18. “Heads
I Win, Tails You Lose,” and “Transcendence,” from Attitudes Toward History, 260-263, 336-338.
Heads
I Win, Tails You Lose
This is, Burke writes, “A
device whereby, if things turn out one way, your system accounts for them—and
if they turn out the opposite way, your system also accounts for them” (260).
Is it a way of discrediting an argument? Or is there any other possible way of
thinking? Burke says that at first he thought so, but over time he thinks we
can’t get around it. Instead, we should ask the thinker to cooperate with us in
tracking down his or her particular variant of the strategy. Our cards should
be face up on the table.
When
we choose to believe certain things, we act in faith—we “vote” for something and go with it.
In
addition to the heads I win, tails you lose argument, there’s the Master Metaphor, there are key terms, or god-terms, the terms which a speaker or writer values above all else. Our choice of terms makes implicit observations, and we must
keep the same metaphor if we will be consistent with ourselves.
Transcendence
While
A and B may be opposites approached from a certain point of view, the act of transcendence
sees both A and B where they cease to be opposed to one another.
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