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Claims are constantly being made, many of which are confusing, ambiguous, too general to be of value, exaggerated, unfalsifiable, and suggest a dichotomy when no such dichotomy exists. Good critical thinking requires a thorough understanding of the claim before attempting to determine its veracity. Good communication requires the ability to make clear, precise, explicit claims, or “strong” claims. The rules of reason in this book provide the framework for obtaining this understanding and ability.
This book / online course is about the the eleven rules of reason for making and evaluating claims. Each covered in detail in the book.
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Simply calling attention to the technique should be sufficient. For example, "You have listed a number of arguments, all of which deserve to be addressed. However, let's take one at a time." A more assertive response might be "You have made many unsupported claims, all of which have been debunked ad nauseaum ." You can continue with "I would be glad to debunk them all for you here, but this would be outside the scope of this debate." or "Let's take them one at a time."
Another technique is to simply provide a link to place where someone else responded to the claim. For example: Person 1: The earth is flat. Pigs fly. Elvis is still alive. Person 2: "The earth is flat." - No, it's not: nasa.gov... "Pigs fly" - No, they don't: pigsdontfly.com... "Elvis is still alive" - No, he's not: elvisiswormfood.com... The important part is to project confidence that these claims being made are without merit (if, in fact they are). |
answered on Monday, Mar 30, 2015 07:41:48 AM by Bo Bennett, PhD |
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