Counterargument

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In reasoning and argument mapping, a counterargument, also known as a rebuttal is an objection to an objection. A counterargument can be used to rebutt an objection to a premise, a main contention or a lemma.

A counterargument might seek to cast doubt on the truth of one or more of the first argument's premises, or to show that the first argument's contention does not follow from its premises in a valid manner, or the counterargument might pay little attention to the premises and inference structure of the first argument and simply attempt to demonstrate the truth of a conclusion incompatible with that of the first argument.

To speak of counterarguments is not to assume that there are only two sides to a given issue. On the contrary, for a given argument, there is often a large number of counterarguments, some of which are not compatible with each other. For example, a biologist might make an (admittedly grand and complicated) argument for a certain formulation of the theory of evolution; her argument would refer to various bodies of data, assumptions, and inferences. In the normal course of scientific discourse, this biologist would expect to have her argument challenged by others within her own field who offered counterarguments. Some counterarguments would take issue with small inferences within the larger argumentative structure, while others would go after the big conclusions with data and inferences of their own. Importantly, these counterarguments could come from scientists in several opposing, mutually incompatible theoretical camps. And beyond the realm of normal scientific discourse, the argument might be challenged by those who adhere to creationism; these opponents would offer quite different counterarguments that would often be incompatible with those offered by scientists who merely espoused a different formulation of evolutionary theory. Thus, many "sides" of the issue would be represented in the discourse occasioned by the first biologist's offering of her theory, and each side could offer a number of counterarguments of greater or lesser scope.

See also:

• rebuttal, for the legal concept
• inference objection