CRN 11829 Sat. 8:00-10:50 am, Business 326
CRN 13966 T/Th 9:00-10:20 am, LARTS 304.
 INSTRUCTOR : Owen M. Williamson, MA  

Antagonistic=Hostile=Oppositional=Polemic="win/lose"

The goals of antagonistic argumentation are usually:

• promoting, increasing, and taking advantage of disunity among opponents and their allies,
• seeking verbal and material dominance, pushing opponents out of the way;
• bringing about psychological, verbal and physical confusion and demobilization of opponent forces;
• causing the disruption, neutralization and ultimate elimination and disbanding of opponent forces;
• creating favorable conditions for ultimate total material victory of rhetor and allies.
• Antagonism may start out as rhetorical but often ends up very material: In antagonistic argumentation, the rhetor tries to accuse, discredit, indict, convict, defeat, eliminate or sometimes even kill the opponent.

  Antagonistic rhetoric is like a firearm: Never point it at someone unless you intend to destroy her or him.

  Antagonism ultimately destroys.

Non-antagonistic=Cooperative="win/win"

The goals of non-antagonistic argumentation are usually:

• seeking unity;
• practicing respect and mutual support;
• understanding, consciousness-raising and compassion;
• seeking peace and reconciliation,
• democracy;
• free and open discussion; and
• finding ways of working together toward the common goal.
• Non-antagonistic differences are sometimes material, but are always most appropriately settled by discursive (rhetorical) means:

Cooperation builds.