the.com/argument
two people taking turns being certain until one runs out of patience or facts
means A reasoned exchange of opposing views, or a heated disagreement, in which people present claims meant to persuade or prevail.
from From Latin 'argumentum,' meaning a proof or evidence, built on the verb 'arguere' — to make clear, to demonstrate, even to accuse. The root carries a sense of brightening or showing, possibly tied to a notion of 'making silver-clear,' which is a lovely irony for a word that now mostly means two people muddying the waters. It arrived in English in the 14th century via Old French 'argument,' first meaning the proof of a case, only later sliding into the sense of the quarrel itself.
- logic origin
- ancient Greeks turned arguing into the formal art of rhetoric
- valid vs sound
- an argument can be perfectly logical and completely wrong
- straw man
- named for attacking a flimsy fake version of opponents
- devil's advocate
- was once a real Vatican job questioning sainthood
- backfire effect
- facts can make people believe falsehoods harder
lincoln-douglas debates — 7 debates between abraham lincoln and stephen douglas in illinois in 1858
oxford union debates — weekly student debates at oxford university since 1823
bush-gore florida recount — legal argument over 537 votes in florida's 2000 presidential election