal is to learn about some of the types of arguments we have with each other, and ourselves, every day.

If everyone agrees, there's no need for argument.

Arguments only exist because there is some doubt, uncertainty, or disagreement about the world.

One way to practice argument skills is to make up balderdash-style arguments. In these cases, it generally works best to frame the argument as hotly contested.

To do that you need to decide:

  • Who disagrees and why?
  • How big is the disagreement?

One final note: We almost called this lesson "Seven types of question"

This is important because you have to know what type of question you are asking in order to understand the type of argument you need to make.

So keep that in mind throughout this lesson: questions and arguments are two sides of the same coin.

Whenever we talk about a specific type of argument, we are also talking about a specific type of question.

Previous page