TALKING POINT
Hear the other side too
Perhaps the most common reason why people take the trouble to write something is that they have a strong opinion or belief, and they want others to know what they think. The traffic in your city is too chaotic? Write to the local newspaper. Upset with the way our cricket team is performing, or with the latest election results? Write a long article on your website or blog.As a natural result of this, much of what we read is trying to convince us, and to change our opinion. We perhaps encounter arguments most commonly in our reading, next only to information. (‘Argument’ doesn’t just mean a ‘quarrel’, it also refers to expression of a definitive opinion, offered along with a set of reasons.)
If we read something and are immediately convinced by the writer, we’ll never be able to hold a single opinion for too long. There are multiple sides to every type of argument, after all. Why, then, should we read such material?Let’s consider the popular debate about euthanasia (“mercy killing to prevent a prolonged and painful death”).
For: A common argument supporting the practice is that people have the right to choose when they die, rather than suffer from a prolonged illness from which they have no hope of recovering. This looks like a straightforward statement, and at first we agree. After all, many of us know of people who have suffered for years with some painful illness, unable to function normally, and it’s certainly understandable if they wish to be spared the pain.Against: However, a simple argument against the practice is that we cannot predict with absolute certainty if an illness is entirely incurable. Many factors, including major progress in medical science, can turn things around even in very bad cases.Which argument is more convincing now? Actually, the focus should not be to decide what WE should think, but to examine how other people think. In the argument above, for example, the ‘against’ argument uses a very important technique: it takes a small part of the ‘for’ argument, and questions its validity. It doesn’t take on the entire argument, but only questions the basis of the argument. And when you destroy the premise, the conclusion falls apart too.
This is certainly not the end of the argument about euthanasia -- both sides could question each other’s premises and conclusions almost endlessly. But in the end, reading such material, for us, should be about learning how other people think rather than just deciding what we should think.
Also, reading such arguments helps us form our opinions about the two (or more) sides of the argument rather than modify our own opinion. In that sense, the focus of such arguments is to say ‘Look at the way I think,’ rather than ‘Start thinking exactly like me.’
Nilesh Jahagirdar
tips@skillspark.com
www.skillspark.com
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