1705132802 思辨精英：英语辩论-构筑全球视角 [:1705132290]

1705132803 1.2.2 Argumentation and Debate in the United States

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1705132805 In the United States, rhetoric—and more specifically argument—is studied as the basic tool used in debate. Rhetoric and philosophy often are closely intertwined. For this discussion “rhetoric” is broadly defined as all symbolic methods of persuasion. While persuasion often is conceived of as an overt attempt to influence or move the listener, rhetoric encompasses those less overt messages as well. For example, “Please change your vote to support our candidate because she is honest” is easily recognizable as a persuasive statement that gives the listener a reason to vote for this candidate. However, “The weather is colder here than usual” carries a less visible, but also persuasive appeal; the speaker has established a claim with which others may or may not agree. These two statements provide only two examples of persuasion.

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1705132807 “Argumentation” in Western scholarship is a particular kind of rhetoric that involves the use of reason as the primary means of persuasion. Thus, when a person’s persuasion involves the use of reasoned communication, that person is said to be presenting arguments. The study of argument and the attending concepts is called “argumentation.” Western theories about arguments—their functions, their structures, and their uses—have evolved from the inception of rhetoric in Greece more than two thousand years ago until today. A short history of the development of rhetoric, argument, and debate demonstrates the high value placed on these concepts by United States society.

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1705132809 1.2.2.1 Argumentation in the United States Western rhetoric developed from the need for individuals in the ancient Greco-Roman culture to present their legal complaints to a judge or jury in a court of law. Many scholars identify Corax and Tisias (both 5th century BC) as the inventors of rhetoric. Corax developed methods of persuasion to be used in courts of law and taught students his theories that undergirded the later development of probability. Corax used only speaking and teaching to dispense his ideas, but his students, and in particular Tisias, produced written notes which were sold in Sicily and eventually circulated back to Greece. Ultimately, a handbook about argument and public speaking evolved. Both Plato (427-347 BC) and Socrates(469-399 BC), whose works were far more widely influential, later referred to Tisias’s theories of argument (Kennedy, 1999).

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1705132811 Although rhetoric—including argumentation—was not his primary topic, Aristotle (384-322 BC) contributed significantly to the history of rhetoric by formulating categories, advocating a philosophical viewpoint citing the importance of arguing both sides of a question, and discussing the relationship between rhetoric and dialectic. Unlike his teacher, Plato, Aristotle did not conceptualize dialectic as an inquiry toward truth (Kennedy, 1999). He saw rhetoric as an art, an offshoot of dialectic and he defined rhetoric as “the faculty of discovering in the particular case all the available means of persuasion” (Cooper, 1960). Aristotle indicated that some forms of proof were “non-artistic,” such as contracts or written documents. “Artistic” proofs, however, did rely on the artistry of the orator, relying on “a man who can reason logically, can analyze the types of human character (ethe), along with the virtues, and, thirdly, can analyze the emotions…” (Cooper, 1960).

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1705132813 After the second century BC, philosophers recoiled from the growing popularity of the study of rhetoric and refused to teach it. Cicero (106-43 BC) attempted to ease the tension by promoting the use of a combination of rhetoric and philosophy to develop students into intellectually astute and talented orators whose rhetoric advocated for civic service. Nearly one hundred years later, M. Fabius Quintilian (35?-96? AD) echoed Cicero’s idea, calling for “the good man [sic] speaking well.” (In those times, only men could speak in a public forum.) Quintilian also forwarded a strong advocacy for using rhetoric as a principle method for the general education of the populace(Thonssen and Baird, 1948: 16). A brief summary of the Greco-Roman tradition can be found in Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric (Foss, Foss, and Trapp, 2014: 4-8).

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1705132815 During the Middle Ages of the Western tradition, rhetoric continued to be taught, variously using models of excellent speakers for students to imitate as well as by having students memorize or mimic words and writings of famous people. Near the end of the Renaissance, however, the development of rhetoric continued to grow into new areas of focus. For example, Francis Bacon(1561-1626), a skilled and authoritative speaker, spoke artfully in the English House of Commons on weighty government matters. Bacon’s writings emphasized the importance of audience and the need to verify the senses with empirical data.

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1705132817 Scotsmen George Campbell (1719-1796) and Hugh Blair (1718-1800) and Englishman Richard Whately (1787-1863), all religious ministers, wrote respectively about evidence, audience analysis, and the relationship between taste and reason, collectively setting the stage for the most recent developments in rhetoric and argument in the West generally and in the United States in particular (Foss, Foss, and Trapp, 2014).

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1705132819 Some of the most important Western works of the twentieth century regarding argument include Stephen Toulmin’s Uses of Argument and Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca’s The New Rhetoric. These scholars have been especially influential with teachers of argument and debate in Canada and the United States. An English philosopher who became interested in the study of how arguments are constructed, Toulmin is most well known for his “layout of argument” which involves a diagram showing how various parts of a reasoned argument combine with one another. The Toulmin Model has become a standard to follow in different forms of debate and is used in this textbook as well as many others that feature argument, debate, or persuasion. Interestingly, Toulmin does not use the word, “rhetoric,” and considers his book to be concerned with the philosophy of science.

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1705132821 The work of Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca was especially important to the development of the Western point of view towards rhetoric in the mid-twentieth century. Their contributions fall into three categories: the concept of audience, the starting points of argument, and the techniques of argument. The theories advanced by these three contemporary scholars, along with work amassed by classic Western scholars throughout the centuries, provide the rhetorical platform used in this textbook for learning about debate.

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1705132823 1.2.2.2 Debate in the United States Debate has been important in the United States since the nation was founded in the late eighteenth century. The original governing body of the United States met in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania where that group of men debated among themselves, voicing various ideas about how the government of this new nation should be structured. Through argument and compromise, the group developed a document that became the Constitution of the United States.

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1705132825 Since that time, debates of various kinds have been common in the United States, especially in three arenas: legal, legislative, and political. In the legal arena, rules of argument and procedure are strict and lawyers must abide by the standards of the court as they present their arguments and counter arguments to judges and juries. In the legislative and political arenas, far fewer rules are codified, thus changes evolve through time and venue.

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1705132827 The first arena, the United States legal system, provides one of the most common venues for formal debate. Criminal trials (where a person or persons are accused of illegal activities) and civil trials (where a person or persons seek damages or remedy from another person or persons) consist of a series of arguments made by lawyers representing clients (although sometimes the clients serve as their own lawyers). Decisions—called verdicts—are made in some cases by a jury of peers and in some cases by a judge alone. The legal system is comprised of a series of levels of courts; sometimes litigants who lose in a lower court appeal the decision to a higher court. In the legal system, the verdict announced by the judge or jury serves as the final decision regarding the case.

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1705132829 The second arena, legislative debates, differs from legal debates in the United States. In the legislature, debaters are the elected officials within the local, state, and national jurisdictions. Guidelines for what a government official may or may not say in these debates are not as strict as are the rules for lawyers within a courtroom. In addition, elected officials at various levels throughout the government may retain researchers on staff to gather information or discover evidence. The debates supported by this research can extend for days or weeks during which multiple speakers will present opinions, information, arguments, historical reviews, and so on, one at a time. Legislative debates engage important decisions such as economic policies, social policies, environmental choices, or declarations of war.

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1705132831 In the third arena, political debates occur in various settings and various formats in the United States. Debates at a local level can occur between candidates for city mayor or candidates for the local school board, for example. Often communities facing controversial issues involving civic problems such as school zoning or taxes or building a new community center will schedule a public debate with speakers representing different sides of the questions to an audience of community members who sometimes also engage in the debate.

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1705132833 Political debates in the United States also occur at the national level. The Great Debates of 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, both candidates for Senator from the state of Illinois, became famous historical events consisting of seven debates dealing with the controversial topic of slavery. Candidates for President also debate one another. In 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon participated in the first, nationally televised presidential debate. Since that time, presidential debates have occurred near Election Day featuring all the viable candidates running for office. In these debates, formats vary, but often moderators ask a question to which each candidate responds, promoting their own perspective and refuting the other candidate. Sometimes the candidates speak directly to each other, making arguments or counter arguments. The television audience reaction to the debates can affect the outcome of the election.

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1705132835 While debates in the United States often reveal crucial differences in candidates’ positions and preferences, not all legal, legislative, or political debates produce positive and useful results. Candidates unused to debating can falter or misstep; information can be presented that later will be determined to be false evidence; candidates can deviate from the central topic and engage in character attacks. In some cases where the debates are televised, the camera is kinder to some candidates than others, generating problems for the candidate with a poor visual presence. In short, some of these debates depart sharply from the kind of ethical, social debate promoted in this textbook.

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1705132837 Debate in the United States remains a vital form for examining and managing disputes. In the fifty years since the first Presidential debates aired, audiences in the United States have become more attuned to the purposes of these important debates and more critical of poor or unethical performances. Many audience members now expect candidates to be prepared, ethical, skilled, intelligent and thoughtful.

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1705132840 1.3 Contemporary Developments in Argumentation, Debate, and Persuasion

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1705132842 As the various cultures of the world have become more accessible to one another through the Internet, increased opportunities for global travel, and more complex international relationships among economies and governments, the need for intercultural understanding and exchange has amplified. Negotiations among individuals and groups of various philosophical or cultural positions can stall when inherent values compete. The study and practice of debate has spread throughout the world as a viable means for investigating, airing, comparing, contrasting, and engaging those differences, differences that otherwise might lead to violence. Debate has shown itself to be a reasoned, thoughtful, and intelligent means for working through contentious issues by thoroughly examining the complex facets of those issues and, in some cases, calling in third party adjudicators to render decisions.

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1705132844 Much of the world debate community still draws from a fundamentally Greco-Roman core of debate features that calls for claims, arguments, reasoning, and evidence. Authors of this text, while working to include various cultural traditions, largely rely on the Western body of study called “argumentation” to explain issues such as reasoning fallacies, case construction, and audience analysis, for example. The authors recognize that these predominant themes emerge from the Greco-Roman core and continue to work toward inclusive ways to infuse global debate with multicultural means of making meaning, persuading, promoting understanding among debaters, and finding good ways to reconcile difficult global issues.

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1705132846 In addition, the authors recognize that differences other than national culture also can privilege or disadvantage certain groups of readers. In the research section of this textbook, for example, attention is given to research done on the Internet where debaters engage such useful sources as Lexus-Nexus or Google Scholar. Such suggestions, obviously, ignore the real circumstance that the large majority of people in the world do not have access to such luxuries as the Internet. Underlying assumptions in these discussions in this textbook, then, presume that the case for one group is the case for all groups. Because of these varying perspectives and value systems, providing educational information in a way that does not privilege one group over another or one philosophy over another can, at times, present antithetical challenges. Regardless of these challenges, authors of this text and other scholars continue to seek inclusive ways to accomplish the goal of human beings making excellent global decisions in nonviolent ways. The authors acknowledge that providing instruction to all cultures, all socio-economic classes, and all political credos demands ongoing, dynamic reconstruction of curriculum toward inclusion of all voices. Revised editions of this textbook will continually address this changing status.

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1705132848 Toward that end of evolutionary change, a view of contemporary rhetorical developments from the prospective of Chinese rhetoric is critical to students using this textbook so those students may better understand how to read and interpret the information presented. Since any culture’s rhetoric, with the aim of being persuasive, is never developed in a vacuum, that rhetoric has been heavily influenced by that culture’s political mechanisms, philosophical traditions and cultural contexts. Just as seminal works in the Greco-Roman tradition have shaped rhetoric in the West, seminal works in China have been influential on rhetoric in China. Since this textbook approaches argumentation and debate fundamentally from a Greco-Roman core, students who use this textbook benefit from following Chinese perspective on that approach.

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1705132850 Because Confucianism and Taoism are mainstream philosophies loyal to hierarchies and traditions in China’s long history, contemporary rhetoric in China, which often shares the fabric of Chinese philosophies, developed on a disparate track from Western rhetoric. Some comparative studies have been conducted on Chinese oratory (Oliver, 1971), but more often than not, because of the “dichotomies of antonymic concepts such as originality versus conventionality, rationality versus assertive discourse, cogency versus repetitive indirection,” Chinese rhetoric has been “consistently associated with the negative terms” (Liu, 1996: 318-335). More recent scholarship suggests using less ethnocentric assessment tools for analysis results in more generative, forward-thinking, and useful understandings of these dichotomies of thought.

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