Questions?
Counterarguments
Try It
Read this Guardian essay by Franklin Foer. Then identify a counterargument to its point (not one already in the essay), and see if you can rebut it. Be prepared to briefly summarize the counterargument and your rebuttal in discussion.
The free markets objection: there’s nothing wrong with Google et al. dominating the tech world, it’s simply what is supposed to happen with a successful company; they should be allowed to keep doing what is obviously working well for them. Rebuttal: when successful companies grow so large that they suppress competition they distort the free market that they are supposedly poster children for, and need to be controlled by forces outside it.
The human nature objection: because human nature is to seek confirmation of pre-existing beliefs, Google, Facebook, etc. aren’t manipulating anyone or causing anything to happen that people wouldn’t find a way to do anyhow. Rebuttal: human nature is evolved to work on a human scale; tech giants deploy massive amounts of technology based on data from far larger numbers of users than any person could ever deal with, and so overwhelm their users’ abilities to discriminate between “good” and “bad” information.
Similar to the free market objection: whatever tech companies are trying to do, the government isn’t trying to stop them. Rebuttal: The US government is very limited by the constitution in its ability to regulate private enterprise. (Both the objection and rebuttal parts of this are good illustrations of how posing and rebutting objections may raise new research questions you need to look into, since we weren’t sure the government isn’t planning to regulate tech companies, or exactly what the restrictions on such regulation are.)
Discussion / Key Points
What if you agree with the argument you’re trying to find objections to? That’s the best situation in which to look for objections, because finding them and giving them an honest evaluation helps you clarify your own thinking, close gaps in your argument, etc. Strengthening your own argument is one of the main reasons to do this exercise of finding objections.
Notice the structure of the thinking in this exercise: it starts off in favor of your own argument, temporarily looks at it from the opposing side, and then returns to favoring it.
Posing and refuting objections may well entail more research. Two possible goals for that research: first to find and understand the objections, and second to find evidence to support your rebuttals.
Next
“The Beale Papers.”
Read the reprint at http://www.unmuseum.org/bealepap.htm