Lots of arguments fail the freshness test; they’re fallacious for reasons any undergraduate can point out. These are our focus here for the most part.
Other arguments, however, fail for slightly more sophisticated, but not less pernicious, reasons. These cloak themselves in the sincerity of honest inquiry or grown up skepticism, but in reality they’re just mechanisms for refusing to engage with the claims of the opposition. This chart, found at the Wonkblog (thanks Colin) identifies some common strategies:
Fun times.
There’s another way you can win an argument 🙂
“OSCOW (Reuters) – An argument over the theories of 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant ended in a man being shot in a grocery store in southern Russia.
RIA news agency quoted police in the city of Rostov-on-Don as saying a fight broke out between two men as they argued over Kant, the German author of “Critique of Pure Reason”, without giving details of their debate.
“In the course of the fight, the suspect took out a pistol firing rubber bullets and fired several shots at his opponent,” it said, adding that one man was detained and the victim was taken to hospital. His life was not in danger.
Kant lived in Koenigsberg, which is now the Russian city of Kaliningrad, and is a central figure of modern philosophy. Many Russians love to discuss philosophy and history, often over a drink, but such discussions rarely end in shootings.”
http://news.yahoo.com/man-shot-russia-argument-over-kant-131254651.html