Arguments for Existence and Significance

I) The demonstration: "We really have a problem"

*the aim of an argument is very often oriented toward inducing some type of action 
from the audience, either to change the way things are now or to even stop something.   
To move toward this point of action, an arguer will often begin by pointing out that 
things as they are now are not the way they should be.  Thus, the argument often 
begins with a demonstration that the present state needs to be improved; in other 
words, to convince an audience that a problem exists.

*determining the degree of demonstration needed:  the extent of the demonstration 
depends on your audience's level of awareness of the problem.  The following are the 
two extreme levels of awareness an audience may have with respect to a particular 
problem.  Chances are that your audience will be somewhere in between these 
extremes:

a) completely aware:  a minimal level of demonstration will be needed--demonstration 
may only have to act as a reminder that the problem exists. 

 b) completely unaware:  demonstration of the problem becomes very important in this 
case.   Chances are that your audience will be somewhere in between these two 
extremes.

*functions of demonstration:   a demonstration can provide an overall picture of a 
situation,  provide important statistical information, and make abstract generalizations 
concrete by providing concrete examples.   In sum, demonstration can act to both 
inform and to elicit conviction and emotion which may lead your audience to support 
your argument.

II) Transforming situations into problems

*Your demonstration may convince your audience that a situation  exists but not that 
this situation is a problem.   Thus, you need to evaluate the situation as "bad":   1) show 
that the situation has undesirable consequences, or 2) the situation is ethically wrong or 
bad.  The consequences may be more or less obvious.  Again, you need to be sensitive 
to your audiences orientation--whether they are more or less aware of the consequences 
of the problem.

a) ways an audience can be unaware: 1) ignorance-- the public may simply be ignorant 
that any effects exist; 2) point of view--consequences may appear bad only from a 
certain point of view; 3) extent--while the audience may be aware that consequences 
exist, the audience may not be aware of the extent of the consequences. 

b) why attempt to inform the aware:  Often the undesirable consequences of the 
situation are well known to the audience, but pointing them out may be effective by 
turning dull acknowledgment into vivid awareness

c) evaluating consequences:  behind every demonstration of bad consequences stands 
an ethical evaluation that the consequences are bad.  Substantiating the badness may 
require another argument of consequences or an ethical appeal

*An ethical assessment of the situation is another way to convince your audience that a 
situation is a problem:  the situation is wrong, no matter what the consequences; any 
appeal to an audiences sense of what's right or wrong is an ethical appeal.

a) an assumable response:  You should know when you can expect from a particular 
audience a unanimous response to an ethical appeal; in this case, you do not need to 
argue ethics, you simply appeal to them.

b) what to do when a response is not assumable;  (i.e., the audience may not easily see 
the ethics of an issue.)  You will need in this case to fork for an ethical appeal by using 
the technique of a kind of definitional argument:  You place the situation in an ethical 
category that your audience will react to.
Arguments for Existence & Significance

 

Arguments for Existence & Significance