how to win a point

we need to learn how to discuss and win a point.

T is a topic,
our opponent makes a point P to defend T.

try to establish that P is not relevant for T.

* is P contradictory? if P is contradictory it cannot be relevant. P is contradictory when affirms what it denies. sometimes this is not obvious.

ex. "killing is wrong," but "killing is self defense is not wrong."
if killing is wrong, then killing in self defense is wrong, since killing in self-defense is an example of killing. 

finding contradictions is the best way to defeat your opponent and with a little training it can be done easily.   

* is P necessary? if it's not, you're already proving lack of relevance. we already talked about this.

* is P circular? P being circular means that P is redundant. for example, a text being "true" because it's "sacred." something being true "because one is sure of it".

* is P fallacious? there are many fallacies.   if one can establish that P is fallacious one has shown that P is irrelevant to T.