Hierarchy of Disagreement
Hi,
This week's email is on how to disagree with people in a productive way.
The information here is from an essay by Paul Graham. He proposed the following hierarchy of disagreement, which describes the types of arguments you can use, going from the lowest forms of argumentation to the highest:
Namecalling- Simply insulting a person who made a certain argument you disagree with.
Ad hominem- Attacking the person who made the argument, in a way that’s more thoughtful than namecalling, but that still doesn't address the opposing argument itself.
Responding to tone- Addressing the argument being made, but focusing on its style rather than content.
Contradiction- Responding to an argument by presenting an opposing argument, with little or no supporting evidence.
Counterargument- Presenting an opposing argument together with supporting evidence, but without properly addressing the original argument.
Refutation- Properly refuting the original argument, by quoting the relevant parts of it and addressing them directly using proper evidence.
Refuting the central point- Addressing the key point that the original argument was meant to convey.
A visual summary of this hierarchy is available here.
Also, this hierarchy ties in to many concepts I've written about before, like the principle of charity and ad hominem arguments.
As always, I'm happy to hear your thoughts.
Have a great week,
Itamar