PHI332 : The
Class : Argument
Evaluation : Objection & Replies : Exercise4.1.3
Exercise4.1.3: How to think of objections
When you are writing your research paper, you may have trouble thinking of
objections to an argument (or "seeing both sides of an issue," as
we sometimes say), or you may wonder if you are leaving out a good objection.
If that happens, there are three things to do to look for objections:
- The article that gives the argument you are examining might itself consider
objections. For example, John Paul II states an objection to his own premise
2 in the first sentence of his paragraph 7.
- Other articles on the same subject might state objections. For example
we see Thomson object to Paul's premise 2 in para. 1 of her article (p. 332);
Warren objects to it in section II.1 (pp. 346-7); Marquis in para. 5 (pp.
352-353), Sherwin in the first paragraph of her section "The Fetus"
(p. 363), and Callahan, sec. 3 para. 1 (p. 367).
- Talk to other people, especially those with different perspectives than
you have, to try in conversation to find objections to the argument you are
interested in. (This would be your best bet with the Sherwin inference from
life plan to compelling abortion.) With a little practice, you'll find that
you can anticipate what different people will say, and you can carry on conversations
between them in your own mind. This process is called "reflection."
There's an important lesson here, which surprises many people and will help
you write your research paper: your best friend, if you want to defend a thesis
as well as possible, is someone who is best at raising objections to your
thesis, and often this will be someone who disagrees with you, perhaps passionately,
about your thesis.
The first two strategies are simply a matter of doing the research you need
on your topic. They assure you that your paper is not missing objections that
it should contain. The third strategy is your best bet for developing an original
objection. Ideally, your research paper will cover objections already in the
literature and somewhere contain at least one original idea. Be sure to cover
the objections already published; otherwise your research paper will be ill-informed.
Once you have completed this excercise you should:
Go on to Exercise4.1.4
or
Go back to Objection and Replies
E-mail George Rudebusch at George.Rudebusch@nau.edu
or call (520) 523-7091
