Claim: The best test of an argument is its ability to convince someone with an opposing viewpoint.
Reason: Only by being forced to defend an idea against the doubts and contrasting views of others does one really discover the value of that idea.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.
Human beings have always loved discourse and discussion, from the time of Greek philosophers to present-day Twitter. In a discussion, it is bound to happen that some people hold differing viewpoints and thus, argue in favour of their beliefs. These arguments can be strong or weak, and the results of the debate reveal their strength. I mostly agree with the claim that the best test of an argument is its ability to convince someone with the opposite viewpoint for the stated reason that the value of an idea is discovered only on being forced to defend an idea against contrasting opinions. Moreover, I think there are more reasons to support this claim, which I will bring up in this essay. However, I do not think this test can be applied to all situations universally, and will be discussing that point as well.
It is true that the ultimate test for any argument is its ability to convince someone who holds the opposite opinion. When one is forced to defend an argument against someone’s opposite perspective, the argument has to be picked apart, layer by layer. Each layer reveals another merit or demerit for the idea being presented; a strong argument having more of the former, a weaker one more of the latter. Only a strong argument can withstand such scrutiny and convince the contrarian contesters, a flimsy one would fall apart. For example, in the United States, in every presidential election, a televised debate occurs between the top two contenders over a variety of topics of importance to the nation. Naturally, each argument is picked apart by the respective opponent and the winner is considered to be the candidate who can convince his rival to agree to his point, i.e., the one with the stronger arguments. It has been observed that as a general pattern, the candidate who wins the presidential debate also ends up winning the election, as they are able to convince not only the opposite contender but also their naysayers in the general public of their platform and beliefs.
On the other hand, this test cannot be applied to all arguments on a universal basis. In some situations, even in the face of the strongest of arguments, some dogmatic people choose to stand by their own beliefs in such a thick-headed manner that no power in the world can change their opinions. For example, the Flat Earth movement still has supporters in 2022, in spite of the overwhelming amount of evidence of the Earth clearly being round since centuries, including but not limited to, photographs and videos of the planet and solar system, experiments to prove the Earth’s curvature being performed from Copernicus’ time and the fact that nearly 200 people have visited Space to date and said that they have witnessed the round Earth with their own very eyes. This does not mean that the arguments in the favour of a round Earth are all weak, rather just the fact that supporters of this movement are simply too stubborn to even consider any other possibility rather than a Flat Earth.
To conclude, in my opinion, the claim that the best test of an argument is to convince someone with an opposite perspective for the stated reason that on being forced to defend an idea against contrasting views one discovers its merits is a sound one. However, it is also true that this claim cannot be applied in a universal manner to all situations, because some people are too rigid in their belief systems to even consider an opposite viewpoint.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-10-05 | sunnyojh | 66 | view |
| 2023-07-06 | Technoblade | 66 | view |
| 2023-04-06 | Aaishani De | 66 | view |
| 2023-01-21 | Pranav Lohote | 50 | view |
| 2022-11-02 | ljh5034 | 66 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 1138, Rule ID: GENERAL_XX[1]
Message: Use simply 'public'.
Suggestion: public
...ntender but also their naysayers in the general public of their platform and beliefs. On th...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 312, Rule ID: IN_A_X_MANNER[1]
Message: Consider replacing "in a universal manner" with adverb for "universal"; eg, "in a hasty manner" with "hastily".
... true that this claim cannot be applied in a universal manner to all situations, because some people ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, however, if, moreover, so, still, thus, well, as to, for example, i think, in my opinion, in spite of, it is true, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.5258426966 149% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.4196629213 81% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 14.8657303371 101% => OK
Relative clauses : 19.0 11.3162921348 168% => OK
Pronoun: 46.0 33.0505617978 139% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 90.0 58.6224719101 154% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 12.9106741573 108% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2869.0 2235.4752809 128% => OK
No of words: 593.0 442.535393258 134% => OK
Chars per words: 4.83811129848 5.05705443957 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.93473315629 4.55969084622 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62032375684 2.79657885939 94% => OK
Unique words: 263.0 215.323595506 122% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.443507588533 0.4932671777 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 892.8 704.065955056 127% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59117977528 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 6.24550561798 160% => OK
Article: 9.0 4.99550561798 180% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 3.10617977528 97% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.77640449438 113% => OK
Preposition: 9.0 4.38483146067 205% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 20.2370786517 94% => OK
Sentence length: 31.0 23.0359550562 135% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 89.6515878399 60.3974514979 148% => OK
Chars per sentence: 151.0 118.986275619 127% => OK
Words per sentence: 31.2105263158 23.4991977007 133% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.52631578947 5.21951772744 144% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.97078651685 80% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 7.80617977528 26% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 10.2758426966 156% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 5.13820224719 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 0.0 4.83258426966 0% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.392433125523 0.243740707755 161% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.128999876211 0.0831039109588 155% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.183144477502 0.0758088955206 242% => The coherence between sentences is low.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.285427319628 0.150359130593 190% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.16001765671 0.0667264976115 240% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.0 14.1392134831 120% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.47 48.8420337079 99% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.92365168539 39% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.1743820225 117% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.38 12.1639044944 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.34 8.38706741573 99% => OK
difficult_words: 119.0 100.480337079 118% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 11.8971910112 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.4 11.2143820225 128% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.7820224719 119% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Better to have 5/6 paragraphs with 3/4 arguments. And try always support/against one side but compare two sides, like this:
para 1: introduction
para 2: reason 1. address both of the views presented for reason 1
para 3: reason 2. address both of the views presented for reason 2
para 4: reason 3. address both of the views presented for reason 3
para 5: reason 4. address both of the views presented for reason 4 (optional)
para 6: conclusion.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.