Locating a Disagreement

Locating a disagreement means putting both sides into standard form, marking each premise factual or moral, and finding the first line where the sides part.

The city debates a school phone ban. Side one: phones cut attention; schools should protect attention; so ban them. Side two: phones cut attention; bans teach compliance instead of judgment; schools should build judgment; so no ban. Mark every line. Both sides hold the same factual premise — phones cut attention. They part at the moral line: protect attention first, or build judgment first. That line is the disagreement. More studies about attention will not close it; argument about what schools are for might.