Establishing Claims: Thinking Like a Skeptic

Joyce Fletcher
May 14, 2013
GE217 -
Establishing Claims: Thinking Like a Skeptic
Questions for Analysis and Discussion 1. Putnam’s claim: As stated in paragraph 5, in today’s society, it’s not always necessary to stay married for the sake of the child. I agree with this statement in a sense, meaning that every situation is different. For example: two people may need to separate for the safety of the child or other spouse. People sometimes discuss divorce in an almost pious reverence because I believe that most people view marriage as a symbol of wholeness, or sacredness, and when you talk about divorce, we tend to picture half a person. 2. Ground 1: The paramount role of a parent is to love his or her child. In the end, the child is not deprived of a parent’s love, but one parent’s presence. 4. I agree that a parent will be a successful one even if he or she could not provide the best clothes or the latest gadgets. Those things don’t make the child. He states that with love being the driving force, the parent will most likely make the right decisions. I don’t disagree with the warrant at all. He states how it is better to be with one happy parent at a time, than with two miserable parents all the time. He mentions how he is grateful to be able to divide his time equally between both sides of the family, getting to know cousins/family members at every other holiday occasion. He talks about the fact that he has friends of divorced parents, and how he’s not alone in his trials and tribulations because together they have formed a support network, but doubt that any of them would need it due to the statistic that sixty percent of marriages end in divorce, which seems normal. Our culture has evolved to accommodate these new family arrangements, making overall conditions more hospitable. This is sufficient in this day and time. 6. He’s saying that in the midst of divorce, even when parents feel they are doing the absolute best for the child, sometimes the road to getting there is not always joyful. There may be some memories that are painful to think about. I don’t think this weakens his argument at all. There is no set way to be a parent or to endure a divorce. 7. Putnam acknowledges and addresses the rebuttal that divorce often-time leads to issues of abandonment and familial proximity among children of separated parents. Another rebuttal: there is no such thing as a perfect life or a normal life. Everything that we encounter in life has to be dealt with one issue at a time, one day at a time. The lives of children of divorced parents don’t have to be traumatic because we think they’re missing something from either side. Love, being the driving force, can help the child to adjust to being with one parent at a time.