Comments on: Argumentation – The bad and the ugly http://www.scepticalmind.com/2008/06/30/argumentation/ The ramblings of a Danish sceptic liberal Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:34:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Michael Mortensen http://www.scepticalmind.com/2008/06/30/argumentation/comment-page-1/#comment-98 Michael Mortensen Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:46:01 +0000 http://www.scepticalmind.com/?p=29#comment-98 EDITED - Reason: I initially misunderstood Mr. Poulsen's argument. In response to Marc Ilsø Poulsen's comment: If a given group have established a specific definition for the term "everybody" given through the context of the discussion - yes then of course the argument could hold, but this is only due to the fact that "everybody" no longer has the same meaning. EDITED – Reason: I initially misunderstood Mr. Poulsen’s argument.

In response to Marc Ilsø Poulsen’s comment:

If a given group have established a specific definition for the term “everybody” given through the context of the discussion – yes then of course the argument could hold, but this is only due to the fact that “everybody” no longer has the same meaning.

]]> By: Marc Ilsø Poulsen http://www.scepticalmind.com/2008/06/30/argumentation/comment-page-1/#comment-97 Marc Ilsø Poulsen Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:33:03 +0000 http://www.scepticalmind.com/?p=29#comment-97 The "Everyone knows ... "-argumentation form is in my opinion useable if and only if it is known to _every_ member in the discussion what "everyone" refers to. For example you can from time to time get so frustrated in a discussion that you simple shouts out "everyone knows bla bla" which isn't a true statement by itself, but given the subject of the discussion people listening knows what the frustratet person means. Of course this example is taken out of a given context, which sets some rules that allows me to say as I do. Some of the statements above are allowed inside certain sets of rules, but that's a completely different story. But in general they aren't worth a penny, I agree with you on that. The “Everyone knows … “-argumentation form is in my opinion useable if and only if it is known to _every_ member in the discussion what “everyone” refers to. For example you can from time to time get so frustrated in a discussion that you simple shouts out “everyone knows bla bla” which isn’t a true statement by itself, but given the subject of the discussion people listening knows what the frustratet person means.
Of course this example is taken out of a given context, which sets some rules that allows me to say as I do. Some of the statements above are allowed inside certain sets of rules, but that’s a completely different story.
But in general they aren’t worth a penny, I agree with you on that.

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