CHAPTER 8: SUPPORT: VALUES
Students will have little difficulty in finding values in an argument. Indeed, they sometimes find too
many. Because values serve as warrants and are frequently unstated, an imaginative student can insert
virtually any value. Teaching this chapter may be difficult because the student usually does not have a
“wrong” answer but a less probable one. This is a good point at which to reemphasize the concept of
adherence. What value is most likely to have been intended? Which value would gain the greatest
adherence from one group of decision makers as opposed to another?
Finding values in the arguments of others on p. 141 is an important part of students’ learning because it
provides a checklist to differentiate one message from another. Asking “are the values specifically
stated?”, “are they negative or positive?” and “which values get the most emphasis?” help the students to
differentiate.
The section on values in spheres presents a dramatic contrast of value systems in science and religion.
That contrast is one that many students have already discussed. It should be easy to get students involved
with it.
Project 4 can be used as a term project in courses that emphasize values. In it, students see how
magazines with assumed similarities (men’s magazines, women’s magazines, sports magazines, travel
magazines) are actually different, aimed at different subgroups.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. Values such as wealth, health, happiness, which reflect the ends a person values are called
2. Values such as hard work, faith, helpfulness, which reflect the means by which we attain desired ends
are
called
3. Values such as the flag, family, or religion are called
4. When values are not specifically stated they
5. In most argumentation, values appear
6. The following is probably the dominant value system in American politics and government:
7. According to Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, an audience is characterized less by what values it
accepts
than by
8. In most arguments, you will find values
9. The most likely place to find values in an argument is in the
10. The least likely effect of argumentation on values is
11. There is probably no other function of argumentation that defines spheres so well as
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. Using some current controversy, explain a single argument that might be developed using a value or
values. Illustrate it with a diagram containing at least grounds, claim, and warrant.
PROJECTS
1. Find a newspaper editorial and make a content analysis of its value terms. How would you characterize
2. Using a speech or essay provided by your instructor, diagram some of the key arguments to discover
3. From contemporary magazines or websites, collect six or eight different full-page pictures and written
text ads for the same type of product (e.g., pain relievers, perfume, prescription drugs, automobiles) and
4. Note the value differences between two magazines that aim at different audiences (e.g., Playboy and
5. Conduct a debate in class with some of your classmates on a value claim in which most of the support