Raising Objections

On a daily basis, as part of being human, we deal with raising objections. We deal with “arguments, counterarguments, counter-counterarguments.” According to Epstein’s text, “raising objections is a standard way to show an argument is bad. In doing so, we are making another argument that either calls into question one of the premises, or shows that an unstated premise is dubious, or illustrates why the argument is weak” (147). In other words, raising an objection or objections shows how someone is objecting to the argument being stated because it lacks either cohesiveness, or its premises are weak.

For example, let’s take Sean and Jill. A happy young married couple (for 2 years now) and Jill wants to have a baby. Sean begs to differ. Jill says “Sean, all children are miracles and are so precious.” Sean then chimes in, “But Jill, at first when they are babies, they are not so pleasant and wonderful as you may think.” Jill then argues, “Sean! How can you say that about babies? Yes when they are newborns they require a lot of attention however, then through all that tender, love, and care they grow up to be wonderful human beings.” “They also bring more joy and happiness to you as the parents than if you had no children whatsoever.”

As the text mentioned rather than evaluating this argument, you raise objections.

Sean raises some good points when stating, “Not all couples are meant to have kids, and that is including us.” “Once we have kids, that means we won’t be able to provide attention to our work as much or we’ll have to divide work and the kids (our family). Is that something we both really want and need?”

Jill’s initial argument on all children being miracles and are so precious can absolutely be questioned because children can be precious however they require a lot of work, attention, love, etc.