Refuting an Argument: Refuting Directly
What does refute mean? After looking it up in a dictionary I learned that the word means “to prove(a person) to be in error”. Which means that refuting an argument is to prove that the argument that the person is making is false or wrong. According to chapter seven of Epstein, it describes three fundamentals to refuting an argument:
- Show that at least one of the premise dubious.
- Show that the argument isn’t valid or strong.
- Show that the conclusion is false.
Here is an example: People that watch TV everyday is ruining their lives. It causes them to become inactive, lazy, and will not get enough exercises. Therefore, people should stop watching TV everyday because it bad.
In this example we can attack the conclusion, by describing that watching TV is not bad because some people watch TV everyday to see the news which helps them with what going around the world. Watching the news helpful because it sometimes shows certain warnings or dangers, traffics, and the weather.This prove that the conclusion is false, which fit in to one of the fundamentals for refuting an argument.
After reading your post, I have a much more better understanding of what refuting an argument directly means. The way you summarize this topic is better to understand than what the book says. I liked the example you used. It was very helpful. You can easily argue that the conclusion in the argument is false. Television is not all that bad. It can provide information about what is happening around the world such as the news. Also documentaries of certain topics or people are also informative. You cannot say that watching television is bad when you do not have any reason why. Overall, you have great summary and a great example.
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