{"id":661882,"date":"2013-08-05T13:42:52","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T17:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ted.com\/?p=80616"},"modified":"2013-08-05T18:44:21","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T22:44:21","slug":"the-best-argument-i-ever-had-a-short-qa-with-daniel-h-cohen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/661882","title":{"rendered":"The best argument I ever had: A short Q&A with Daniel H. Cohen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Daniel<\/p>\n

TEDxColbyCollege speaker Daniel H. Cohen talks about the subtleties of arguing — and how we shouldn’t think of it as a war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Daniel H. Cohen argues for a good argument.<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel H. Cohen: For argument\u2019s sake<\/span><\/a>In today\u2019s talk<\/a>, given at TEDxColbyCollege<\/a>, Cohen asks us to set aside our goal of winning arguments in favor of gaining a greater appreciation for the legitimate points being made by the other person.<\/p>\n

In an effort to gain more appreciation for that argument, we asked Cohen if he would answer a few of our questions over email. Read his answers below and, please, feel free to argue with them in the comments.<\/p>\n

What is the best argument you\u2019ve ever had?<\/b><\/p>\n

There are quite a few that stand out — beginning with one late-night argument with a couple of other philosophy majors when I was an undergraduate on the nature of reality, focusing on Spinoza\u2019s monism<\/a> versus pluralistic<\/a> and atomistic<\/a> approaches. What made it so remarkable was that, over the course of the argument — which lasted several hours — all of our positions evolved to the point that I think everyone involved managed to occupy and defend each position at some point. The result: no clear winner, but we all came away with a much greater understanding and appreciation for all of these philosophies.<\/p>\n

I should also mention an ongoing realism<\/a>\/anti-realism<\/a> argument that I\u2019ve been having with a poet \u2026 for the last 30 years! I\u2019m not sure how much progress we\u2019ve made towards any real resolution, but it\u2019s convinced me that progress and resolution are not<\/i> the most important measures of argumentation.<\/p>\n

What defines an argument? Does this come close: <\/b>Before an argument, two or more people have a set of incompatible beliefs and, over the course of the argument, some of those beliefs are refined to form compatible beliefs. <\/b><\/p>\n

As you might expect, I\u2019m not keen on overly adversarial conceptions of argument, nor on exclusively epistemic accounts of what arguments are about. There can be other things at stake besides\u00a0beliefs. We can argue about what to\u00a0do, what attitudes\u00a0to take, how to\u00a0understand\u00a0things, etc. It is true that we can always shoehorn differences into questions about beliefs, but that\u2019s a Procrustean Bed<\/a> that fits some arguments better than others. Ideally, there will be cognitive changes resulting from arguments, but there are more cognitive achievements than acquiring, jettisoning or changing beliefs.<\/p>\n

In your talk, you\u2019re discussing theoretical arguments. Is there a fundamental difference between practical arguments about taking action (like who should take out the trash, or whether to bomb another country) and arguments about abstract concepts?<\/b><\/p>\n

There are many differences — many of which are both very large and very important. But I\u2019m not sure I have a good, short answer, except to say that a good arguer will argue differently when the goal is simply getting her way than when the goal is to convince someone\u00a0of something. As Michael Gilbert likes to point out, if an argument about the empty gas tank in the car that one friend lent to another threatens to destroy their 20-year friendship, you know that the argument isn\u2019t really about the empty gas tank. And I would add that any friends who would allow an argument about an empty gas tank to undermine their friendship aren\u2019t very good arguers — and probably weren\u2019t really very good friends.<\/p>\n

Should arguments always have conclusions?<\/b><\/p>\n

Heavens, no! If that 30-year argument I\u2019ve been having with the poet ever ended, I\u2019d miss it terribly. Arguing can be a very positive form of connection and communication, but it requires good arguers to keep it that way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TEDxColbyCollege speaker Daniel H. Cohen talks about the subtleties of arguing — and how we shouldn’t think of it as a war. Daniel H. Cohen argues for a good argument. Daniel H. Cohen: For argument\u2019s sakeIn today\u2019s talk, given at TEDxColbyCollege, Cohen asks us to set aside our goal of winning arguments in favor of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-661882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}