Quotes About Argument

Refuting the simplistic statement that "ADHD is caused by bad parenting" avoids a more complex argument (given in chapter 7) that adverse factors such as physical abuse or trauma in a child's home environment can impair neurological development and be linked to ADHD symptoms.

Why does she [Borowski] rail against other women's choices? Surely a core libertarian value is neutrality between different conceptions of the good?" Actually, no. I replied: "The core libertarian value is nonaggression. 'Neutrality between different conceptions of the good' has nothing to do with libertarianism. If you were truly neutral between different conceptions of the good, you wouldn't be arguing against Julie's conception of the good.

A novel is an impression, not an argument.

She tried to argue, and tell him that he had mixed in his dull brain two matters, theology and morals, which in the primitive days of mankind had been quite distinct.

A novel is an impression, not an argument; and there the matter must rest.

Of course poets have morals and manners of their own, and custom is no argument with them.

Mi sia concesso ripetere che un romanzo è un'impressione, non un'argomentazione.

up her face to argue a point with a tall man, suggested that there was potentiality enough in that lithe slip of humanity for alarming exploits of sex, and daring enough to carry them out. But

Don't think you can persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity.

That which struck the present writer most forcibly on his first perusal of the 'Origin of Species' was the conviction that Teleology, as commonly understood, had received its deathblow at Mr. Darwin 's hands. For the teleological argument runs thus: an organ or organism (A) is precisely fitted to perform a function or purpose (B); therefore it was specially constructed to perform that function.

I do not think anyone can read the letters which passed between Clarke and [Anthony] Collins without admitting that Collins, who writes with wonderful Power and closeness of reasoning, has by far the best of the argument, so far as the possible materiality of the soul goes; and that in this battle the Goliath of Freethinking overcame the champion of what was considered orthodoxy.

Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent

Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.

I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument.

Error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it.

One of the humiliating things about it was that I wanted them to argue, and they despised argument. It was as if they realized, as I did not, that my attitude and my desire of argument and religious discussion implied a fundamental and utter lack of faith, and a dependence on my own lights, and attachment to my own opinion.

my desire of argument and religious discussion implied a fundamental and utter lack of faith

To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.

Extrapolations are the last refuge of a groundless argument.

As Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said: "You're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts.

As Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said: "You're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts."1

Don't ever wrestle with a pig. You'll both get dirty, but the pig will enjoy it.

That is to say, the process of working through an argument is the process of inquiry" (2011, xxii; emphasis in original). The approach Hillocks suggests is the opposite of the traditional approach to teaching the argument paper, where a student starts with a claim and then begins to find evidence that supports the claim. Instead, Hillocks says that students should start with inquiry. They should "swim" in issues until interesting arguments begin to emerge.

The key point here bears repeating: I have decided on an argument ("Technology has weakened parenting skills"), but I didn't start with that argument in mind. Instead, I started by reading lots of data under the umbrella of the unit of study, and it was through the reading of this data that my research question emerged.