Critical Thinking by Example

10.3 Counter Considerations and Counter Arguments

Counter considerations are claims provided by an author that provide reasons not to believe the argument. Here is an example.

Example 10.1 Example with counter considerations

Although Senator Smith got caught having affairs, and despite the fact that he is drunk half the time, you should still vote for him. He is a member of the Labor Party, and this country needs every Labor senator it can get.

The author is attempting to persuade us that we should vote for Smith. The author begins with two counter considerations (CC): claims that work against this conclusion:

CC1: Senator Smith got caught having affairs.
CC2: Senator Smith is drunk half the time.
The words ‘although’ and ‘despite’ indicate that these claims are acknowledged by the author to count against the argument. It is a good idea to put the counter considerations at the beginning to keep track of their role in the argument. A complete standardization of the above passage is as follows:
CC1: Senator Smith got caught having affairs.
CC2: Senator Smith is drunk half the time.
MP1: The counter considerations do not outweigh the main argument.
P2: Senator Smith is a member of the Labor Party.
P3: This country needs every Labor senator it can get.
C: You should vote for Senator Smith.
It is clear a charitable understanding of the argument says that the author does not believe that the counter considerations outweigh the strength of the main argument, hence the missing premise (MP1). Any argument that puts forward counter considerations will have a premise (either stated or missing) to the effect that the counter considerations do not outweigh the main argument.
A counter argument is an argument that concludes that some other argument is defective.