Lecture 15 - Discounting

Now the third common move in arguments to
protect premises and, and avoid the

skeptical regress is discounting.
Discounting is basically citing a possible

objection that you think other people
might be thinking of in order to head it

off by providing a quick and dirty
response to it right then and there. For

example, you might be talking to someone
and say, well, you know, I'm thinking of

buying that ring, and it's really
beautiful. And your thinking, well they're

going to object that the ring is very
expensive, too. So you say, well, the ring

is expensive, but it's beautiful. So what
you're doing is citing the objection. It's

kind of odd if you think about it. If you
want to buy the ring why are you saying

that it's expensive. And the reason is
that you have already cited that objection

which makes it less likely that a person
on the other side who doesn't want you to

buy the ring is going to say it. Because
you've said I know that but it's more

important to me that the ring is
beautiful. So I want to buy it. So when

you say the ring is expensive but it's
beautiful you're saying that it's

expensive. That's the first thing. You're
saying that it's beautiful. That's the

second thing. You're saying, with the word
but, that there's a contrast between the

two. And you're indicating that the fact
that it's beautiful is more important than

the fact that it's expensive. You're
saying all of that simply by saying that

the ring is expensive but it is beautiful.
So first, to say that the ring is

expensive but is beautiful is to say two
things. It's like saying the ring is

expensive and it's beautiful. But in other
ways it's very different from and. Because

if you say the ring is expensive and it's
beautiful you can switch them around. It's

beautiful and it's expensive. It's
expensive and it's beautiful. It's

beautiful and it's expensive. You can say
it either way. If you say, it's expensive

but it's beautiful that's very different
from saying it's beautiful but it's

expensive. Think about it. If you were
trying to argue f or buying the ring,

which would you say? Well, I would say,
it's expensive but it's beautiful. And if

I'm trying to argue against buying the
ring, I would say, it's beautiful but it's

expensive. Because the word but indicates
that the sentence after it is in some way

more important than the other clause.
You're discounting the other objection and

citing after the but clause the reason for
the belief or action that you favor. Thus,

and, and but are very different. The
sentences on either side of and are

reversible. And the sentences on either
side of but are not reversible. And there

are other words that are discounting
phrases like but that work the same way

but fall in a different place. Consider
the word although. You can say although

the ring is expensive, it's beautiful. And
that sounds like the ring is expensive but

it's beautiful. So those are the sentences
that someone would use if they're arguing

for buying the ring. Because they want to
emphasize that the ring is beautiful. The

difference is that the word but occurs
right before the clause that's getting

emphasized where as the word although
occurs before the clause that's de

emphasized and it's the other clause
besides what the speaker takes to be more

important. So but and although are each
discounting words but the but occurs

before the emphasized clause and although
occurs before the de-emphasized clause.

What is common to these words like but and
although is that they do three things.

They assert two claims. They contrast
those two claims, and they indicate that

one of those claims is more important than
the other. And there are lots of words

that perform these functions. It's not
just but and although. You have even if,

even though, whereas, nevertheless,
nonetheless, still. And, as with other

words that we've been studying, like
argument markers for example. Some of

these words get used in other ways. So,
the word still isn't always a discounting

term. You say he's sitting still. You're
not discounting an objection. It's when

you use the word sti ll at the beginning
of the sentence. Still, the diamond is

beautiful or something like that. Then the
word still getting used in discounting

word. And like with other words that we've
studied if you want to know in a

particular case whether the word still is
being used as a discounting word. You ask

whether you can substitute a different
discounting word. And the sentence will

function in basically the same way and
mean basically the same thing. And if it

does then is being used as a discounting
word and if it's not. Then, it's not being

used as a discounting word. So we can use
the substitution method to test for what

the function of the word is. So why do
people use discounting words like these.

They use them in order to head off
objections. Because, if you state the

objection first, then your opponent seems
a little silly to be saying it again. You

just responded to that. And so you can
defend your premises, or protect your

premises. And avoid the skeptical regress
by discounting the kinds of objections

that people would raise that might seem to
call for further argument. And that's a

perfectly legitimate use. Sometimes you
want to do that. You don't want to let

your opponent raise an objection. Because
that might be misleading and get you off

on a tangent. And it's a perfectly
effective and useful legitimate move in an

argument. But you also have to watch out.
Because there's some tricks associated

with discounting terms. In particular I
want to talk about the trick of

discounting straw people. Well one
effective move and argument if you're just

trying to persuade people is to make them
not see the problems with your position.

And one way to do that is to say I've got
five objections I'm going to respond to

you know. You might say this but you might
say that. However you might say this

whereas. You might say that still you
might say that although. Right and you

discount all of those five objections. And
yet what you do is you get to pick the

objections, right? So you can pick the
easiest objections, not the hardest

objections. And then you've got the whole
discussion focusing on the easiest

objections and as people are trying to
keep all five of those in their mind

straight, they forget about the other
objections which might not be even

stronger. So you discount these straw
people. Straw meaning easy to knock over,

easy to destroy, and make people forget
about the objections that are harder to

destroy that are going to cause more
serious problems for your theory. So if

you don't really want to know whether your
theory is right or wrong, your just trying

to persuade people, that can be an
effective move. And if you don't want to

be persuaded by people who are trying to
trick you like that, then you have to

watch out for other people discounting
strawmen and not facing the really more

difficult objections to their views. And,
here's is an even trickier trick. You can

combine this trick of discounting straw
people with other tricks that we saw for

other words. So, suppose somebody says,
well you know the president is all in

favor of some kind of public health
service. But a public health service is

not going to solve all the medical
problems of our people so, I think the

president is off on the wrong track. Well,
notice what has happened here is you've

discounted the objection that the public
health service is going to solve all of

the medical problems from our people. Who
ever thought that a public health service

would solve all of the medical problems of
the people? So you are discounting a straw

man by using an unguarded term all. You
put the unguarded term in the mouth of the

objector, by not guarding it you make
their view more susceptible to refutation,

and make it easier for you to respond to
that objection. Whereas the objector

really would never have used the unguarded
term but would've used a guarding term

like most, or many of the health problems
of our people. So by using discounting

terms along with guarding terms, and also
assuring terms. You can make moves in

argument that will point people towards
issu es that are framed in the way you

want them to be framed. Instead of the way
that they want them to be framed. That's

the trick that you have to learn to watch
out for. So here's a simple rule of thumb.

When you think someone is trying to use
discounting terms to lead you to look at

the easiest objections instead of the most
difficult objections then you can think

about just forgetting the ones that this
person mentions. And ask what did they

leave off the list. And as a rule of thumb
that's is usually a good idea but it's not

always going to work. You're going to have
to use your judgement. Still, try it.

Maybe it'll work in some of the cases
where you want to stop other people from

tricking you. Now, you should have a
pretty good grasp on assuring, guarding

and discounting, three common moves in
argument, that are aimed at stopping the

skeptical regress, and building common
assumptions with the people you are

talking to. Let's do a few exercises in
order to contrast these three and make

sure you understand them.