Week 7- Discussion Question #2

2). Please discuss, in detail, what you learned from reading Chapter 7.  Discuss at least 2 things you learned. 



In chapter 7, i learned that an argument is very important and needs back up. If you are going to argue something you need to be able to defend it. There are ways to refute an argument- show that at least one of the premises is false, show that the argument is not strong or valid, and show that the conclusion is false. There is also another way that we can refute an argument a little differently. Reducing to the absurd which is to show that at least one of the claims is false therefore assuming the conclusion is false from the claims. 
One thing that i found interesting is that refuting an argument doesn't necessarily means that the conclusion is false. Another thing that i found interesting is that there are four different ways to reduce the absurd- refuting the analogy which is only retaining the important information to get an absurd conclusion; phony refutations which is based on judgement, you have the conclusion, what the speaker believes, the contradictory therefore the argument is bad; slippery slopes which is just like the domino affect, there is one claim and because of that one claims there is a chain reaction occurring; and finally, ridicule, which is pretty much dominating the other persons argument, belittling then and ending the argument.