Ray Ciervo Ministries

" . . .We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."
The question is:  "Are we taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ?"

If we are, we're employing what is called critical thinking. And, if we're doing that, we're also employing the lost art of argument. If we're not, we're in danger of being taken captive.

Argument. The word conjures emotional shouting matches; disagreements that separate everyone from couples to political parties; disputes over property, possessions, and lots of other stuff. However, I'm going to persuade you that arguments are necessary if we want to progress as a person, a people, and a nation. Certainly, if we want to grow as Christians, we need to understand what "argument" means and rescue it from the non-thinking.

"Argument is essential, in the first place, because it is a way of trying to find out which views are better than others." So says Anthony Weston in his concise, but excellent book called A Rulebook For Arguments (Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis, 2000), xi. Weston goes to say that "not all views are equal," a refreshing statement to read. Some of the politically correct camp has said, "All ideas or views are equal." If you consider that statement, it asserts that it is a superior idea or view to one that would contradict it. Such is the madness we find ourselves conversing with.

Even if someone is against argument, he must make an argument in order to be heard. Postmodernists have asserted that logic is no longer useful and propound the idea of non-cognitive learning. Feelings are more important than thoughts and certainly more important than arguments. Of course, this is an argument, and as such it needs to be supported cognitively.

My purpose here is not to derail progressive or politically correct arguments, however tempting that may be. My purpose is to discuss "argument" and the need for it today to be able to weed out the shallow, anemic, self-defeating statements that go nowhere and give us nothing.

Argument is essential because ideas or views do differ, and some are better than others. Slavery is not better than freedom. All people are created equal. Men and women are physically different. All these are assertions that you can differ with. All these are conclusions that someone has arrived at to make the assertion. They become arguments when the conclusions can be supported by reasons.

The idea of argument is that, when a conclusion is stated, reasons for the conclusion must be presented to inform us of its worth. Some conclusions can be supported by good, strong reasons, and others are supported by bad, weak reasons. Often people don't understand why some conclusions are wrong and why the reasons are weak. A statement without reasons to support it is only an assertion. Arguments must be supported.

Everyone uses argument, but not everyone uses it well. Some are thankful that argument is not well understood, so they can get their view across without good reasoning. There is immense need today for "critical thinking." Critical thinking is not the ability to criticize, but the ability to discern what is actually being said. It's the ability to understand what is being said and whether the reasoning behind it is valid, strong, and simply good reasoning. Critical thinking is "directed thinking." TV commercials, politicians, and some people in sales depend on your inability to discern their propositions.

"Numerous national reports have shown that instruction designed to improve the thinking process is desperately needed. The United States has been described as a "nation at risk" because we are failing to provide students with the most essential component of education - instruction that fosters the development of the ability to think ( National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983)."
The quote above is over twenty years old, and little has been done to change this.

Here's a definition of critical thinking:

When we think critically, we are evaluating the outcomes of our thought processes - how good a decision is or how well a problem has been solved. Critical thinking also involves evaluating the thinking process -the reasoning that went into the conclusion we've arrived at or the kinds of factors considered in making a decision. Critical thinking is sometimes called directed thinking [my emphasis] because it focuses on obtaining a desired outcome. Daydreams, night dreams, and other sorts of thinking that are not engaged in for a specific purpose are not subsumed under the critical thinking category.

Critical thinking is active; it makes use of our minds to understand what we are hearing, reading, or watching. It is through critical thinking that we can observe and then evaluate arguments. Critical thinking is the broader subject of which arguments are part.

So, let's define what an argument is to help us grasp it:

"An argument is a group of statements (sentences or clauses), either within one larger sentence or within a group of grammatically distinct sentences, such that one or more of the statements are said to ‘support,' ‘prove,' or ‘provide evidence for' one other statement. The statement that is supported, proven, or for which evidence is provided is called the conclusion. There is one and only one conclusion for each argument."

One conclusion per argument means that the issue is declared in a statement or a question. What then makes it an argument is that reasons are given to support the conclusion. Begin to listen to TV debates where an issue is discussed. You will be amazed at how the issue will become blurred, the opponents sidetracked, and supportive reasons totally ignored. This is how TV will make you stupid. Also, watch commercials and decide what the "real" issue is they're trying to sell you. Few commercials support their products and make unsustainable comments about their wares. This is the first step in thinking critically - understanding argument.
So argument has a conclusion and reasons to support it. In logic this is called premises and conclusion, and the argument most used to illustrate this is:

1. All men are mortal.
2. Socrates is a man.
3. Socrates is mortal.

Two premises support the conclusion Socrates is mortal.
Something that will help to ascertain an argument is understanding the difference between a topic and an issue. A topic becomes an issue when questions arise about it. Abortion is a topic until a question is posed about it: "Should abortion be legal?" Now, it is an issue. "Is abortion murder?" Or, we could ask the opposite about abortion. "Are anti-abortion forces invading the rights of women?"

The issue then becomes an argument when supportive reasons are given for it. For example, let's make the topic an issue by asking the question, Is abortion murder? The declarative sentence might be Abortion is murder, in response to the question. Then reasons must be given to support the statement for the argument to be valid. Abortion is murder because the embryo is an innocent human being. Taking the life of an innocent human being is murder. Therefore abortion is murder.
Logically the argument can be stated this way:

1. Taking the life of an innocent human being is murder.
2. Abortion takes the life of an innocent human being.
3. Abortion is murder.

Here you can see the two clear premises in 1 and 2. The conclusion is stated in 3. No one would contest the truth of 1. It is in the second premise that another issue arises, the issue of whether the unborn embryo is in fact a human being. So, the issue becomes Is the unborn embryo a human being?

Listening to a debate on this issue rarely solves anything for anyone. The reason is that the argument gets lost in other issues, and most people are unaware of what has happened. If someone were to ask me whether I am opposed to a woman's right to privacy, I would answer "no" in most cases. However, I would ask some other questions before I could answer honestly. The issue is often presented in the light of abortion. The statement "A woman has the right to do whatever she wants with her body" is the conclusion usually given in the abortion debate. This is her right to privacy. However, there aren't many supportive arguments for this conclusion - especially when there is an unborn human being within her womb. So, when you listen to an abortion debate, you can listen with enlightened minds to hear what it is that is actually being contested.

Unfortunately, this argument about abortion becomes too emotionally debated, and it seems that no one can make his or her argument make sense.

Argument is necessary to weed out the bad ideas or, as the Bible says, "speculations raised up against the knowledge of God." (2 Cor 10:5) Today, there are many ideas, assertions that are against the knowledge of God. Without understanding argument, we will allow these ideas to sneak easily into our thought patterns and take us captive.