Refraction (Bent Thinking) #59

Shotgun argumentation – the arguer offers such a large number of arguments for their position that the opponent can’t possibly respond to all of them. Refutation: The sheer number of arguments for a position does not make the position sound. One may present 50 different arguments to support a position and each and every one of them could be worthless. Example – Andrea: Bubba, I have presented you a paper that I wrote defending my position on gun control. There are 37 separate arguments that support it. Side Note: This is not a logical problem, per se, but a practical one. It wears the other person down by sheer weight. It only takes one solid argument to prove a position. The presence of multiple arguments may actually signal that none of them are strong enough alone to prove the point; therefore take each one singly and one its own merit and analyze for separate validity.