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4.5 Rebuttals

A rebuttal is an objection to an objection.  It says "the first objection is not a good objection."

When you see one objection below another, don't make the mistake of thinking that the lower one backs up or supports the higher one.  A rebuttal (if good) "cancels out" rather than supports the first objection.

The map above does not depict two objections to the top-level contention.  Rather, it depicts one objection to that contention, and an objection to that objection. 

Example:

Hoax believers object to the claim that Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon on the grounds that NASA can't produce pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope of the equipment the astronauts left behind.  However, NASA has provided many Hubble photographs showing objects in the landing zone. [a made-up variant on 9.4]

A rebuttal is an objection to an objection.  A rebuttal provides evidence that an objection is not a good objection, i.e., not good evidence against its contention.

 Last updated 28-Nov-2006