An essential piece of knowledge in the art of persuasion is to realize whether or not your conflict is a true argument or a petty fight. “ in a fight, one person takes his aggression out on another” (heinrichs 17). The motives behind both an actual argument and a fight are completely different because when a person is truly arguing they are merely trying to persuade and influence their opponent’/audience. However a fight consists of one party angrily unloading their emotions and onto the opposing party and have very little goals other than to relieve their frustrations and tend to not actually achieve anything of significance. So when one finds themselves in a conflict it is paramount to recognize your goals and treat the conflict as an argument if you want to achieve meaningful results and always be sure to not let petty emotions overcome you and turn an argument into a fight. …show more content…
Many people,” think the sole point of an argument is to humiliate you or get you to admit defeat” (heinrichs 19). however, the true purpose of an argument is to achieve your goals not to actually claim victory just to say that you ‘won’. Many people have trouble arguing in the direct sense because of this skewed image of what the true purpose of arguing actually is. These people are the ones who go for getting there adversary to admit defeat rather than pursue their own original goals and agenda. Before starting an argument recognise what you want to get out of it and keep the argument on track with that agenda and don't let it stray to wanting to humilate your
If learning how to successfully convey your point in a disagreement is a subject of interest, Jay Heinrichs wrote this for you. The author of Thank You For Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach us About The Art of Persuasion, Jay Heinrichs, is a speaker and persuasion context strategist, as well as an author. He has had his book published in 12 languages, used in more than 3,000 college courses and is one of the top 10 books assigned at Harvard, all according to his business website. This book covers specific tools and skills required for an adequate argument using his personal experiences and examples and thorough explanations.
In Chapter 2 of Thank You for Arguing by Jay Heinrichs, he discuses how to distinguish the difference between an argument and a fight, and to decide what you want out of an argument. The key point of an argument is to win over the audience to your point of view. In order to win an argument, you need to persuade them. You want your opponent to be persuaded using subtle logical tactics not power and intimidation. Using power and intimidation is the characteristics of a fight. This is when one person takes out his aggression on another, which does not persuade them but initiate’s revenge or rejection. During a fight, the key objective is to win by attacking and belittling your opponent, paying no attention to getting them to change their mind.
Weather it’s trying to convince someone what the best toothpaste is or persuading your husband to murder a king, all arguments no matter the momentousness can be won. Just as lady Macbeth had done in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth using pathos, ethos, and logos. Pathos is the emotional appeal, ethos is the creditable appeal, and lastly logos is meant to appeal to logic. Lady Macbeth meticulously and efficiently used these three modes of persuasion as she convinced her pusillanimous husband to murder the king and seize the ensuing open throne.
The first chapter introduced the reader to the art of rhetoric. He describes how rhetoric works through real life examples. He demonstrates ways that rhetoric persuades us like, argument from strength, and seduction. He tells the reader that the sole purpose of arguing is to persuade the audience. He showed that the chief purpose of arguing is to also achieve consensus, a shared faith in a choice.
Well-Known writer and author, Jay Heinrichs, in his book, thank-you-for-arguing, describes persuasive decisions, argument tools and how to use them when arguing or persuading your audience. Heinrichs purpose is to teach his audience how to use rhetoric and to teach us to argue without anger instead, be apathetic. He adopts an influential tone in order to reveal to his readers that the world of argument has a better way to persuade with logics.
There are a plethora of controversial topics in the world today. Each issue has multiple sides that are trying to influence people's thoughts and gain their support. “Oil to Die For” and “Climate Change Debate: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” are trying to do just that. Persuasion is an art, an art that is even more powerful influence with today's electronically based society. However, some sources are far more persuasive than others.
Persuasion is the key to getting the results you want, not only for politicians or lawyers, but for every one of us. In a job interview, you will have to persuade your interviewers why they should hire you over the other candidates. In a classroom presentation you will have to convince your classmates and teacher that what you're saying is worth listening to and that you deserve a good grade on the assignment.
This was a smart way of putting it. Throughout the chapter he explains that the point of an argument is to help you. He also explains that it’s okay to let your opponent rack up “score points”.
Listening to another’s point of view is a grossly under-appreciated skill of which is essential to win arguments and debates. Listening and truly understanding what another has to say allows you to exploit areas of limited knowledge, a bad argument, etc.; whereas, if all you intend to do is spew vacuous grandiloquence, you’ll never touch on their opinion, therefore heavily undermining persuasiveness.
The first essential of persuasion involves the structure of the argument being posed by one who is trying to provoke others to action. In order to convince someone of a new argument, idea or moral, one must use the proper methods: logos, ethos and pathos. According to Hauser, “The method
Author Jay Henrichs proves that persuasion is a great key in arguing and uses an example of him and his son in an argument to show how both came out triumphant through his persuasion. Hendrichs describes this persuasion as “manipulation” or “instruction,” all which are both included in rhetoric. Rhetoric is the “art of argument” (4) and should be used in every argument to benefit each side. Most ancients also used the tool of rhetoric to persuade, in fact it was used to create the first democracies. Henrichs once went a whole day without persuasion and he found that it was very hard to go through his normal functions. In this chapter, the author also states that seduction is an effective tool in winning an argument.
In the article For Argument’s Sake; Why Do We Feel Compelled to Fight About Everything? The author brings to light an important understanding of why we as a society argue about everything and why it is necessary in the persuasion process. The most effective way to get a problem solved is to create an argument debate. (Tannen, Deborah) It is often a natural reaction to become defensive when another person threatens our belief system, Tannen refers to this process as the “knee-jerk nature”. When a person finds their standing being opposed, one will fight back with debate therefore causing and extreme case of representing each side. (Tannen, Deborah)
Jay Heinrichs is the former editor of National Wildlife magazine, and the author of many other books, including Thank You For Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson can Teach Us about the Art of Persuasion. He teaches the art of persuasion entirely throughout the book. Thank You For Arguing is rhetoric, personal experiences, and a gateway to persuasion all in one. Thank You For Arguing is the reader’s guide to the art of persuasion. It has Cicero, Aristotle, Homer Simpson and more.
Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion is a book that contains in depth secrets to the art of arguing. It explains information about arguing that many people in today’s society are unaware of. In the following essay I will be discussing the summary, best chapter, and I will create a one paragraph argument.
Terms: Look for the disconnects- gap between your intrests and the persuader's. Disintrest-merger of your needs and the persuader's. A state of character- Virtue that exisits only during an argument and adapts to the audience. Concern with choice- virtue comes out of choices if a choice is being prevented the persuader lacks virtue. Lying in a mean- stay moderate and in the middle ground this allows a persuader to have more virtue because he isnt on any on extreme and apeals to both sides.