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Finally, we arrive at the fifth common topic of testimony. Practicing testimony is hugely important because we need to train our children to recognize when a testimony, authority, or source is credible or not. For example, is a given historical document trustworthy or should we take what it says with a grain of salt?

CATEGORIES

Testimony can be divided into six classes — authority, testimonial, statistics, maxims, laws, and precedents.

Authority – An expert in a subject
Testimonial – Given by someone who witnessed an event firsthand
Statistics – Quantitative data supporting an argument
Maxims – Common knowledge
Laws – A type of testimony encoded in writing and said to be binding
Precedences – Evidence through past examples

EXAMPLE QUESTIONS

Use the following questions as a guideline for practicing testimony to better understand a subject:

What type of testimony does this argument rely on?
Should ___ be considered an authority or expert?
What are this authority’s biases? Do they invalidate his/her testimony?
How recent are these statistics? How were they gathered and by whom?

Read more about the 5 Common Topics at https://classicalconversations.com/blog/five-common-topics-of-dialectic