A post disputation argument is an argument in which one party attempts to alter their view on the disputed facts after the answer has already been discovered by an outside medium. It is an example of a fallacy.
Example:
- Party one claims A is true.
- Party two claims B is true and A is false.
- Party one claims B is false.
- Party one and party two look in reliable source for the truth.
- According to the source party one is correct because A is true.
- Party two claims that they are correct and then restates their claim into argument B'.
Party two has changed their view after the truth was discovered and by changing their argument appears to have been right since the beginning. This is a post disputation argument. A post disputation argument is considered manipulative in the sense that often it is not used to clarify a party's initial stance but to change it so they appear correct after the truth has been discovered.
Famous quotes containing the words post, disputation and/or argument:
“I can forgive even that wrong of wrongs,
Those undreamt accidents that have made me
Seeing that Fame has perished this long while,
Being but a part of ancient ceremony
Notorious, till all my priceless things
Are but a post the passing dogs defile.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“There is no call for indignation or resentment at anyone whatsoever inquiring, holding,
or propounding views concerning the divine, for it is not the authority of the disputant, but
the truth of the disputation that is in the request.”
—Marcus Minucius Felix (2nd or 3rd cen. A.D.)
“The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one’s opinion, but rather to know it.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)