2. Restate (your own) claim.
Sometimes, it takes multiple tries to make oneself understood; the fact that others do not
immediately get what you are trying to say doesn’t mean you should give up. And sometimes,
restating your own claim helps you to understand exactly what it was that you meant.
3. Reconstruct an argument.
This option is the more complex cousin of (1). When faced with a difficult or complex argument,
try to reformulate it in your own words. Re-presenting an argument in Premise-Conclusion
Form can be especially helpful. For especially complex arguments, drawing a diagram is
sometimes a good way to move forward as well. Sometimes an argument reconstruction can
be the work of a single comment; often, though, argument reconstruction is a more drawn-out
exercise that requires collaboration.
4. Offer a new reason to accept someone else’s claim.
There may be more than one reason to accept some claim, including ones that the author of
the claim may not have thought of. Bringing an additional supporting reason to light is almost
always a very valuable move.
5. Offer an objection.
Objections play a very important role in philosophical conversation. They provide opportunities
for clarifying and revising claims. One way of offering an objection is to give a case for which
the author’s/other participant’s claim seems to yield a problematic verdict. Another is to
highlight a logical error in the argument for a claim. When lodging an objection, it is important
to be charitable. Try to be sure the objection is to the actual claim at issue, not to some less
plausible cousin of that claim.
6. Offer a response to an objection.
Anyone can make this move, not just the person who made the objected-to claim in the first
place. In fact, it can be especially useful to follow up an objection you are making with a possible
response to that objection.
7. Recap the dialectic.
It is not always easy to track where one *is* in a philosophical conversation. Attempts to
summarize the state of play in a philosophical conversation can be helpful. What question are
we focusing on? How do the most recent contributions relate to each other? One thing to
highlight when recapping is the respects in which recently made claims are similar or different.
Are people agreeing, and if so, about what? But you might also highlight more complex relation
between different claims, and also highlight moves that didn’t involve making new claims. To
aid in recapping, you may wish to jot down notes about who is saying what.
8. Invite contributions from others.
An often overlooked but important way of moving a philosophical inquiry forward. You can vary
the scope of your invitation. Would it be most useful to get an illustrative example from
someone? Or to hear what objections they have to your claim? Or to learn what question they
most want to discuss next?
9. Direct attention to relevant textual resources.
Pointing to text passages relevant to the question at hand can help to focus discussion.
