counter argument
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COUNTERARGUMENT.pptCOUNTERARGUMENT
1.Write your thesis here.
The U.S. should send a manned mission to Mars.
2. What are the best arguments against your thesis that you can think of and/or that you have been able to find in your research?
A manned mission costs too much; money needed for other government programs, especially given the present state of the world economy.
Manned mission unnecessary; unmanned missions can accomplish research goals.
Manned mission puts lives in danger.
3. Write a counter thesis to your own that incorporates two or three of the points listed in your response to the last question.
Because it would be costly and scientifically unnecessary, the U.S. should not pursue a manned mission to Mars.
4. Develop the sentence you wrote in #3 into a paragraph by mentioning your own thesis and giving details explaining the main points of the counter thesis.
Two of the strongest arguments against my position for sending U.S. astronauts to the red planet concern cost and scientific need. Critics say that, especially in these economic hard times, funding NASA at the level required for such a mission would be irresponsible and even reckless (Morrison 58). Throwing money at Mars when it is needed for social and physical infrastructure such as education and power grids here on Earth may be politically unpopular if not impossible. Even more fundamental, perhaps, is the argument that a manned mission is scientifically unnecessary. Unmanned rovers have been able to take photographs, soil samples, and perform experiments by remote control and at a relatively low price (Mateo 96). Why, then, embark on such a useless and expensive endeavor?
5. Now, in the same or in another paragraph, write the refutation to the counter arguments.
While a superficial consideration of the money needed for a Mars mission
may seem to make it an unnecessary luxury, and the price tag is significant,
what the nay sayers fail to take into account is that this is money spent on
Earth, a direct stimulus to the U.S. economy. Similar to the Apollo mission
which gave us a whole new sector of technological workers
and medical technologies such as MRIs,
the Mars project will result in jobs and technological innovations
whose benefits will outlast the project itself. We must concede, however,
that the scientific necessity of a manned mission is dubious. But this
criticism misses the point; a manned mission will satisfy our need for
adventure.
