Discussion:
Create a 300-500 words.
Describe, with details, one or (preferably) two lessons you have learned from this course regarding analyzing and constructing arguments. Think about this carefully and don't just write what first occurs to you. Do not discuss history or law, but focus on what are the ways of making effective arguments or analyzing someone else's arguments. Use examples from the course, providing details to support your conclusions.
Key Points to Remember as Lessons, The Art of Argument.
1. Be accurate about everything! Even small mistakes make the analysis and the argument look stupid. Examples: Moore's Racism in the English Language; your own essays when some piece of evidence was contradicted by the reading.
2. The history behind an issue can be very useful. See Justice Stone in Hirabayashi recounting the history of the early months of World War II in the Pacific, the Japanese victories showing the apparent danger facing the United States. See Dennis, where Justice Jackson points out how the events in Czechoslovakia in 1948 show how the Communists could use ordinary political forces to take over the government. See Roe v Wade, where the history of American and British laws on abortion makes the court's decision look less extreme.
3. If you are analyzing or attacking a policy, the reason behind the policy can be important to your analysis or attack. Unfortunately for this course, in Brown the reason for the "separate but equal" rule and the laws favoring racial segregation, i.e., racism, were never examined. But in Korematsu, Justice Murphy does provide evidence of racism underlying the discrimination against Japanese-Americans. And in Dennis, Justices Douglass and Frankfurter provide reasons for freedom of speech that go far beyond ideas of moral behavior and reach into the importance of free speech for democracy and stable government.
4. Sometimes, new information is a crucial part of an argument. See Brown, where the court discussed the increased importance of public school education to reconsidering the meaning of the 14th Amendment and the validity of Plessy v Ferguson. See Brown, where the importance of psychological studies provides further information on the harm done by racial segregation.
5. Always consider the possibility of alternative explanations for an important fact. In Racism in the English Language, Moore fails dreadfully because he never considers an alternative -- for Moore, any negative use of the word "black" or its synonyms must be based on racism, even though, for example, the dark of nighttime obviously goes back to the fear of night and its unseen dangers during the history of civilization and before, an issue totally divorced from racist feelings. In the case of Benedict Arnold, there are a variety of alternative explanations as to why Arnold turned traitor, and we cannot be sure of the correct answer or answers. In Hirabayashi and Korematsu, several arguments made by the military and accepted by Justice Stone are contradicted by Justice Murphy. For example, why are Japanese-Americans concentrated in 3 large cities on the Pacific coast? Is this evidence of a plot to sabotage American bases? In the Bell family fight, is Esther's explanation of the overall family situation more convincing than Ford's?
Also, consider the possibility of alternative solutions to problems. In Korematsu, Justice Murphy describes other ways of protecting US security from those Japanese-Americans who are disloyal, following the recent example of Britain.
6. Review evidence carefully to make sure it is not superficial. In Hirabayashi and Korematsu, Murphy shows various areas where the evidence of Japanese-American disloyalty is superficial and does not stand up to careful and balanced analysis. See also the prosecution's cases against John Doe and Charles Roe. Doe introduced 3 of the conspirators, so he must be guilty? Roe was SA's accountant, so he must have known of the tax fraud?
7. Keep your analysis balanced. This is a mixture of points 1 and 6. See Moore's article, Hirabayashi and Korematsu, the Bell family fight. Of course, in Dennis, Justice Frankfurter is so balanced that he seems unable to come to a conclusion.
8. Always examine carefully to determine the motives for people saying or doing or not doing certain things. See the motives for the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans; see the possible motive for the Dennis decision based on the Red Scare / McCarthyism. What motive did John Doe have for committing the fraud on the bank? What motive did Charles Roe have for helping in the SA tax fraud? What motives were behind the three people who accused Roe?
9. Examine the reliability of witnesses. This is connected to points 1, 6, and 8.
10. Organize your analysis or argument. Make sure that the point you make is internally organized. Do not just throw one argument after another. Keep separate those points that do not relate directly to each other.
11. Use details to support your argument. Without details, your analysis is not persuasive. Without details, Murphy's argument that the US could have protected its security without mass imprisonment has no weight. Without details, John Doe's claim of ignorance of the bank fraud is not believable. Without details that describe the SA fraud, Hawkins' comment that the fraud was the work of an amateur is much less convincing; without details, the significance of Roe's firm's non-audit work is unclear;without details, you have no reason to believe that Calvin Simon needed to target Roe to the government.
A FEW MORE SPECIFIC POINTS
12. Sometimes you avoid obvious arguments to reach a better result. Thurgood Marshall in Brown did not discuss the fact that separate was never equal from a money point of view, because he wanted to show that separate was never equal even if the money situation was equal, so that he could argue of the need to end all racial separation.
13. When somebody claims that a danger must be solved at once, inquire as to whether the danger is so great or so immediate. See Justice Douglas in Dennis talking about the danger of the US Communist Party. See Murphy in Korematsu questioning how great the Japanese-American danger was to the Pacific coast.
14. Always examine the meaning of a silence: Roe's failure to contact Spence or Ode at SA for 40 days while an audit was coming; the failure of Rocky and Bill to testify that John Doe knew of the bank fraud?
15. Uncertainty can sometimes be used to challenge an argument or policy. In Roe v Wade, even though the argument to stop abortions is a strong one, the uncertainty about when human life begins and what is human life is a strong counter in favor of allowing abortions.
16. Look for facts that have only one believable explanation: they eliminate uncertainty and strengthen an analysis. For example, in the John Doe case, the return by Jack and Rocky of stolen money to the bank: could there be any reason for this strange behavior except that John Doe demanded it? Would John Doe have demanded the return of money if he knew about the fraud in the first place?