How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic (2006)

122 How to Win Every Argument

children and putting them through college. Then there are the increased

insurance premiums...

(If that really were all, no one would ever do it.)

It is equally possible to look only at the positive side.

This encyclopedia is one you will be proud to own. Your friends will

admire it. Your children will benefit. You will learn from it. It will com-

plement your bookshelf!

(On the other hand, it will cost you a LOT of money.)

Either way, the fallacy of one-sided assessment is committed. By
looking only at the objections, or only at the advantages, we are
excluding material which bears on the decision, and which
should be taken account of. The omission of this relevant
material from the argument is what is fallacious about one-sided
assessment.
One-sided assessment is not a fallacy when space is allocated
for the other side to be presented similarly. There is in Anglo-
American culture an adversarial tradition, which has it that if
each side has the strongest case put forward, then a dis-
passionate observer is likely to arrive at a fair judgement. We
therefore expect a counsel to put only the evidence for acquittal,
and a trade union negotiator to put only the case for an increase,
because we know that there will be someone else putting the
other side. It would be one-sided assessment if those making the
judgement considered one side only.

Let's not go to Ibiza. Think of the heat, the mosquitoes and the crowds.

(On the other hand, what about the lovely sunshine, the cheap wine,

the excellent food and the low prices?)