|Table of Contents | Words: Alphabetical - Frequency - Inverse -
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Text Adverse criticism of an argument on its own merits, and of
it when presented in the form of questions, are two different
things. For often the failure to carry through the argument
correctly in discussion is due to the person questioned, because
he will not grant the steps of which a correct argument might
have been made against his position: for it is not in the power
of the one side only to effect properly a result that depends on
both alike. Accordingly it sometimes becomes necessary to attack
the speaker and not his position, when the answerer lies in wait
for the points that are contrary to the questioner and becomes
abusive as well: when people lose their tempers in this way,
their argument becomes a contest, not a discussion. Moreover,
since arguments of this kind are held not for the sake of
instruction but for purposes of practice and examination,
clearly one has to rea