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| Joined: | Mon Nov 21st, 2005 |
| Location: | California USA |
| Posts: | 6399 |
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"assume as a fact; put forward as a basis of argument."
Assuming something, or presuming something, is akin to a hypothesis, which is an idea, which is not a belief, not a conclusion, not a determination, not a judgment, rather it is a "basis" from which to discuss a specific topic from a specified (assumed) point of view. See also rhetoric; as in a rhetorical question.
rhetorical question:
"a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer."
I prefer not to use the word argument, and I prefer to employ the process known as discussion. To me, a discussion is a voluntary effort in which many participants offer their limited viewpoints in the effort to construct an improved viewpoint that is made up of many diverse viewpoints, on a specified topic. The concept of "argument" tends to illicit a winner take all battle of viewpoints, and typically anything goes, as the saying suggests: All is fair in love and war (war with words).
"If I, in my ignorance of language, misinterpreted your statement, then I apologize."
I also apologize for my many character flaws that are painfully obvious to almost everyone save for myself. I can't seem to say anything without either being too wordy, too brief, insulting, boasting, meek, combative, confusing, boring, nonsensical, you name it, I'm guilty.
The topic is if anything a topic about gatekeeping. If the bird can be disappeared, it won't sing anymore. If, on the other hand, the song being sung can be employed factually, so as to account for specific actions done to innocent people by specific guilty people, then those on deck to do the same evil things may think twice out of concern for suffering the same focus of attention in their evil ways.
Nicomachean Ethics
By Aristotle
Written 350 B.C.E
"Our discussion will be adequate if it has as much clearness as the subject-matter admits of, for precision is not to be sought for alike in all discussions, any more than in all the products of the crafts. Now fine and just actions, which political science investigates, admit of much variety and fluctuation of opinion, so that they may be thought to exist only by convention, and not by nature. And goods also give rise to a similar fluctuation because they bring harm to many people; for before now men have been undone by reason of their wealth, and others by reason of their courage. We must be content, then, in speaking of such subjects and with such premisses to indicate the truth roughly and in outline, and in speaking about things which are only for the most part true and with premisses of the same kind to reach conclusions that are no better. In the same spirit, therefore, should each type of statement be received; for it is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician scientific proofs.
"Now each man judges well the things he knows, and of these he is a good judge. And so the man who has been educated in a subject is a good judge of that subject, and the man who has received an all-round education is a good judge in general. Hence a young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; for he is inexperienced in the actions that occur in life, but its discussions start from these and are about these; and, further, since he tends to follow his passions, his study will be vain and unprofitable, because the end aimed at is not knowledge but action. And it makes no difference whether he is young in years or youthful in character; the defect does not depend on time, but on his living, and pursuing each successive object, as passion directs. For to such persons, as to the incontinent, knowledge brings no profit; but to those who desire and act in accordance with a rational principle knowledge about such matters will be of great benefit."