CHAPTER VIREFUTATION
In discussing the Practice of Argumentation and Debate we have considered the importance of refutation in both the main argument and in rebuttal. We have seen that refutation must be introduced into the main arguments whenever the prominence of opposing arguments makes it necessary. We have seen that rebuttal consists largely of refutation. In fact, rebuttal and refutation are used by some writers as synonymous terms. However, in the chapter on rebuttal a distinction was made by which that term was used to indicate the practical work of defending an argument and attacking an opponent. In this chapter on Refutation we shall consider the theory of the various methods employed in attacking an opponent’s argument.
Refutation is entirely destructive as distinguished from constructive argument. While the work of rebuttal includes both a defense of one’s own argument and an attack upon that of an opponent, refutation consists of weakening or destroying the arguments of the opposition. From the destructive nature of refutation it is plain that it must be adapted to the argument against which it is directed. This involves keen powers of analysis and adaptation, an exact knowledge of the theory and practice of argumentation, and a thorough insight into both sides of the proposition under discussion. The first essential in refutation is that the writer or speaker make perfectly plain the exact argument that he is refuting. He must then show just how the refutation which he is making bears upon that argument. Finally hemust show plainly that his refutation has weakened or destroyed the argument against which it was directed. These three steps in refutation must be indicated plainly.
In refutation it is proper to establish a contrary proposition or to refer to the fact that such a contrary proposition has been established. The actual destructive work may be accomplished in any legitimate manner. Of the methods employed in refutation the following are the most important.
The chapter on fallacies has pointed out the argumentative defects of reasoning most frequently encountered. The student must not assume that these errors will always occur in the exact form in which they have been treated in any text-book. They are sure to appear in many and varied guises. To identify and expose them requires the keenest qualities of mind. Each student should pride himself on his ability to detect a fallacy quickly and should look back with humiliation upon any occurrence when he has allowed a fallacious argument to pass by unchallenged.
Familiarity with the valid forms of logical reasoning and with the errors to which they are subject are prerequisites to success. It is not sufficient that the student have a vague feeling that there is something wrong with an argument; he must be able to locate the defect exactly and to point it out to others in such a way that they will see it. Vagueness and ambiguity are the very substance of fallacies. Sometimes the student must use his knowledge of constructive logic to build up a parallel argument in the way it ought to stand and show more plainly by means of contrast the defects of the unsound argument. In such cases it often happens that the evidence points in an opposite direction from that which is needed to support a valid argument. All of thesedevices should be utilized in making plain the existence of fallacies.
This method of refutation adopts for the time being the argument of an opponent and then by carrying out that argument to its logical conclusion shows that it is absurd. For example, Beecher answered those who favored the South, during the late Civil War, because they were “the weaker party,” by reducing their argument to an absurdity. He said,
“Nothing could be more generous than your doctrine that you stand for the ‘weaker’ party in a controversy, when that weak party stands for its own legitimate rights against imperious pride and power. But who ever sympathized with a weak thief, because three constables had got hold of him? And yet the one thief in three policemen’s hands is the weaker party. I suppose you would sympathize with him.”
The following quotation from Laycock and Scales’Argumentation and Debatestill further illustrates this method of refutation.
“This method is effective because of its simplicity and directness. It also has in it an element of ridicule that is persuasive against an opponent. William Ellery Channing, in a reply to Henry Clay on the slavery question, used this method as follows:—
“‘But this property, we are told, is not to be questioned on account of its long duration. “Two hundred years have sanctioned andsanctifiednegro slaves as property.” Nothing but respect for the speaker could repress criticism on this unhappy phraseology. We will trust it escaped him without thought. But to confine ourselves to the argument from duration; how obvious the reply! Is injustice changed into justice by the practice of ages? Is my victim made a righteousprey because I have bowed him to the earth till he cannot rise? For more than two hundred years heretics were burned, and not by mobs, not by lynch law, but by the decrees of councils, at the instigation of theologians, and with the sanction of the laws and religions of nations; and was this a reason for keeping up the fires, that they had burned two hundred years? In the eastern world, successive despots, not for two hundred years, but for twice two thousand, have claimed the right of life and death over millions, and with no law but their own will, have beheaded, bowstrung, starved, tortured unhappy men without number who have incurred their wrath; and does the lapse of so many centuries sanctify murder and ferocious power?’
“Again:—‘But the great argument remains. It is said that this property must not be questioned, because it is established by law. “That is property which the law declares to be property.” Thus human law is made supreme, decisive, in a question of morals. Thus the idea of an eternal, immutable justice is set at naught. Thus the great rule of human life is made to be the ordinance of interested men. But there is a higher tribunal, a throne of equal justice, immovable by the conspiracy of all human legislatures. “That is property which the law declares to be property.” Then the laws have only to declare you, or me, or Mr. Clay, to be property, and we become chattels and are bound to bear the yoke! Does not even man’s moral nature repel this doctrine too intuitively to leave time or need for argument?’”
The dilemma is one of the most conclusive forms of refutation. It consists in forcing upon an opponent a choice between two possible solutions to the question under discussion, and then showing that both conclusions are unsound. These two conclusions are called the “horns of the dilemma.” Itmatters not which of the “horns” an opponent selects; the result is disastrous. For example, Lincoln used the dilemma against those who charged that the Republicans stirred up insurrection among the slaves and pointed to John Brown and his men as a specific example showing the truth of that charge. Lincoln said, “John Brown was no Republican; and you have failed to implicate a single Republican in his Harper’s Ferry enterprise. If any member of our party is guilty in that matter, you know it or you do not know it. If you do know it, you are inexcusable for not designating the man and proving the fact. If you do not know it, you are inexcusable for asserting it, and especially for persisting in the assertion after you have tried and failed to make the proof. You need not be told that persisting in a charge which one does not know to be true, is simply malicious slander.” In effect Lincoln said, “You know it or you do not know it. If you know it you are inexcusable. If you do not know it you are inexcusable. Whichever horn of the dilemma you accept, your conduct is inexcusable.”
In order to be conclusive a dilemma must meet two requirements. First, there must be only two possibilities in the case; the alternative must include these exactly. Second, both members of the alternative, or “horns” of the dilemma must be untenable. To ignore or fail to comply with either of these requirements is fatal to this method of refutation. Lincoln, in the following quotation, shows that Douglas has violated the first of these requirements. He refuses to accept either of the horns of the dilemma which Douglas has sought to force upon him, by pointing out a third possibility. On this third possibility, overlooked by Douglas, he can stand with safety. He says:—
“Judge Douglas finds the Republicans insisting that the Declaration of Independence includes all men, black as well as white, and forthwith he boldly denies that it includesnegroes at all, and proceeds to argue gravely that all who contend it does, do so only because they went to vote, to eat and sleep, and marry with negroes. He will have it that they cannot be consistent else. Now I protest against this counterfeit logic which concludes that because I do not want a black woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. I can just leave her alone.”
The method of residues consists in stating all the possible conclusions regarding the controverted subject and then destroying all of these except one which is then regarded as the true conclusion. For example, there are three possibilities, A, B, and C. A and B are false. Therefore the presumption is that C is true. It will be seen that this process is destructive and hence belongs with refutation. This method of refutation must be used with great care. It is absolutely essential that every possibility be included in the process. If one possibility is overlooked the refutation is worthless. This is true because no one can tell whether the known possibility is the true one or whether the possibility which has been omitted is the true one. In such a case no conclusion is reached. Even when it is apparent that the entire field has been covered, and that every possibility has been stated the residuary part should be supported by direct positive proof. This will offset the suspicion, which is otherwise ever present in the minds of those who are listening to or reading the argument, that perhaps one possibility has been overlooked.
Foster in hisArgumentation and Debatequotes two excellent examples of this method of refutation. The first of these is taken from Burke’sSpeech on Conciliation. After showing that a fierce spirit of liberty has developed in the Americancolonies Burke asks what is to be done with that spirit. Answering his own question he says:—
“‘As far as I am capable of discerning there are but three ways of proceeding relative to this stubborn spirit which prevails in your colonies, and disturbs your government.These are—to change that spirit, as inconvenient, by removing the cause; to prosecute it as criminal; or to cope with it as necessary.I would not be guilty of an imperfect enumeration; I can think of but these three. Another has indeed been started,—that of giving up the colonies; but it met so slight a reception that I do not think myself obliged to dwell a great while upon it. It is nothing but a little sally of anger, like the frowardness of peevish children, who when they cannot get all they would have, are resolved to take nothing.’
“Burke then proceeds to show that the first and second of these plans are impracticable, and concludes with the following characteristic, logical summary:—
“‘If, then, the removal of the causes of this spirit of American liberty be for the greater part, or rather entirely, impracticable; if the ideas of criminal process be inapplicable—or if applicable, are in the highest degree inexpedient—what way yet remains? No way is open but the third and last—to comply with the American spirit as necessary; or, if you please, to submit to it as a necessary evil.’
“Huxley, in his first lecture on Evolution, presented three hypotheses regarding the origin of the universe:—
“‘So far as I know, there are only three hypotheses which ever have been entertained, or which well can be entertained, respecting the past history of Nature. I will, in the first place, state the hypotheses, and then I will consider what evidence bearing upon them is in our possession, and by what light of criticism that evidence is to be interpreted.
“‘Upon the first hypothesis, the assumption is that phenomena of Nature similar to those exhibited by the present worldhave always existed; in other words, that the universe has existed from all eternity in what may be broadly termed its present condition.
“‘The second hypothesis is, that the present state of things has had only a limited duration; and that at some period in the past, a condition of the world, essentially similar to that which we now know, came into existence, without any precedent condition from which it could have naturally proceeded. The assumption that successive states of Nature have arisen, each without any relation of natural causation to an antecedent state, is a mere modification of this second hypothesis.
“‘The third hypothesis also assumes that the present state of things has had but a limited duration; but it supposes that this state has been evolved by a natural process from an antecedent state, and that from another, and so on; and on this hypothesis, the attempt to assign any limit to the series of past changes is usually given up.’
“Huxley thus destroyed the first two hypotheses and left the third—since called the Theory of Evolution—standing alone. Following this indirect, destructive method of proof, Huxley offered direct, constructive proof of the probable soundness of the Theory of Evolution. Such positive proof should always be offered in corroboration of negative proof, for the method of residues is, at best, only an indirect argument. The chances of overlooking a possibility, or of failing completely to destroy those dealt with, are so great that the result of the indirect method should be reinforced by direct argument.”
When a witness testifies in a court of law he injures his own credibility as soon as one part of his story contradicts another part. His entire account of the events about which he hasbeen called to give testimony must be consistent. Any inconsistency may prove fatal to the acceptance of his testimony. In like manner any inconsistency in an argument may prove fatal to its acceptance. The exposure of such inconsistencies in an opponent’s argument is one of the most important methods of refutation. In most cases the difficulty of the task is greatly increased by the form in which such inconsistencies usually occur. Seldom are they apparent. In most cases the error is revealed only after the argument has been carefully analyzed and the inconsistent parts stripped of their covering of confusing language.
The following quotation taken from the argument of Lincoln in one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates shows the application of this method. Douglas had maintained that slavery could be lawfully excluded from a territory in spite of the Dred Scott decision. In refuting this argument by exposing the inconsistency which it contained, Lincoln said:—
“The Dred Scott Decision expressly gives every citizen of the United States a right to carry his slaves into the United States Territories. Now, there was some inconsistency in saying that the decision was right, and saying, too, that the people of the Territory could lawfully drive slavery out again. When all the trash, the words, the collateral matter, was cleared away from it,—all the chaff was fanned out of it,—it was a bare absurdity: no less than that a thing may be lawfully driven away from a place where it has a lawful right to be. Clear it of all the verbiage, and that is the naked truth for his proposition—that a thing may be lawfully driven from the place where it has a lawful right to stay.”
This method of refutation consists in taking evidence which an opponent has introduced in favor of his own argumentand showing that in reality it supports the opposite contention. This method of refutation is so effective that it should never be neglected when an opportunity to use it is presented. The opportunity may arise from the failure of an opponent to grasp the full bearing of the evidence which he offers, or it may arise from an unexpected turn in the discussion. Evidence may be introduced in the beginning of a discussion to support a particular contention by which it favors the writer or speaker who introduces it. Later this same evidence may be interpreted as supporting a contention entirely adverse to the writer or speaker who introduced it. An excellent example of this method of refutation is found in Bouton’sLincoln and Douglas Debatesin Lincoln’s Cooper Institute Speech, where he turns the warning of Washington against those who had been quoting it against him.
“Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning against sectional parties given by Washington in his Farewell Address. Less than eight years before Washington gave that warning, he had, as President of the United States, approved and signed an act of Congress enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwest Territory, which act embodied the policy of the Government upon that subject up to and at the very moment he penned that warning; and about one year after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he considered that prohibition a wise measure, expressing in the same connection his hope that we should at some time have a confederacy of free states.
“Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since risen upon this same subject, is that warning a weapon in your hands against us, or in our hands against you? Could Washington himself speak, would he cast the blame of that sectionalism upon us who sustain his policy, or upon you who repudiate it? We respect the warning of Washington, andwe commend it to you, together with his example pointing to the right application of it.”
We have now considered the important methods of refutation. Their successful use depends upon the conscientious effort of the student. Just as a boy cannot hope to learn to swim by sitting on the bank of a stream and reading a book containing directions on how to swim, so can no student hope to become successful in refutation by a study of the methods explained and illustrated in this chapter. He must master the theory of refutation, but it does not become an effective instrument in his hands until he has applied it in actual practice. Moreover, just as the boy can better profit by the instructions regarding swimming after he has actually tried to swim, so can the debater better profit by the theory of refutation after he has engaged in some real debates.
EXERCISES IN REFUTATION
EXERCISES IN REFUTATION
EXERCISES IN REFUTATION
I. Point out the different methods of refutation employed in the arguments in Appendix A; Appendix B; Appendix C.
II. Refute the following statements and name the method of refutation employed in each case.
1. High school courses should be wholly prescribed. No electives should be offered.
2. So far as political rights are concerned all citizens should have equal privileges. Therefore women should have the right to vote.
3. The term of office of the President of the United States should be extended to eight years because we should not run the risk of losing the services of an efficient president at the end of four years.
4. Our government should annex Cuba because we must gain possession of all territory adjacent to, or not separated by foreign possessions from, the United States.
5. There is no ground for anticipating an immediate war with Japan since she has been compelled to come to our terms in the recent disputes.
III. What methods of refutation are employed by Burke in his Speech on Conciliation? By Webster in his Reply to Hayne?
IV. In the next class debate point out and name all the methods of refutation employed by your opponents and yourself.