Dec 19 2008
Toddler Argumentation, Chapter 2
The second chapter of The Rhetoric of the Two Year Old will have to deal with two primary non-tantrum forms of argumentation: tautology and repetition. First, tautology. The two year old appears to understand the form of the enthymeme, because if you ask for a good reason to support a particular claim, the two year old will provide a reason. That the reason is the same as the claim does not seem to bother them. For example, from this morning, when dropping babygirl off at daycare:
babygirl: I want to go downstairs.
topspun: Why do you want to go downstairs?
babygirl: Because I want to.
topspun: You’re the Master of Tautology. I’m going to call you Princess Tautology.
babygirl: No! I’m not Princess Tautology!
topspun: Why are you not Princess Tautology?
babygirl: Because I’m not.
topspun: So, you’re not Princess Tautology?
babygirl: No, I am.
See, she had to throw a little contradiction in there just to mess with me, which is, I suppose, a perfectly legitimate tactic when somebody is calling you “Princess Tautology.” The second strategy is more brute force: sheer repetition of an entire claim or a keyword from the claim. The tenacity of this repetition is really the key to the argument. I think that once you hit maybe seven years old, you can’t deploy this sort of repetition strategy without significant cognitive costs, but at two, it is not only possible, but effective.
For a great illustration of both these strategies at work, see our friends’ video, here.
And here I was thinking our kids greatest strategy was just using the sheer volume of their voices to overpower us into submission.
It’s true though, logic takes on a whole new meaning at this age.
S