LR Question 16 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Debater: As a pedagogical practice, lecturing embodies…
QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning
CONCLUSION: Hierarchy in lecturing is a good thing.
REASONING: All knowledge has hierarchy. We must move from simple to complex knowledge.
ANALYSIS: Hierarchy has two meanings.
- A system of organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority.
- An arrangement or classification of things according to relative importance or inclusiveness.
The debater is using the first definition, power relations between people. The respondent incorrectly switches to the second definition, how we classify things.
Note: I took the definitions from the New Oxford American Dictionary.
___________
- This isn’t a flaw. If an assumption in an opponents’ argument is true, then you should agree that it’s true. You can still disagree with other parts of the argument.
- The respondent clearly said that all subjects must go from simple to complex. Math was just an example.
- The argument isn’t about whether lecturing on the whole has weaknesses. It’s only about whether hierarchy is a strength or a weakness.
- CORRECT. The key concept is the word hierarchy. The respondent uses it in a different sense. See the analysis above.
- The respondent clearly said that all subjects must go from simple to complex. Math was just an example. The finer details of the conceptual structure of math don’t matter.
More Resources for Flaw Questions
- Flaw drills: Use these to practice making examples of abstract flaws.
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Flaw questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers flaw questions.
I understand how the word “hierarchy” was used in two different ways; I don’t see how that means that the respondent applied the concept “to a different aspect of education than the aspect to which the debater applied it.” They both applied the concept — hierarchy — to the same aspect of education: lecturing.
The debater applies the concept of hierarchy to lecturing itself — a professor lecturing to students, versus students interacting with one another.
The respondent applies the concept to the process of learning a subject — the specific method of learning that involves starting from the fundamentals of a subject and then incrementally progressing to the more complex ideas.