Definitional Claims: War of Words

Suppose that Rachel, who loves playing videogames, and her friend Joey, who enjoys playing Texas hold ’em, engage in the following argument.

Rachel: “E-sports, like League of Legends, should be considered legitimate sports.”

Joey: “I say nay. A virtual sport is not a real sport.”

Rachel: “In e-sports, there’s competition between teams. Physical skill, such as eye—hand coordina

tion, is required. Competitions draw huge crowds. There’s even a world championship.” Joey: “Since when do competition and large crowds define a sport? The World Series of

Poker draws large crowds. It’s even broadcast on ESPN!”

Rachel: “There’s a difference though. Poker requires mental skill, not physical skill.”

Joey: “Au contraire. Poker requires stamina. Furthermore, controlling one’s nonverbal cues

to prevent ‘tells’ is a physical skill.”

Rachel: “The stamina required for poker is more mental than physical. As for remaining stone-faced, it may be a skill, but it is hardly an athletic skill.”

Rachel and Joey are arguing about what constitutes a “sport.” Theirs is a definitional dispute. Although not as common as policy and value disputes, people also disagree on definitions of terms and concepts. Definitional disputes are often part of a larger debate over value or policy. Such controversies center on how to define a concept (e.g., “Is a hot dog a sandwich?”), how best to categorize something (“waterboarding is a form of torture”), or how to classify an action or behavior (“I didn’t steal the car, officer, I borrowed it”). Some examples of definitional issues appear below.

• • What distinguishes an electric bicycle, or e-bike, from a motor scooter or a motorcycle?
• • What is the difference between a companion animal and a pet?
• • Is Beyonce a pop singer, rap/hip-hop artist, or R&B performer? Does it matter that nearly all of her Grammy wins are in the R&B category?
• • What is the difference between an assault weapon and a hunting rifle? Are gun-control advocates conflating “semi-assault weapons” with automatic weapons, such as machine guns?
• • What qualifies a film as a “documentary”? Movies that are “based on a true story” or “inspired by real events” aren’t necessarily documentaries.

Building a Definitional Case: More Than Semantic Quibbling

The Dictionary Dilemma

There are a variety of ways to construct a definitional argument. A standard dictionary definition is a good place to begin. Dictionary definitions are not without their limitations, however. Dictionary definitions are based on common usage (i.e., the definitions are gleaned from recurring real-world use of terms). Language evolves. It takes time for dictionaries to adapt. Consider the meaning of the word “gay.” In the traditional Christmas tune Deck the Halls, the phrase “Don we now our gay apparel,” or the lyrics to the Flintstones’ theme song, “We’ll have a gay old time,” the word “gay” had a different meaning than in modern-day parlance.

In addition to changes in meaning, it takes time for new words to find their way into a dictionary. The term “cisgender,” or sometimes just “cis,” to refer to straight people is an example. So are the terms “woke,” “gig economy,” and “microaggression.” Culture bias may be lurking in the definitions of terms such as “marriage” or “racism” (Caplan-Bricker, 2016; Hoyt, 2012). As McKean (2009) cautions, “despite all the thought and work that go into them, definitions, surprisingly, turn out to be ill-suited for many of the tasks they have been set to—including their ostensible purpose of telling you the meaning of a word” (p. 16).

Advancing a Definition: Bright Lines or Blurry Boundaries!’

Sometimes it is possible to draw a clear line between the meaning of two terms or concepts. Sometimes the dividing line is blurry. For example, imagine that two people are arguing about whether “human trafficking” is synonymous with “modern slavery” or distinct from “human smuggling”? What similarities do these terms share? What differences? Even experts disagree on the meaning of these terms (Crosset, 1997; Jansson, 2014; Siller, 2016; Weitzer, 2015). The way terms are defined shapes our perceptions of, and reactions to, them. With this in mind, we look at two stock issues for advancing a definition.

Identifying Definitional Criteria

The first stock issue for defining a term is to identify definitional criteria. Definitional criteria are the key questions or issues surrounding the term in question. For example, in formulating a definition of “human trafficking,” as distinct from “modern slavery” or “human smuggling,” one might employ the following criteria, which we highlight below.

• • Human trafficking involves recruiting and exploiting people illegally. That is, exploitation is the essence of the crime. According to Siller (2016) “trafficking criminalizes the process of acquiring a person for their exploitation” (p. 407).
• • Human smuggling, on the other hand, involves moving people across borders illegally. In this regard, Pierce (2014) emphasized that “smugglers always move migrants across national borders... In fact, the UNODC estimates that approximately one quarter of human trafficking victims are exploited within their country of origin” (para. 5).
• • In contrast, slavery refers to a person as being owned by, or the property of, another, whether the person is relocated or not. As Paz-Fuchs (2016) observes, “the core concept of slavery and the contemporary revulsion from it, is strongly associated with the idea than one individual can own another” (p. 764).
• • Human trafficking, in contrast to human smuggling, is involuntary, taking place without the victim’s consent. As Richmond (2015) notes, “often, individuals pay significant amounts to smugglers to help them cross a border because they desire to be transported into the country. In contrast, human trafficking by definition is always involuntary because it occurs by prohibited coercive means” (p. 21).
• • Finally, human trafficking involves some form of coercion, force, deception, or fraud. According to Hume and Sidun (2017), “both the UN and the U.S. definitions emphasize that traffickers use some means (e.g., force, fraud, coercion, abuse of a position of authority) to exploit individuals for commercial gain” (pp. 8—9).

These criteria—illegally exploiting people, against their will, but not necessarily transporting them, or owning them, while using force or coercion—form the basis of a reasonable definition of human trafficking.

Applying Definitional Criteria

The second stock issue for advocating a definition is to apply the definitional criteria. This involves incorporating the criteria you’ve identified into a workable definition. To illustrate, the United Nations’ definition of human trafficking, known as the Palermo Protocol (2000), happens to incorporate many of the same criteria we just identified. Specifically, it argues that trafficking in persons involves:

the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation, (article 3-a)

Some would take issue with this definition, arguing that human trafficking is a form of modern slavery (Leary, 2015). Nevertheless, the criteria provided above would establish a prima facie case for a definition of human trafficking.

Refuting a Definitional Argument

Suppose that you are not advancing a definition, but rather refuting an opponent’s definition. To do so, you have three basic options available. First, you can dispute your opponent’s definitional criteria. You might, for example, revise the criteria offered. Second, you can contend that the definition offered does not satisfy its own criteria. That is, the definition is inconsistent with one or more of the criteria presented. Third, you can offer an alternative definition altogether. To illustrate how this might work, let’s return to our earlier example involving Rachel and Joey: Does League of Legends, a popular multi-player fantasy game, meet the requirements for a “real” sport? Lagaert and Roose (2014) offer the following definition of a sport.

the normal English meaning of‘sport’ requires: (1) the application of some significant element of physical activity; (2) that such physical activity is itself an aim, or that it will have a direct effect on the outcome of the activity; and (3) that physical skill - of which mental skill may be a part, and which includes physical endurance — is important to the outcome. To our minds sport normally connotes a game with an athletic element rather than simply a game. (p. 485)

To counter Rachel’s position that League of Legends qualifies as a sport, Joey could show that it fails to meet at least one of these definitional criteria. For example, he could acknowledge that videogames require limited physical skills, but that pressing buttons with one’s thumbs does not constitute “a significant element of physical activity” as the definition requires.

Second, Joey could argue that unlike high jumping or gymnastics, in which the “physical activity is itself an aim,” operating the controller in an e-sport is only a means to an end. The end is manipulating a virtual character or object.

Third, Joey could also introduce an alternative definition. For example, ESPN shows some e-sports on their network, but ESPN’s president John Skipper said “It’s not a sport—it’s a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition” (cited by Tassi, 2014, para. 2).

Summary and Conclusion

In this chapter we examined arguer’s burdens, including the concepts of burden of proof, presumption, prima facie case, and burden of rebuttal. Argumentative burdens vary from field to field. In everyday arguments, the person making a claim has the burden of proof to support that claim. Arguers may attempt to shift the burden of proof unfairly, a fallacy known as appeal to ignorance. Invention is the process of discovering the available arguments and evidence to advance or refute a claim. There are stock issues for advancing different kinds of claims; policy, value or judgment, definition, and fact.

References

Adair, B. (2016, August 15). It’s time to fact-check all the news. Poynter.com. Retrieved on August 27, 2016 from: www.poynter.org/2016/its-time-to-fact-check-all-the-news/426261.

Caplan-Bricker, N. (2016, February 23). Should dictionaries do more to confront sexism? The New Yorker. Retrieved August 21, 2018 from: www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/should-dictionaries-do-more-to-confront-sexism.

Cooper, C.B. (2011). Media literacy is a key strategy toward improving public acceptance of climate change. BioScience, 61(3), 231—237, doi: 10.1525/bio.2011.61.3.8.

Crosset, N. (1997, July 27). What modern slavery is, and isn’t. New York Times, pp. 400-401. Accessed via Proquest, retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/430815996?accountid=9840.

Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division (2015, March 4). Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department. Retrieved August21,2018 from: www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/ attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf.

Edwards, R., McCarthy, J. & Gillies, V. (2012). The politics of concepts: Family and its (putative) replacements. British Journal of Sociology, 63(4), 730—746, doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2012.01434.x.

Ferdman, R. (2015, May 20). This is the future of meat. Washington Post. Retrieved on August 10, 2018 from: www. washingtonpost, com/news/wonk/ wp/2015/05/20/meet-the-future-of-meat-a-10-lab-grown-hamburger-that-tastes-as-good-as-the-real-thing/?utm_term=.585ff32c3fdc.

Funk, C. & Rainie, L. (2015, January 29). Public and scientists’ views on science and society. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. Retrieved on September 2, 2016 from: www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/29/ public-and-scientists-views-on-science-and-society.

Galimberti, K. (2016, January 25). 2015 shatters record for warmest year globally by largest margin yet. State College, PA: Accuweather.com. Retrieved on September 21, 2016 from: www.accuweather.com/en/ weather-news/2015-shatters-warmest-year-on-record-global-temperature-noaa-nasa/54892807.

Gentzler, J. (2003). What is a death with dignity? Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 28(4), 461-487, doi: 10.1076/jmep.28.4.461.15968.

Godden, D.M. & Walton, D. (2007). A theory of presumption for everyday argumentation. Pragmatics and Cognition, /5(2), 313-346, doi: 10.1075/pc.l5.2.06god.

Gonon, F., Konsman, J.-P., Cohen, D. & Boraud, T. (2012). Why most biomedical findings echoed by newspapers turn out to be false: The case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. PLOS One, 7(9),

1—11, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044275.

Harvard Business Review (2013). Women in the workplace: A research roundup. Harvard Business Review, 91(9), 86-89.

Hemingway, M. (2011, December 19). Lies, damned lies, and ‘fact-checking’. The Weekly Standard. Retrieved on August 18, 2016 from: www.weeklystandard.com/lies-damned-lies-and-fact-checking/ article/611854.

Hoyt, Jr., C. (2012). The pedagogy of the meaning of racism: Reconciling a discordant discourse. Social PPorfe, 57(3), 225—234, doi: org/10.1093/sw/sws009.

Hume, D.L. & Sidun, N.M. (2017). Human trafficking of women and girls: Characteristics, commonalities, and complexities. Women & Therapy, 40(1—2), 7-11, doi: 10.1080/02703149.2016.1205904.

International Labor Organization (ILO) (2012). ILO global estimate of forced labour: 20.9 million victims. Geneva: International Labor Organization. Retrieved January 3, 2015 from: www.ilo.org/global/ about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_182109/lang—en/index.htm.

Ipsos MORI (2014, September 19). Perceptions are not reality: Things the world gets wrong. London: Ipsos MORL Retrieved on September 19, 2016 from: www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/ researcharchive/3466/Perceptions-are-not-reality-10-things-the-world-gets-wrong.aspx.

James, J.T. (2013). A new, evidence-based estimate of patient harms associated with hospital care. Journal of Patient Safety, 9(3), 122-128, doi: 10.1097/PTS.0b013e3182948a69.

Jansson, D.B. (2014). Modern slavery: A comparative study of the definition of trafficking in persons. Boston, MA: Brill-Nijhoff.

Judicial Watch (2014, August 5). DOJ report: Nearly half of Fed crimes near border. Washington, DC: Judicial Watch. Retrieved on July 5, 2015 from: www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/08/doj-report-nearly-half-fed-crimes-near-mexican-border/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=080514.

Lagaert, S. & Roose, H. (2014). Exploring the adequacy and validity of “sport”: Reflections on a contested and open concept. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 5/(4), 485—498, doi.org/10.1177 %2F1012690214529295.

Leary, M.G. (2015). ‘Modern day slavery’—Implications of a label. St. Louis University Law Journal, 60, online. Retrieved on August 1, 2018 from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2705550.

Lewandowsky, S., Ecker, U.K.H., Seifert, C.M., Schwarz, N. & Cook, J. (2012). Misinformation and its correction: Continued influence and successful debiasing. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(3), 106-131, doi:10.1177/1529100612451018.

Mak, T. (2015, February 3). He’ll rot for pot: 55 years for weed. Daily Beast. Retrieved on August 9, 2018 from: www.thedailybeast.com/hell-rot-for-pot-55-years-for-weed?ref=scroll.

Mantzarlis, A. (2015, October 28). Fact-checking the fact-checkers. Poynter.com. Retrieved on August 27, 2016 from: www.poynter.org/2015/fact-checking-the-fact-checkers/381458.

Marietta, M., Barker, D.C. & Bowser, T. (2015). Fact-checking politics: Does the fact-check industry provide consistent guidance on disputed realities? Forum, 13(4), 577—596, doi: 10.1515/ for-2015-0040.

McKean, E. (2009, December 20). Redefining definition. New York Times Magazine, p. 16.

Megerian, C. (2015, October 6). Governor Jerry Brown approves new limits on paparazzi drones. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 21, 2018 from: www.latimes.com/local/political/la-pol-sac-brown-drones-paparazzi-20151006-story, html.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (2016). №4SA, NOAA analyses reveal recordshattering global warm temperatures in 2015. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved on September 23, 2016 from: www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-noaa-analyses-reveal-record-sha ttering-global-warm-tempera tures-in-2015.

Nisbet, E.C., Cooper, K.E. & Garrett, R.K. (2015). The partisan brain: How dissonant messages lead conservatives and liberals to (dis)trust science. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 658(1), 36—66, doi.org/10.1177/0002716214555474.

Nyhan, B. & Reifler, J. (2010). When corrections fail: The persistence of political misperceptions. Political Behavior, 32(2), 303-330, doi: 10.1007/sl 1109-010-9112-2.

Open Societies Foundation (2014). Presumption of guilt: The global overuse of pretrial detention. New York: Open Societies Foundation. Retrieved on January 13, 2015 from: www.opensocietyfoundations.org/ sites/default/files/ presumption-guilt-09032014.pdf.

Palermo Protocol (2000, November 15). A protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against transnational organized crime. New York: United Nations. Retrieved on August 1, 2018 from: https://treaties.un.org/pages/viewdetails.

aspx?src=ind&mtdsg_no=xviii-12-a&chapter=18&lang=en.

Paz-Fuchs, A. (2016). Badges of modern slavery. The Modern Law Review, 79(5), 757-785, doi: org/10.1111 /1468-2230.12214.

Peter, C. & Koch, T. (2016). When debunking myths fails: The backfire effect in the context of journalistic coverage and immediate judgments as prevention strategy. Science Communication, 38(1), 3—25, doi: 10.1177/1075547015613523.

Pew Research Center (2015, Februar)' 15). How scientist engage the public. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. Retrieved on September 21, 2016 from: www.pewinternet.org/2015/02/15/ how-scientists-engage-public.

Pierce, S. (2014, November 12). The vital difference between human trafficking and migrant smuggling. OpenDemocracy.net. Retrieved on August 1, 2018 from: www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/ sarah-pierce/vital-difference-between-human-trafficking-and-migrant-smuggling.

PLOS Medicine Editors (2013). Better reporting of scientific studies: Why it matters. PLOS Medicine, 10(8), 1 -3, doi.org/10.1371 /journal.pined. 1001504.

Reider, R. (2016, June 6). Fact-checkingpols in real-time. USA Today. Retrieved on August 27,2016 from: www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/rieder/2016/06/06/rieder-fact-checking-pols-real-time/85487498.

Rhinosave.org. (2013, March 8). Retrieved August 21, 2018 from: www.expressoshow.com/ articles/10-Realistic-Ways-To-Save-The-Rhino?articleID=4090.

Ricco, R.B. (2011). Individual differences in distinguishing licit from illicit ways of discharging the burden of proof. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(2), 616—631, doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.011.

Richmond, J.C. (2015). Human trafficking: Understanding the law and deconstructing myths. Saint Louis University Law Journal, 60(1), 1—42.

Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: Free Press.

Schottlender, M. (2016, January 26). 10 easy ways you can tell for yourselfthat Earth is not flat. Popular Science.

Retrieved on October 3,2016from: http://www.popsci.com/10-ways-you-can-prove-earth-is-round.

Siller, N. (2016). “Modern slavery”: Does international law distinguish between slavery, enslavement, and trafficking? Journal of International Criminal Justice, 14(2), 405—427, doi:10.1093/jicj/mqv075.

Sproule, J.M. (1976). The psychological burden of proof: On the evolutionär)’ development of Richard Whatley’s theory of presumption. Communication Monographs, 43(2), 115-129, doi: 10.1080/03637757609375922.

Tassi, P. (2014, September?). ESPN boss declares eSports ‘not a sport.’ Forbes. Retrieved August 21,2018 from: www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/09/07/espn-boss-declares-esports-not-a-sport/#5026fl9055a8.

van Eemeren, F.H. & Grootendorst, R. (2004). A systematic theory of argumentation: The pragma-dialectical approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Walton, D. (1988). Burden of proof. Argumentation, 2(2), 233—254, doi: 10.1007/BF00178024.

Weigel, DJ. (2008). The concept of family: An analysis of laypeople’s views of family. Journal of Family Issues, 29(11), 1426-1447, doi.org/10.1177%2F0192513X08318488.

Weitzer, R. (2015). Human trafficking and contemporary slavery'. Annual Review of Sociology, 41(f), 223—242, doklO.l 146/annurev-soc-073014-l 12506.

Whately, R. (1963). Elements of rhetoric (Rev. Ed.). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Press.

Williams, J.C. & Dempsey, R.W. (2014). What works for women at work: Four patterns working women need to know. New York: New York University Press.

Zaraska, M. (2016, May 2). Lab-grown meat is in your future, and it may be healthier than the real stuff. Washington Post. Retrieved on August 21, 2018 from: www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/lab-grown-meat-is-in-your-future-and-it-may-be-healthier-than-the-real-stuff/2016/05/02/ aa893f34-e630-11 e5-a6f3-21 ccdbc5f7 4e_story. html?utm_term=.9647d 5e0ebdc.