192 Unit 4 Applied critical thinking
New lines of argument
But further argument does not have to begin
from a particular point of evaluation. Provided
you do not wander off the central issues, you
can launch your own argument from the
passage as a whole. You may, for example, feel
that the author has missed out an important
consideration that has an impact on his
conclusions. Raising it would be a legitimate
form of further argument.
For example, there is no discussion in the
article about the motives criminals have for
becoming celebrities. Nor is there any
mention of the consequences. The author
seems to assume that the motives are always
selfish, on the part of either the criminal or
the producers etc. who take a cut; and that
nothing, apart from satisfying greed, comes of
it. Here are three pieces of further argument,
adapted from student responses, which take a
completely different line:[2] Criminals are selfish people. They take
what is not theirs and what others have
worked hard to get. They disobey laws.
They evade taxes. No one is going to tell
me that when and if they decide to go
straight and become big showbiz
personalities they suddenly change into
decent, law-abiding citizens. All they are
in it for is themselves, and they will do
whatever is necessary to get as much as
they can. Leopards don’t change their
spots. Cheats and thieves don’t become
honest, they just find other ways to
cheat.
[3] Some criminals grow up while they are in
prison and come out looking for legal
jobs, and some go into acting or writing
to make a living. The parts they play in
films and the books they write will
usually be about criminals or about
prison, and they have the experience to
make this realistic and true to life. This
has a very useful purpose because it
lets other people know what it is like to
be a criminal or a prisoner. It is notCounter-example
Counter-examples – i.e. examples that
challenge a claim – are very powerful weapons
for attacking arguments. As we saw in the
above extract, just one example of an ex-
criminal who arguably does have talent
challenges one of the author’s main premises.Look again at paragraph 4 of ‘Time to get
tough’ (if you don’t already know it by heart!)
and find a claim that could be challenged
with a counter-example. If you know of a
real-life counter-example, raise it. If not,
suggest a possible one. Then develop the
counter-example into a short further
argument.Activity
Commentary
An obvious target is the last sentence of the
paragraph: the claim that victims don’t get the
chance to become celebrities. It is highly
vulnerable to counter-examples and, whether
you were able to think of an actual one or not, it
is clearly not far-fetched to suggest that a victim
of, say, a high-profile kidnapping or hostage-
taking could become famous as a result, and
gain financially from telling their story.
Such an example could be developed as
follows:A number of victims of crime have themselves
become celebrities and made big profits from
publishing their stories or appearing in the
media. Is this fair? There are many other
people who have suffered from accidents or
misfortune who have never been heard of. If
you are going to ban some groups of people
from celebrity income, simply because other
people have not had the same opportunities
(like the author does), then you would have to
ban everyone from making income from their
pasts – criminals and victims alike. Otherwise
how would you decide who deserved their
celebrity status and who did not?