Raising Objections

I read chapter 7 of Epstein’s book and one area that I found to be fairly interesting was the "Raising objections." One interesting thing that I liked that Epstein said was that raising objections is a way of showing that an argument is bad. I completely agree, because if someone didn’t raise any objections, then clearly they agree with you, or they are too afraid to state their objections. By raising objections it often shows other people your point of view and can sometimes change one's mind on a topic they created an argument for. One example that I experienced in my every day life dealt with stereotypes and an argument about a specific breed of dogs. A young couple came into my store with a Doberman Pinscher one day to shop around. After the couple left an older lady came up to me, with her poodle in her arms, and stated that she didn’t understand why people would get a Doberman when they are so vicious and mean. I stared at her in disbelief, thinking that her little yapping poodle was more likely to bite me then the sweet Doberman that I had just spent 15 minutes playing with. I raised my objection and said that they are sweet dogs when properly socialized, and as I reached to pet her dog, it started to snarl and yip. I looked at her and smiled and said that there is no mean gene in a dog’s genetics; it is simply the way they are raised and handled within their families. She walked away somewhat gloomy, seeing as I had a valid point. To me there is no reason to not raise objections when you don’t believe in something or don’t feel something is true, raising objections is your way of showing your feelings toward it.

Another idea that I found to be somewhat helpful was refuting an argument directly. This to me goes hand in hand with raising objections in the sense that you are bringing about a different idea or argument and stating that a premises is unconvincing. Overall I thought this chapter was interesting and had some good examples to back up what Epstein was stating.