Countering

In Chapter 3, Harris offers an example of “countering” by Monty Python, in the “Argument Clinic”. In this excerpt, it is seen that the two characters are bickering back and forth about whether their discussion was an argument or a contradiction. The author suggests that an argument is an intellectual process that contains a series of connected statement intended to establish a proposition; whereas a contradiction id just the automatic denial or contraction of a statement that another person makes. In this example, the author is showing the act of “countering” through a discussion between two characters. By doing this he is showing the counter arguments between the two, and how each is trying to get the other to think in the way that they are thinking. Additionally, the example is also uncovering values by bringing up the terms argument and contradiction. Even though the characters are debating over the two terms, there is no open explanation of each of the terms, just what those characters think the terms mean. It leaves the reader to think about what the discussion really was: an argument or a contradiction. It seems as if the characters are not very civil in their disagreement because they just keep saying that the other is wrong, no matter what points they bring up about the topic. Since they are each refuting each other’s beliefs, the conversation has gone nowhere. This piece is a very good example of “countering” in the fact that the conversation between the characters shows the suggestions of different ways of thinking.