Did you ever have a discussion with someone where your arguments were so good that you convinced that person that you are right?
I like arguing with people. I like hearing their ideas and giving counter examples or point out flaws in their logic. But the above question of course addresses several points. One that probably most people know about is that very rarely people get convinced just like that. Mostly it takes some time to think about the topic and the arguments and maybe then they change their minds. Though, sometimes it happens that a person says: “Ya, I think you´re right.” The main issue I want to address here though is another one.
Did you ever have a discussion with someone where you knew that person was wrong but you did not come up with good arguments to prove your point?
Sometimes it is all about who is better with words. Schopenhauer in his The Art of Being Right: 38 Ways to Win an Argument shows that there are lots of tricks that you can use to keep the upper hand in an argument. Just because someone has better arguments does not imply he is right.Sometimes the only thing this means is that the other person is better in expressing their thought or in convincing you.
The opposite is also true, and I think that is where it gets interesting; just because you have better arguments does not mean you are right either. I say it is interesting because I think we all like to be right and tend to blend out that we could be wrong especially on topics that we care about.
So next time you have a heated discussion with someone bear in mind Edward de Bono´s words:
Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it.
Readings:
To get a jump-start on arguing
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