
Refutation of Argumentation Ethics
[Full Text]
—Refutation of Argumentation Ethics—
NAP Argumentation Ethics works like this:
Argumentation requires certain norms to work, including self-ownership and non-aggression. If you attack your interlocutor (arguer), argumentation breaks down.
What this means, is that arguing for anything that conflicts with the Non-Aggression Principle, is a performative contradiction as you are contradicting the very norms you presuppose by arguing in the first place.
This argument is demonstrably wrong, and for a simple reason. The norms presupposed by engaging in argumentation are not the same norms being argued against when someone usually argues for something that contradicts the NAP; like taxes, regulations, or the existence of any limitations on property rights.
This is because the argumentation process only presupposes procedural norms, one of which being non-aggression. Arguing for aggression in some other context thus cannot contradict your usage of a similar norm in the context of argumentation.
Below is a more explicit explanation as to why.
—Step-by-Step Explanation—
--Basic Truths--
Argumentation is a process that is used to discover and refine arguments.
Argumentation presupposes procedural norms, one of which being non-aggression.
The arguments discovered and refined during argumentation stand by themselves if they have true premises.
By engaging in Argumentation, you presuppose the procedural norm of non-aggression.
This presupposition is only in the sense that if non-aggression is violated in the process, the process fails to fulfill it's purpose correctly. This is simply because aggression during the process of Argumentation results in people conceding when they shouldn't.
--Reasoning--
The only time a performative contradiction arises is if one engages in full argumentation to argue against the procedural norms of argumentation itself.
Thus, since what is presupposed is strictly procedural, then during argumentation, you can argue against 'non-aggression' as a principle all you want as long as you do not argue against non-aggression as a procedural norm of Argumentation itself.
--Conclusion
So, NAP Argumentation Ethics fails due to there being a difference between arguing against certain procedural norms, and arguing against norms for use in a different context.
—Further Reasoning—
The claim that "By arguing you presuppose the NAP therefore arguing against the NAP is a performative contradiction" is wrong because of a category error.
Presupposing the NAP as a procedural norm of the process of argumentation simply has nothing to do with what other contexts you think the NAP may or may not apply to.
Arguing the NAP is wrong in the context of government, for example, to argue for taxes or to argue for measures to enforce fair treatment, cannot be called a performative contradiction because you can do that while also accepting that true argumentation requires non-aggression.

