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3.3 Counter-Arguments

No prizes for having already guessed that there can also be a reason and an objection bearing on the same contention.  The reason and objection are then countering each other; they are known as counter-arguments, relative to each other. 

Example:

The Apollo rock samples are genuine Moon rock.  They appear similar to terrestrial rocks on the surface, but chemically they are unlike anything on Earth. [Based on 9.1-3]

To be very precise, a counter-argument is not the reason or the objection itself.  A counter-argument is an argument, and a simple argument is a complex thing made up of a reason with its contention, or an objection with its contention.  So counter-arguments include the contention; and counterarguments overlap in the sense that they have the same contention.  This is probably going to make more sense if you see it on a diagram:

Two arguments which counter each other (and thus are counter-arguments).  Note that each simple argument includes the contention.  Thus, the two simple arguments overlap; the same contention is part of both of them.

A counter-argument to a reason is an objection to that reason's contention, and vice versa.

 Last updated 28-Nov-2006