Answer the version of an argument in which your easiest objection is unavailable, since dodging into a convenient world leaves the argument untouched.
The move being blocked is escaping a dilemma by disputing its setup. Told that a machine could prove your beliefs false, the convenient response is that no such machine exists. Alexander's rule is to grant the setup and answer what remains, because the objection about the machine was never the reason you disagreed.
In practice
- A risk scenario dismissed as unrealistic has been dismissed on the one feature that was not the point.
- A trainee who answers every case study by querying the premise has learned to avoid the exercise.
- Standing
- The complement to the principle of charity: charity strengthens the opponent's case, this strengthens the hypothetical it rests on.
- Subject
- Decision-making & Reasoning
- Essay
- Razors, rules and the tools of careful thought