Rational Discussion

The Principle of Rational Discussion as stated by Epstein says that"sometimes it seems the other person doesn't understand what's involved in rational discussion or is intending to mislead. And sometimes there's not even an argument." What Epstein means by that is sometimes when a person comes into an argument or presents one other with an argument, they may not always know enough information about the topic or is intending to give false information. There are four main ways to tell if the person is violating the principle of rational discussion; they are begging the question, using strawman, shifting the burden of truth, and/or using relevance. The most common method being used in the violation of rational discussion that I have noticed is either strawman or shifting the burden of truth. People who sometimes argue about football or any kind of sports mostly use shifting the burden of truth. People find it easier to let someone else tell them why it the argument is true or false because they either cannot think of a truth or false statement about the argument or they're just too lazy to find one.

Example- My friend came up to me and told me that Italy's national soccer team was going to be horrible this year when they come to play for the world cup. I asked him why they would and he just kept saying that they had sucked last year(even though they won) and they were gonna suck this year. He also kept saying that they had no real hood players. So when I had asked him about it again, he told me to come up with why they were gonna do good this year.