Harris on Countering

I appreciate that Harris addressed how current political debates are structured.  It’s almost as if he knew that I had just previously blogged about that.  Rather than forwarding, countering is what happens in most of the political scheme of things.  In countering, Harris explains that one can argue the other side, uncover values or dissent.  Arguing the other side consists of stating the benefits of something an author has criticized or the negatives of something an author has argued for.  This is probably the main part of countering.  Uncovering values is slightly different.  It doesn’t involve arguing against something the author said but rather something the author didn’t say.  It involves taking an undefined term in a text and analyzing it for greater meaning.  Dissenting is where you find a shared thought with the author and then you identify its limits.  Gizmodo, a blog that I often read for electronic and other news often uses countering.  Normally it doesn’t directly cite another author, say what he or she says and then argue the other side.  Rather countering on this blog comes in the form of one article arguing both sides of an argument.  Though the same author writes it, it seems to fit with countering.  Take this article that I read today on Googles’ new ‘Latitude Leaderboards’ which is a new program to let friends know where you are and see where they are.  (http://gizmodo.com/5886460/googles-latitude-leaderboards-is-a-blatant-foursquare-rip+off)  The author begins by offering its benefits but then goes on to say the other side of it that is that this program has already been created by many other sites.  In offering this information it provides both perspectives.