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11：FOUR KEY ELEMENTS IN DEBATE

http://www.sina.com.cn 2003/11/16 23:28 中图读者俱乐部

　第十一章辩论的四个要素

　　命题、论点、论证和证据是辩论中最重要的四个要素，本章讨论了这四个要素的相互关系。鉴于证据的重要性，本章接下来详细介绍了证据的种类以及检验证据有效性的方法。

　Four Elements四个要素

　　There are four structural elements that serve as the ingredients of a debate case. These are (1) proposition, (2) issues, (3) arguments, and (4) evidence. Analysis of a debate case is made possible through a complete understanding of the function of these parts. A fifth element, and the most important one, is the reasoning process. It, however, is not a separate element so much as the means by which the other four are bound together. The following paragraphs will serve to define each of these four formal elements, while the subsequent section will apply each element directly to the complex problem of building a debate case.

　　Proposition. A proposition (or resolution) is a judgment expressed in a declarative sentence. Each debate centers around a carefully-worded proposition insgroupsthat everyone may know precisely what is being talking about. There are propositions about fact, value, and policy. The value or policy propositions are usually used in school debate, and both are supported by these formal elements: issues, arguments, and evidence.

　　Issues. Issues are often called inherently vital points. They are the assertions (or unsupported statements) which must be proved insgroupsto establish that the proposition ought to be adopted. They are the main contentions that function as the basic reasons for the adoption of the proposition. Finding the issues that are relevant to a proposition is the result of analysis. Ordinary intelligence will suggest that if one advocates a change from the present system (status quo), it becomes necessary to support the idea that there is something wrong with the status quo or that some major new benefit will result from the change. In a policy proposition, if these faults or benefits are extensive, they may provide sufficient and compelling reason for concluding that there is a need to change from the present system. In short, the fact that there is a need to change becomes an issue. If you are dealing with a value proposition, then common sense also tells you that you must also provide your listeners with enough reasons to conclude that the evaluation you are making should be accepted by them as well. Issues do not stand by themselves; rather, they appear as assertions and need to be supported with arguments and evidence.

　　Arguments. An argument is an assertion which is the result of reasoning. The characteristic feature of arguments, as compared to other discourse, is that it states or implies a reasoning process. For example:“The papers are on the table”is not an argument; but the statement,“If we do not close the window, the papers will be blown off the table”is an argument because it contains an inference, the result of a reasoning process. Arguments serve as reasons for the acceptance of an issue. Arguments may stand by themselves but usually need to be supported with evidence.

　　Evidence. Evidence is that statement of fact or opinion which makes an assertion acceptable to an audience. It consists of facts, opinions, and objects that are used to generate proof. The advocate brings together the raw materials and, by the process of reasoning, produces new conclusions.

　Put Everythingsintosan Example:

　Functions of the Four Elements

　举例：四个要素的作用

　　In the previous chapter you saw an example of an outline of an affirmative case on highways along with a companion negative outline on the same topic. Here is another example of a hypothetical case outline which uses these four elements.Proposition: Resolved: That the United States would be justified in significantly increasing trade restriction.

　　Issue: I. National security considerations would justify in creasing trade restriction, for:

　　Argument: A. Highly technical products reach our adversaries.

　　Evidence: 1. Secretary of State testimony regarding loss of important computer advances to communist world.2. Defense Department report on military equipment sold through third parties.

　　Argument: B. Technical losses endanger our security.

　　Evidence: 1. Congressional hearing citation regarding uses made of our technology by others which have harmed U.S. security.

　　2. Statements from Joint Chiefs of Staff concerning danger to our military personnel resulting from technical transfers.

　　Issue: II. Domestic Industries Need Protection, for:

　　Argument: A. The textile industry has been hurt by imports.

　　Evidence: 1. Statistics on lost jobs in textiles due to imports.

　　2. Etc.

　　Thus you can see how the relationship of each of these elements is present in a topic as well as in policy questions. The rule is simple - all propositions are supported by major issues, and these in turn are supported by arguments which have specific evidence as their supports. All of these elements are bound together by reasoning - a fifth and ever-present element.

　　Do not forget this relationship because you will need to create both affirmative and negative cases from outlines, and the format above gives you the outline system to follow.

　　As you can see, the debate case is built upon evidence. Good supporting materials, in the form of fact, opinion, and reasoning, which the audience will find compelling, are the foundation of every debate case.

　Necessity to Illustrate Evidence in Detail详细举证的必要性

　　Evidence is the standpoint of an argument on which everything is based. A detailed illustration of evidence is of vital significance in a debate. The types and tests of evidence will be analyzed respectively in the following text.

　　Types of Evidence

　　Written or unwritten evidence

　　Written evidence is evidence supplied by writings of all kinds: books, newspapers, and magazines, as well as less frequently used types of writing such as roman numerals carved on the cornerstone of a building. Unwritten evidence includes both oral testimony and objects offered for personal inspection.

　　In arguments outside the courtroom, written evidence generally is given greater weight than oral evidence, because it is easier to substantiate. In a recent intercollegiate debate, a negative speaker introduced unwritten, secondary evidence by saying:

　　Last week I had the opportunity to talk with Senator _____ when he visited in my hometown, and he told me that ...

　　Then the negative debater quoted a statement strongly critical of the affirmative’s position. An affirmative speaker replied to this by using written evidence:

　　We have no way of knowing how accurately the negative quoted Senator _____ nor of knowing what the senator said in a private interview. However, we do have a record of the considered opinion of the senator on this subject as he expressed it in an article in the New York Times Magazine of last week when he stated ...

　　The affirmative debater then quoted a carefully qualified statement that indicated only minor reservations about the affirmative’s position. Which of the speakers quoted the senator correctly? Perhaps both. The senator may have changed his mind; or, more likely, the two statements represented the difference between an offhand comment and a considered opinion. In any event, the judge accepted the statement of the affirmative speaker, since he could better substantiate his evidence.

　　Lay or expert evidence

　　Evidence is usually classified as either lay or expert. As a practical matter, however, it is often difficult to distinguish between the well-informed layperson and the expert. Representatives and senators, for example, may or may not the experts on the subjects they speak about. However, because their official position gives them unusual opportunities to acquire special knowledge on many subjects, they are often regarded as experts by popular audiences. Lay evidence is provided by persons without any special training, knowledge, or experience in the matter under consideration. Expert evidence is evidence provided by persons with special training, knowledge, or experience in the matter under consideration.

　　Test the Credibility of Evidence

　　Test the credibility of one’s own evidence

　　In the construction of their cases, advocates will discover a great deal of evidence. Before they include any of it in their cases, they must apply the tests of evidence, rejecting what is weak and inconclusive and using only what stands up under examination. By applying the tests of evidence, they may also anticipate the probable refutation of their opponents and prepare to meet it.

　　The tests of evidence must also be applied to pro-blems outside the debate situation. The political leader must weigh intelligence reports, the executive must evaluate reports of market trends, the college student must appraise studies of employment opportunities in various fields. Throughout life, we are all required to formulate propositions, gather evidence of those propositions, and evaluate that evidence as a part of the process of making decision. Intelligent self-interest and our sense of responsibility to those affected by our decisions require that we apply the tests of evidence with care.

　　Test the credibility of the evidence advanced by an opponent

　　While preparing their own cases, advocates must also seek out evidence that will be of value to opponents, apply the appropriate tests to it, and plan refutation. As a debate develops, they will discover the evidence actually used by opponents and be prepared to test and refute it, of possible, during the debate. It should be noted that the responsibility of applying the tests of evidence and of refuting evidence rests on the party whose case is damaged by the evidence. If our case is adversely affected by certain evidence used by opponents and we do not refute it, we may find that the decision reindeers will accept even weak evidence at its face value. Indeed, the absence of refutation may enhance the value of the adverse evidence.

　　Questions for testing evidence credibility

　　In general affirmative answers to these questions imply that the evidence is credible; negative answers imply a weakness in the evidence.

　　Is there enough evidence?

　　Is the evidence clear?

　　Is the evidence consistent with other known evidence?

　　Is the evidence consistent within itself?

　　Is the evidence verifiable?

　　Is the source of the evidence competent?

　　Is the source of the evidence unprejudiced?

　　Is the source of the evidence reliable?

　　Is the evidence relevant?

　　Is the evidence statistically sound?

　　Is the evidence the most recent available?

　　Is the evidence cumulative?

　　Is the evidence critical?

　Summary of the Relationship of the Four Elements

四个要素的关系概括

　　1. The proposition is supported by main contentions, called issues.

　　2. The issues, which appear as assertions, are supported by reasoned discourse, called arguments.

　　3. The arguments are supported with the best available evidence.

　Exercises练习

　　Determine whether the following passages are definitions, arguments, evidence, explanations, or propositions. Issues are hard to be put in sentences so we use definitions and explanations instead to do exercises.

　　1. There are over 250 million people living in the United States. Most of the people today live in the South or the West. The mid-West and East Coast have been losing population steadily over the past twenty years.

　　2. There are over 250 million people living in the United States because that is what all the standard geography textbooks say and they certainly cant be all the wrong about something so simple.

　　3. The pipes burst because the water froze.

　　4. All people have a natural right to the fruit of their own labor. Therefore it is wrong for government to tax individuals for any reason other than providing for the common defense against criminals from within or aggressor nations from without.

　　5. Statement to a foreign visitor to the Sacramento valley a month after the floods of 1997:“Many houses here are in a terrible mess because of the break in the levees and the consequent flooding.”

　　6. The reason so many people are calling in sick is that there is a new flu virus going around this year is especially mean.

　　7. The great theorist of socialism is Karl Marx. Marx produced his major work on economics almost a century after Adam Smith. In that three-volume work called simply Capital, Marx did not argue that Smith was wrong about the virtues of the free market, the division of labor, and industrialization. His fundamental objection was that Smith’s picture of industrial capitalism was incomplete.

　　8. The reason fish have gills is that they can get oxygen out of the water.

　　9. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, and oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.

　　10. Since the introduction of slavery in America, there has been a continuous struggle for equality between blacks and whites. It was hoped that this struggle would end with the civil rights acts of the 1960s. But it didn’t.

　　11.“Dogs”is a fourletter word.“Cats”is a four-letter word.“Pigs”is a four-letter word. Therefore, all four-letter words refer to animals.

　　12. The mind directly perceives only ideas. Material objects are not ideas. These facts prove that the mind does not directly perceive material objects.

　　13. Liberalism is the theory that it is impossible for a person to be both sincere and mistaken about what is good.

　　14. In 1957, among the thirtythree nations that chose not to exercise the death penalty, the number of murders never increased. Thus, capital punishment simply does not appear to serve as a deterrent.

　　15. Song and dancing were parts of the worship of Greek gods. Contests in music and poetry were held at the shrine of Apollo in Delphi. Civic festivals with“games”were similarly developed, notably the festival of Athena at Athens. And all these contests were means of gaining honor.

　　16. When I got home from school, the lights were on and the phone was ringing. The front door was wide open. There were no signs of any forced entry or burglary. Someone must have left the house in a hurry.

　　17. The reason capital punishment is not an effective deterrent is that most murders are“crimes of passion”where the murderer is simply not thinking about the consequences of his or her action.

　　18. No free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.

　　19. Anyone who has ever giggled himselfsintoshiccups knows how the initial giddiness turns to annoyance at the bodys uncontrollable rebellion - and how, after not very long, annoyance can give way to worry that they may never end. No one knows more about this alarming state of mind than 92-year-old Charles Osborne of Anthon, Iowa. One November day in 1922, on a farm near Union, Nebraska, while helping lift a 350-pound hog, Osborne began to hiccup. He hasn’t stopped since.

　　20. Scientists will never succeed in designing a computer that can actually think. Thinking, by its very nature, involves subjectivity. But computers are machines, and machines involve no subjectivity.

　　21. Since the Industrial Revolution, average standards of life in Western Europe and America seem definitely to have been showing a rising secular trend, tending to outstrip the underdeveloped nations.

　　22. Government estimates of the distribution of wealth in the United States in 1972 show that the top fifth owned 76% of the total wealth, the middle threefifths 23%, while the bottom fifth owned only 0.2%. More recently, it was estimated by the Joint Economics Committee of Congress that the top one-half of one percent of the United States households owned 26.9% of the nation’s total wealth.

　　23. Critical thinking is the ability to make good judgments in situations in which the best solution or answer is not to be discovered merely by applying a rule or repeating a memorized answer.

　　24. It is entirely correct ... to speak of the God of Technology-in the sense that people believe technology works, they rely on it, it makes promises, they are bereft when denied access to it, they are delighted when they are in its presence, for most people it works in mysterious ways, they condemn people who speak against it, they stand in awe of it, and in the bornagain mode, they will alter their lifestyles, their schedules, their habits, and their relationships to accommodate it. If this be not a form of religious belief, what is it?

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