#argumentation

One can indeed try to obtain a particular result either by the use of violence or by speech aimed at securing the adherence of minds. It is in terms of this alternative that the opposition between spiritual freedom and constraint is most clearly seen. The use of argumentation implies that one has renounced resorting to force alone, that value is attached to gaining the adherence of one's interlocutor by means of reasoned persuasion, and that one is not regarding him as an object, but appealing to his free judgment. Recourse to argumentation assumes the establishment of a community of minds, which, while it lasts, excludes the use of violence. ↗

— Chaim Perelman

#rhetoric #freedom

A sure sign of ineptitude and malice is manifested when one's attacker is willing to cover himself with mud in order to try and make some of it adhere to his target. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#debate #ineptitude #malice #norman-g-finkelstein #smear-campaigns

لو أن لبائع اللب قدرة على الجدل لدلل على أنه يلعب دوراً خطيراً في حياة البشر، ولا يبعد أن يكون لكل شيئ قيمة ذاتية ولا يبعد كذلك ألا يكون لشيئ قيمة البتة، كم مليوناً من البشر يلفظون أنفاسهم في هذه اللحظة؟ في الوقت نفسه يرتفع صوت طفل بالبكاء على فقد لعبة، أو صوت عاشق يبث الليل والكون متاعب قلبه، أأضحك أم أبكي؟ ↗

— نجيب محفوظ

#argumentation #humanity #life #value #values

It's often a bad sign when people defend themselves against charges which haven't been made. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#defensiveness #noam-chomsky #september- #iraq

Cursed luck! —said he, biting his lip as he shut the door, —for man to be master of one of the finest chains of reasoning in nature, —and have a wife at the same time with such a head-piece, that he cannot hang up a single inference within side of it, to save his soul from destruction. ↗

— Laurence Sterne

#logic #misogyny #women #life

It would behoove you to have your thesis finely tuned and the logical arguments utilized in support of it tightly woven into a credible, and creatively persuasive tapestry. ↗

— R. Alan Woods

#argumentation #logic-of-thought #persuasion #r-alan-woods #scholarly

Replace anger with peace,moderation and clear argumentation. It hurts more the other side! ↗

— Dionisis Agelakis

#argumentation #moderation #anger

At first, they'll only dislike what you say, but the more correct you start sounding the more they'll dislike you. ↗

— Criss Jami

#argumentation #avoidance #challenge #challenger #contempt

I had become too accustomed to the pseudo-Left new style, whereby if your opponent thought he had identified your lowest possible motive, he was quite certain that he had isolated the only real one. This vulgar method, which is now the norm and the standard in much non-Left journalism as well, is designed to have the effect of making any noisy moron into a master analyst. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#argumentation #fallacy #journalism #leftism #design

Whenever we want to combat our enemies, first and foremost we must start by understanding them rather than exaggerating their motives. ↗

— Criss Jami

#battle #bias #combat #discernment #disputes