argument

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Inchoateknowledge  #252690  Sat, 05 Aug 06 12:14 PM
If you have a flimsy argument we also say it is tenuous, do we not?
1. What else can we say?
Fragile, weak,... ?
2. Do we say an argument is defeated? What else?
3. What do we say to mean an argument can not be defeated?
Irrefutable? strong? powerful? I think powerful means only that the argument is convincing, but not that it can not be defeated.
what else can we say?


thanks


  
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Marius Hancu  #252701  Sat, 05 Aug 06 12:32 PM
Tenuous is quite OK, but a bit academic; I would use weak in day-to-day conversations.

Feeble, insubstantial, unsubstantial, insignificant
would also do.

  
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Inchoateknowledge  #252713  Sat, 05 Aug 06 12:54 PM
2. Do we say an argument is defeated? What else?
3. What do we say to mean an argument can not be defeated?
Irrefutable? strong? powerful? I think powerful means only that the argument is convincing, but not that it can not be defeated.
what else can we say?
  
CalifJim  #252756  Sat, 05 Aug 06 03:42 PM
2.  You can refute an argument, but that's not defeating it.
More familiarly, you can destroy an argument or poke holes in it.

3.  In philosophy books you may come across the term "indefeasible argument", but there is no common word for it that I know of.

CJ

  
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Grammar Geek  #252757  Sat, 05 Aug 06 03:42 PM

The fact is, not matter how strong your argument, there will always be someone who will try to counter it. Nothing is truly safe from rebuttal. (As we've seen here Wink [;)])

But I think that irrefutable is the closest you'll come, although I think of irrefutable logic, not an irrefutable argument.

He made a powerful argument for his case, using irrefutable logic. I am now completely convinced.

  
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Inchoateknowledge  #252767  Sat, 05 Aug 06 03:56 PM
thx

  
Inchoateknowledge  #253299  Mon, 07 Aug 06 08:43 AM
Watertight argument: this is the collocation I have been looking for.
  
Marius Hancu  #253301  Mon, 07 Aug 06 08:50 AM
Watertight argument: there are no faults in it.
Irrefutable argument: it can't be rejected/denied.

The accent is different.

  
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