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Now the third common move in arguments to 
protect premises and, and avoid the 

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skeptical regress is discounting. 
Discounting is basically citing a 

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possible objection that you think other 
people might be thinking of in order to 

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head it off by providing a quick and 
dirty response to it right then and 

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there. 
For example, you might be talking to 

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someone and say, well, you know, I'm 
thinking of buying that ring, and it's 

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really beautiful. 
And your thinking, well they're going to 

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object that the ring is very expensive, 
too. 

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So you say, well, the ring is expensive, 
but it's beautiful. 

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So what you're doing is citing the 
objection. 

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It's kind of odd if you think about it. 
If you want to buy the ring why are you 

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saying that it's expensive. 
And the reason is that you have already 

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cited that objection which makes it less 
likely that a person on the other side 

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who doesn't want you to buy the ring is 
going to say it. 

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Because you've said I know that but it's 
more important to me that the ring is 

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beautiful. 
So I want to buy it. 

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So when you say the ring is expensive but 
it's beautiful you're saying that it's 

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expensive. 
That's the first thing. 

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You're saying that it's beautiful. 
That's the second thing. 

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You're saying, with the word but, that 
there's a contrast between the two. 

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And you're indicating that the fact that 
it's beautiful is more important than the 

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fact that it's expensive. 
You're saying all of that simply by 

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saying that the ring is expensive but it 
is beautiful. 

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So first, to say that the ring is 
expensive but is beautiful is to say two 

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things. 
It's like saying the ring is expensive 

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and it's beautiful. 
But in other ways it's very different 

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from and. 
Because if you say the ring is expensive 

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and it's beautiful you can switch them 
around. 

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It's beautiful and it's expensive. 
It's expensive and it's beautiful. 

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It's beautiful and it's expensive. 
You can say it either way. 

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If you say, it's expensive but it's 
beautiful that's very different from 

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saying it's beautiful but it's expensive. 
Think about it. 

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If you were trying to argue for buying 
the ring, which would you say? 

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Well, I would say, it's expensive but 
it's beautiful. 

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And if I'm trying to argue against buying 
the ring, I would say, it's beautiful but 

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it's expensive. 
Because the word but indicates that the 

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sentence after it is in some way more 
important than the other clause. 

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You're discounting the other objection 
and citing after the but clause the 

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reason for the belief or action that you 
favor. 

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Thus, and, and but are very different. 
The sentences on either side of and are 

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reversible. 
And the sentences on either side of but 

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are not reversible. 
And there are other words that are 

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discounting phrases like but that work 
the same way but fall in a different 

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place. 
Consider the word although. 

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You can say although the ring is 
expensive, it's beautiful. 

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And that sounds like the ring is 
expensive but it's beautiful. 

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So those are the sentences that someone 
would use if they're arguing for buying 

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the ring. 
Because they want to emphasize that the 

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ring is beautiful. 
The difference is that the word but 

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occurs right before the clause that's 
getting emphasized where as the word 

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although occurs before the clause that's 
de emphasized and it's the other clause 

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besides what the speaker takes to be more 
important. 

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So but and although are each discounting 
words but the but occurs before the 

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emphasized clause and although occurs 
before the de-emphasized clause. 

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What is common to these words like but 
and although is that they do three 

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things. 
They assert two claims. 

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They contrast those two claims, and they 
indicate that one of those claims is more 

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important than the other. 
And there are lots of words that perform 

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these functions. 
It's not just but and although. 

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You have even if, even though, whereas, 
nevertheless, nonetheless, still. 

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And, as with other words that we've been 
studying, like argument markers for 

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example. 
Some of these words get used in other 

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ways. 
So, the word still isn't always a 

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discounting term. 
You say he's sitting still. 

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You're not discounting an objection. 
It's when you use the word still at the 

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beginning of the sentence. 
Still, 

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the diamond is beautiful or something 
like that. 

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Then the word still getting used in 
discounting word. 

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And like with other words that we've 
studied if you want to know in a 

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particular case whether the word still is 
being used as a discounting word. 

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You ask whether you can substitute a 
different discounting word. 

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And the sentence will function in 
basically the same way and mean basically 

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the same thing. 
And if it does then is being used as a 

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discounting word and if it's not. 
Then, it's not being used as a 

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discounting word. 
So we can use the substitution method to 

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test for what the function of the word 
is. 

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So why do people use discounting words 
like these. 

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They use them in order to head off 
objections. 

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Because, if you state the objection 
first, then your opponent seems a little 

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silly to be saying it again. 
You just responded to that. 

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And so you can defend your premises, or 
protect your premises. 

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And avoid the skeptical regress by 
discounting the kinds of objections that 

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people would raise that might seem to 
call for further argument. 

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And that's a perfectly legitimate use. 
Sometimes you want to do that. 

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You don't want to let your opponent raise 
an objection. 

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Because that might be misleading and get 
you off on a tangent. 

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And it's a perfectly effective and useful 
legitimate move in an argument. 

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But you also have to watch out. 
Because there's some tricks associated 

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with discounting terms. 
In particular I want to talk about the 

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trick of discounting straw people. 
Well one effective move and argument if 

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you're just trying to persuade people is 
to make them not see the problems with 

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your position. 
And one way to do that is to say I've got 

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five objections I'm going to respond to 
you know. 

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You might say this but you might say 
that. 

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However you might say this whereas. 
You might say that still you might say 

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that although. 
Right and you discount all of those five 

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objections. 
And yet what you do is you get to pick 

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the objections, 
right? 

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So you can pick the easiest objections, 
not the hardest objections. 

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And then you've got the whole discussion 
focusing on the easiest objections and as 

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people are trying to keep all five of 
those in their mind straight, they forget 

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about the other objections which might 
not be even stronger. 

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So you discount these straw people. 
Straw meaning easy to knock over, easy to 

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destroy, and make people forget about the 
objections that are harder to destroy 

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that are going to cause more serious 
problems for your theory. 

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So if you don't really want to know 
whether your theory is right or wrong, 

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your just trying to persuade people, that 
can be an effective move. 

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And if you don't want to be persuaded by 
people who are trying to trick you like 

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that, then you have to watch out for 
other people discounting strawmen and not 

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facing the really more difficult 
objections to their views. 

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And, here's is an even trickier trick. 
You can combine this trick of discounting 

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straw people with other tricks that we 
saw for other words. 

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So, suppose somebody says, well you know 
the president is all in favor of some 

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kind of public health service. 
But a public health service is not going 

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to solve all the medical problems of our 
people so, I think the president is off 

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on the wrong track. 
Well, notice what has happened here is 

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you've discounted the objection that the 
public health service is going to solve 

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all of the medical problems from our 
people. 

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Who ever thought that a public health 
service would solve all of the medical 

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problems of the people? 
So you are discounting a straw man by 

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using an unguarded term all. 
You put the unguarded term in the mouth 

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of the objector, by not guarding it you 
make their view more susceptible to 

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refutation, and make it easier for you to 
respond to that objection. 

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Whereas the objector really would never 
have used the unguarded term but would've 

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used a guarding term like most, or many 
of the health problems of our people. 

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So by using discounting terms along with 
guarding terms, and also assuring terms. 

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You can make moves in argument that will 
point people towards issues that are 

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framed in the way you want them to be 
framed. 

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Instead of the way that they want them to 
be framed. 

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That's the trick that you have to learn 
to watch out for. 

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So here's a simple rule of thumb. 
When you think someone is trying to use 

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discounting terms to lead you to look at 
the easiest objections instead of the 

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most difficult objections then you can 
think about just forgetting the ones that 

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this person mentions. 
And ask what did they leave off the list. 

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And as a rule of thumb that's is usually 
a good idea but it's not always going to 

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work. 
You're going to have to use your 

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judgement. 
Still, try it. 

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Maybe it'll work in some of the cases 
where you want to stop other people from 

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tricking you. 
Now, you should have a pretty good grasp 

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on assuring, guarding and discounting, 
three common moves in argument, that are 

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aimed at stopping the skeptical regress, 
and building common assumptions with the 

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people you are talking to. 
Let's do a few exercises in order to 

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contrast these three and make sure you 
understand them.