on Arguments

Kreeft:

The purpose of arguing is not to win. Arguing is not a game. It's not, "I'm cleverer than you are." The purpose of argument is like the purpose of science: to know. It's a means, not the only means, of knowing, of transferring us from ignorance to knowledge, a way of getting out of that cave. Philosophy is, in some obvious ways, not like what we today call science, but in some other less than obvious ways, it's very similar to what we today call science.

First of all, it's about the real world. Not about ideas, concepts, ideologies; those are the poker chips but not the money that you play for. Secondly, philosophy, like science, tries to prove things. There are tests, there are criteria. It's not just exuding your personal opinions or dreams. Some of the proofs claim to be certain, some of them claim only to be probable. A probable proof is still a good one. And finally, like science, philosophy uses experiments, only the laboratory is mental, not physical. An argument is a thought experiment. A syllogism is something like mixing two chemicals in a laboratory and seeing what comes out. Mix two true propositions, click them together in your mind, and see what conclusion comes out. There are objective standards for being right and wrong.