State the strongest objection to your own claim: Rhetoric, Round 1

1 Learn

You will be able to

State a claim so that it could be wrong.
Write the objection a thoughtful opponent would choose, not the weakest one.
Check the objection by asking whether its holder would sign it.

LabThe ElenchusSix steps, of which step 1 states the claim so it could be wrong and step 4 asks for the strongest objection, not the weakest.
LabDefinitionsThe entries on elenchus and truth: state an objection in a form its holders would accept, and name the state of the world that would make your claim false.
LibraryHow to Read a Great Book: Levels, Modes and the Completion Standard · Reconstruct before you criticizeA fair reconstruction is one the author would accept.2 min glance · 6 min
LibraryThe Weekly Loop: Read, Reconstruct, Make, Defend, Log · The five stepsDefend: face the strongest objection, a person first and an AI second, and say so in the draft if you cannot answer it.2 min glance · 4 min
LibraryTechnical Writing as Reasoning · The five stepsStep 3 states the strongest competing explanation, because if you cannot say what the best opponent would argue, you have not tested your view.2 min glance · 5 min
LibraryThe Seven Liberal Arts, Hands-On: Logic, Proof and the Quadrivium · The trivium in practiceThe test of rhetoric is honesty under pressure: state the strongest objection fairly before you answer it.2 min glance · 6 min
LibraryThe Orator's Education: Cicero and Quintilian on Forming a Speaker · A good man skilled in speakingQuintilian raises the strongest objection to his own claim, the case of Demosthenes, before he replies to it.2 min glance · 6 min
LibraryThe Orator's Education: Cicero and Quintilian on Forming a Speaker · Where this could be wrongA worked example of the form many Library pages use: the strongest objection, the best reply, and what would settle it.2 min glance · 6 min

2 Practise

Answer each card from memory, then grade yourself honestly. The cards join your review deck and come back just before you would forget them.

recall
What are the six steps of the Academy's elenchus, the Socratic cross-examination you run on a belief of your own?

Show answer
State the claim so it could be wrong; define its terms; give your grounds and what kind of evidence they are; state the strongest objection; decide, before running it, the test that could refute it; give a verdict for now.
connect
"The Weekly Loop: Read, Reconstruct, Make, Defend, Log" builds this page's rule "reconstruct before you criticize" into a weekly routine. What makes a reconstruction fair, and why must it come before you object?

Show answer
A fair reconstruction is one the author would accept: a person who holds the view could read your summary and say, "yes, that is what I think." Without that, any objection you make is aimed at a stand-in rather than at the author's actual argument.
connect
The Weekly Loop points to 'Peirce on the Fixation of Belief' as a worked example. Which step of the loop does that guide illustrate, and what does the step ask you to write?

Show answer
It illustrates Reconstruct. You write a one-sentence thesis in your own words, the argument as numbered premises leading to a conclusion, its hidden premises, the weakest premise and why, the strongest objection with the author's likely reply, and your verdict.
apply
A colleague's write-up says only: 'The new server is slow, so we should buy a bigger one.' Using the page's five steps, what would you ask them to add?

Show answer
Define 'slow' as a specific measurement, and label what was observed, inferred or assumed. Name the strongest competing explanation and the evidence that would change the conclusion. Then restate it so someone else can act: recommendation first, then reasons, then limits.

3 Prove it: the mastery check

5 questions drawn from a pool of 12. The pass mark is 80%. There is no time limit, and you can retake it with new questions; your best result counts.

4 Prove it: the performance task

State the strongest objection to a claim you hold

Choose a claim you hold on a public or practical question, such as a town plan, a rule in a sport or a method of study. Leave out anything about your own health, money or relationships, and any private person's name. (1) Write the claim in one sentence that could be wrong, and name an observation or finding that would show it false. (2) List three objections a thoughtful opponent might raise. (3) Choose the strongest, say in one or two sentences why it beats the other two, and write it out in 50 to 100 words, using the reasons and evidence its holders actually give. (4) Check the wording against a published statement of the opposing view, such as an article, report or speech, or ask someone who holds the view whether they would accept it as theirs. Record what you changed. Do not answer the objection yet: answering it is the work of later rounds. Allow 40 to 50 minutes.

What to hand in: One page with the claim and what would show it false, the three objections, the chosen objection in 50 to 100 words with your reason for choosing it, and a note on what you checked it against and what you changed. Save it on the page or download it.

Check your work against the rubric The claim is one declarative sentence, and the write-up names an observation or finding that would show it false. Three different objections are listed, and the chosen one is said to be the strongest for a stated reason. The chosen objection is aimed at the claim as stated, not at a weaker or different claim. The objection rests on reasons or evidence its holders actually give, with no insult or caricature of them. The wording has been checked against a published statement of the opposing view or a holder's reading, and the changes made as a result are recorded.

Your work Or a link to it (optional)

Saved only in this browser. To keep a copy, download it or export your progress.

5 Discuss: the seminar

Read the text, then think, write or talk through the question with someone. There is no answer key: the aim is a better question.

Rhetoric · Round 1

Gorgias, Encomium of Helen, sections 6 to 10, with the summary at section 15 (Diels-Kranz 82 B11)LaRue Van Hook's 1913 translation (Classical Weekly 6, no. 16), public domain in the United States, but partial: it gives sections 1 to 10, 15 and 19 to 21, so sections 11 to 14 are not on the page. Section 6 lists the four possible causes of Helen's flight; section 8 begins the account of the power of speech.
Plato, Gorgias, 447a-466aW. R. M. Lamb's Loeb translation with the Greek, on Perseus. Socrates sets out to learn the function of Gorgias's art from 447c; belief and knowledge are separated at 454c-455a; the orator is more convincing than the doctor only to those who do not know at 459a-c; rhetoric is called no art at all but a 'habitude or knack' and a branch of flattery at 462b-466a.

Gorgias calls speech a powerful potentate that can put an end to fear and increase compassion (section 8), and he uses that power to excuse Helen. Plato's Socrates says that rhetoric is no art at all but a knack, a branch of flattery that convinces those who do not know (459a-c, 462b-466a). Is the power of speech a reason to trust the speaker or to distrust him?

Socrates separates persuasion that produces belief from persuasion that produces knowledge (454c-455a). Which kind does the Helen produce in its hearer?
Gorgias sums up that if Helen was won over by persuasion she deserves commiseration, not condemnation (section 15). Is a listener ever responsible for being persuaded?
At 462b-466a Socrates compares rhetoric with cookery, and calls such flattery no art because it 'has no account to give of the real nature of the things it applies' (465a). What would rhetoric need to have in order to count as an art in his sense, and does the Helen have it?

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State the strongest objection to your own claim