Through
the monotony of our daily classes and our ever evolving social life, the one
thing we seem to do every day in our conversations and our learning is argue.
In our classes we argue against each other and our teachers to further explore
the multiple possibilities or to expand our critical thinking with these
topics. While on television we view the debates about politics to further streamline
our preferences on our favorite candidate and to see if they influence us at
all. While with our friends we might argue whether superman or batman will win
in a fight. These are multiple examples and scenarios where arguments are built
into our culture and daily lives.
Arguing
with our friends can be a horrific slaughtering of a friendship or an interesting
debate. Personally with my friends we don’t really ever have intelligent arguments
about political issues or anything about we learned with our education, mainly
it is just silly stuff about video games and strategies in these games. But even
if it is about strategies in video games, our arguments don’t help each other
learn if we don’t take each other viewpoint into perspective. We can bounce
back ideas between each other debating which course of action is the best
against a boss or a team fight, but overall we can’t learn from each other if
we take an ethnocentric view on our own argument, thinking that no matter what,
what we say is superior. We tend to avoid heated issues about politics and
personal values, since these topics usually break any friendships with one and
another. But despite the harrowing consequences that can occur we can enjoy our
debates to try and enrich one and another.
But
when we argue with our professors it’s a bit different. Here our professors try
to expand our critical thinking, with more abstract things such as philosophy
or a social science, they may ask a question on why, and as students we debate
with the teacher or our peers to get a clear picture within the realms of
possibility. But if we argue against our professors, they usually retort to us
with facts and reason, trying to give us the reason to why we are wrong. Even
if we disagree with the facts, they usually reiterate the facts and evidence, because
an argument is always stronger with evidence.
First off, I love the title! With my group of friends, we do not really have intelligent arguments either, and I wish we would, because I think that would help me to develop more confidence when arguing. I like how you made the point about the video game strategies, about listening to each of the viewpoints!
ReplyDeleteEven silly topics like video games can help you a lot as a writer. If you learn to back up your claims with evidences and use sound logic to argue your case, it really doesn't matter what you're arguing about, you can still improve your arguing skills. Also, I agree that facts and evidences are important in arguments, but from what I learned about rhetoric so far, emotion and tone can be important too. The more passionate you are about your arguments, the more interested the audience will be.
ReplyDeleteYou and your friends should try having debates. It may seem at first that you guys are going to fight, but it really expands your thinking. And at the end it's something you guys are going to laugh about.
ReplyDelete