Relevance is very important to arguments. It really weakens an argument when the arguer says something that does not support what they are trying to prove. It makes it seem like they do not know what they are talking about, that their point isn’t valid, and that they are trying to insert fluff to distract the listener and to get them to agree with them. My friends do this all the time when they are trying to convince me to go do something with them that I might not want to do like go grocery shopping or do chores. They will just say stuff for fluff like, “Oh you had class this morning, you should come with me,” and I will look at them and say “Why in the WORLD does that matter.” They just say whatever they can in order to persuade me, no matter if it makes sense or not.
Hello! (:
ReplyDeleteI agree that relevance is important to arguments but it does weaken it once the individuals posing the argument says something that doesn't support their initial reasoning. Most individuals use relevance to keep their audience interested in what they are saying even though it has nothing to do with it. Random facts and points are piled upon one another to catch the attention of someone even if it's unclear and mixed up. I understand how you feel, my friends do the same to get me to go with them. They use fluff too to make it sound appealing and interesting to me but in reality it hardly is. They'll say anything to get me to go with them. They just know what to say sometimes to lure us out ang go with them huh?
I also agree that relevance is important for an argument. When people add a claim to their argument that is not relevant to what they are trying to prove, their argument does become weaker. I also agree with what Heedeeko said about the random facts that are piled up to catch the attention. When someone adds an irrelevant claim, it can make that person’s argument confusing. I like your example for it. The second part, “you should come with me”, is completely unrelated to the first part. When people do that it just makes me think they do not know what they are talking about at all.
ReplyDelete