Comm 114 Midterm With Complete Solutions
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Individual Decision Making ANS✔✔ decisions and choices that are distinctly
personal in nature, many of which we might not even bother to disclose to
our friends or families
why we choose to do/think the things we do
Democratic Decision Making ANS✔✔ decide complex issues and to evaluate
competing arguments involving both values and public policy
requires an informed, capable, and interested person that will deliberate
about the choices
Argument 1 ANS✔✔ arguments that people make (arguments as claims)
- refers to a type of speech act indexed in everyday talk by statements like
"making an argument"
- considers argument as an object
ex. Access to health care is a right that should be enjoyed by all people
regardless of their income or ability to pay for the services they need.
Argument 2 ANS✔✔ Types of interactions in which people engage -
arguments that people have
- refers to interaction indexed by "having an argument"
, Solution 2024/2025
Pepper
- treats argument as a process involving two or more people
ex. Delaney disagreed with Hannah's stance on access to health care, and
they continued on talking about their differing opinions.
Limits of Argument ANS✔✔ - The decision to argue (engage in argument 2)
over every trivial difference of opinion will impair your relationship with
others
- Some arguments aren't worth having because they do not concern
questions that can be readily resolved through disputation
- Some arguments might not be worth having because it's directed toward
changing the mind of a genuinely/firmly committed ideologue (someone
who holds a strong belief, that they aren't willing to open to critical
reflection)
- Some arguments between intensely committed people aren't worth having
because so little of the disagreement can be resolved through dispute and
reasoning (they wouldn't need to be tabula rasa or "blank slates", but must
be willing to confront the possibility of wrongness in their beliefs)
What's Argument ANS✔✔ People use the concept of "argument" in many
different ways, and that contributes to confusion about what argument is,
and its value
Brockriede's ideas
, Solution 2024/2025
Pepper
Brockriede's Idea of an Argument ANS✔✔ 1. An inferential leap from
existing beliefs to the adoption/reinforcement of a belief
2. A perceived rationale to support that leap
3. A choice among 2 or more competing claims
4. Reduction or Regulation of uncertainty
5. A willingness to risk confrontation of one's claim with others
6. A common frame of reference shared optimally
Where's Argument ANS✔✔ People will find arguments where they find other
people
- Argument isn't simply a "thing" to be looked at but a concept people use
and a perspective they take
- argument is an open concept
- argument is potentially everywhere
- argument is a process where people reason their way from one set of
problematic ideas to their choice of another
Negative View of Argument ANS✔✔ People associate negative connotations
with arguing, and relate negative behaviors with arguing
- people refer to argument as a negative personality trait (argumentative)
- argument is a double edged sword of emotion: excess of emotion (scorn,
anger), but then absence of emotion (cold, clinical, calculating)
- people are more likely to recall arguments that ended in
resentment/embarrassment/damaged relationships than arguments that
were cooperative
, Solution 2024/2025
Pepper
- arguments portrayed in media are usually negative
Limits to the Negative View of Argument ANS✔✔ "pseudo argument" -
arguing as a pretext for some other motive
verbal aggressiveness - name calling, insults, put-downs
gamesmanship - arguing for the sake of argument
Positive ("Enlightened") View of Argument ANS✔✔ Argument as...
- a pro-social activity
- a means of discovery and way of learning/knowing
- a key ingredient in decision making and problem-solving
- a means for identifying and evaluating alternatives
- a way to get issues out in the open to help people know where they stand
- a peaceful means of conflict resolution
Argumentation as Communication ANS✔✔ Argumentation is instrumental to
communication
- it's a means to an end, and focuses on a goal, like making a decision
-whereas in social conversations, the interaction is an end in itself
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