Blog Post #3

Joe Harris defines “Countering” as a way to argue the views and opinions of a topic and move the conversation in new directions. However, in doing this the writer must be partial to the other side and not refute the opinions that have already been said. One of Harris’s examples of a counter argument is John Berger’s response to Kenneth Clark’s book “The Nude”. Clark discusses the difference between the meaning of nakedness and nudity. He suggests that nakedness is the simple idea of wearing no clothes, but nudity is a form of artwork. Berger begins his writing by using Dissent to introduce the countering argument. He shows that a certain consensus exists by explaining, “We can now begin to see the difference between nakedness and nudity in the European tradition” (Berger, 1977). After Berger established his claim, he was able to be Civil in his writing by noticing that the term nudity or naked does have a conventionalized meaning, which relates to sexuality. By doing this, he agrees with Clark instead of diminishing his opinions. Berger than further explains his argument that the idea of nakedness has more meaning that Clark suggests. He says that the term naked means to be without disguise and to be truly yourself. On the other hand, the term nudity is a form of disguise that is put on display for others to see, and this hides the true expression of someone’s body. Joe Berger successfully argues his point of view of nudity and nakedness without completely discarding the original thoughts of Kenneth Clark.