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A very basic truth about argumentation and debate

Gai Eaton expresses a simple, yet often forgotten principle about debate and argument:
"Argument and discussion pre-supposes some common ground shared by those involved. When no common ground exists, confusion and misunderstanding are unavoidable, if not anger."
Sorrowfully, much of our discussions become victim to this common neglect about knowing what our basic assumptions are, and it happens in universities as well, no surprise...

However, here's a beautiful recitation of some part of Quran, God's direct conversation with man, do open it sometime, especially during breaks from work or study:

2 did criticisms:

argumentics said...

It's not that argumentation gets confusing, it's that it becomes non-argumentation. We argue from shared premises if/when we want to convince and quarrel from any premises if/when we just want to express.

Sometimes neither party doesn't want to resolve that difference of opinion and forgets taking into consideration the other party's opinion. And I think there's nothing wrong about that. Sometimes, we just 'refer', that is, 'refer without trying to convince'.

M. Umer Toor said...

@ Argumentics

Agreed.

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