Summary of Walter Sinnott-Armstrong's Think Again

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 All of these problems require widespread cooperation to solve, but instead of working together, people tend to argue and fight with each other.

#2 When people give up on understanding each other, they resort to willful misinterpretation and abuse. They will put words in each other’s mouths in order to make their rivals look foolish.

#3 We need to exchange reasons with our opponents, and we need to demand their reasons from them. Without understanding each other, we cannot figure out how to compromise or cooperate with each other.

#4 To work together, we must first understand what reasons and arguments are. They are not verbal fights, but constructive attempts to increase understanding. When someone presents one claim as a reason for another claim, that is an argument.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669347194

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Walter Sinnott-Armstrong's Think Again

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

All of these problems require widespread cooperation to solve, but instead of working together, people tend to argue and fight with each other.

#2

When people give up on understanding each other, they resort to willful misinterpretation and abuse. They will put words in each other’s mouths in order to make their rivals look foolish.

#3

We need to exchange reasons with our opponents, and we need to demand their reasons from them. Without understanding each other, we cannot figure out how to compromise or cooperate with each other.

#4

To work together, we must first understand what reasons and arguments are. They are not verbal fights, but constructive attempts to increase understanding. When someone presents one claim as a reason for another claim, that is an argument.

#5

We must not argue all day long. Arguments are not the only solution to our problems, and they can be counterproductive if the audience is not receptive. We must also learn social skills and habits to encourage our audiences to be receptive to reasons.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Many people have close friends who have opposing political views, and many people live in communities with large majorities that support the same political party. This shows that we are not as isolated from each other as we might think.

#2

Polarization is the process by which groups become more distant from each other, and their views become more extreme, due to negative feelings and speech between them.

#3

Gridlock in the sense of inability to get anything done occurs only