Further Explanation

Pick one concept from throughout the semester that you feel can use further discussion..

As I was reflecting on a particular concept from this semester that I thought needed further discussion, I initially could not think of any certain topic. For the most part, all of the material that was covered could be found in our books. And since most of the material was covered in either Epstein's Critical Thinking or O'Hair & Wiemann's The Essential Guide to Group Communication, it was easy to reference ideas and concepts that I was unclear about.

However, if I had to pin-point one concept that I felt needed further discussion, I would choose Criteria Reasoning. I found this type of reasoning to be the most difficult to understand. The concept of criteria reasoning is not too difficult to grasp, but being able to apply it to an argument seemed kind of tough. But even though I was confused about this subject, I referenced and used the Critical Thinking book to help me out, and it was not too bad.

Favorite/Least Favorite

When asked to identify my favorite and least favorite parts of class, the first aspect I reflected on were my favorite parts of class. Without a doubt, the best part of class was that it was online. I really enjoyed having an online class because it allowed me to do my work at my own pace. The work was assigned a week before it was due, so it was nice to complete the assignments whenever I wanted within the weeks time frame. Also, I liked the group projects that we did. It forced me to come out of my "shell" and allowed me to work with a team, which I enjoyed.

However, there were also aspects of the class that I did not particularly like. I did not enjoy having to comment on my classmates work. Because some of the other students were not very reliable in regards to them blogging. But at the same time, there was a handful of students that I could rely on to do their blogging. So although this aspect of class was not very convenient, it still was not that bad.

Course Reflection

Over the course of this semester I have learned a lot being apart of our Comm41 Critical Decision Making class. I learned a lot as a scholar and I also learned a lot as a person. I was forced to learn to manage my time appropriately and handle specific tasks without the help of anyone else. Since each weeks class work was given at the beginning of the week and due by the end of the week, I had to rely on time-management skills to make sure I completed the work.
Furthermore, I learned ways of reasoning to help resolve good arguments from bad arguments. What helps me when diagnosing an argument, is identifying certian components of the argument. For example, I like to figure out the purpose of the argument to start off. Once I figure out that part, then I decide which of the two sides makes the most sense. In order for an argument to make sense, the reasoning has to be relevant to the argument at hand.
Lastly, I learned how to come together with a group of people that I never met before, and work as a group together. As a result, this also caused me to gain leadership skills that I never even knew I had in me.

Criteria for cause and effect

A part of chapter 15 that I found useful that has not already been discussed is the Criteria for cause and effect. The concept of cause and effect is fairly simple, but we must keep in mind when something falls under the category of cause and effect.

Necessary criteria for cause and effect:

• The cause happened (the claim describing it is true).
• The effect happened (the claim describing it is true).
• The cause precedes, or comes before, the effect
• It is (nearly) impossible for the cause to happen (be true) and the effect not to happen (be false), given the normal conditions.
• The cause makes a difference - if the cause had not happened (been true), the effect would not have happened (been true).
  
• There is no common cause.

Cause and effect has always been an interesting topic of studying for me. I like it a lot because cause and effect happens everyday. It is fun because once you recognize the effect of something you can usually tell pretty easily what the cause was.

Mission Critical Website

The point of the Mission Critical Website is to help out Critical Thinking students and give us a tool to learn about pretty much everything that goes along with critical thinking. The best part about the website is that you can read and go through all of the material at your own pace. This is particularly helpful for me because I like to take me time when reading through material. The section of the website that I spent most of my time on was definitely the Vagueness and Ambiguity section. I have always been a little unclear on this section of critical thinking so this part of the website was very beneficial for me.

Mission: Critical (Vagueness and Ambiguity): For starters, the definitions helped me better understand this section...

• A word or phrase is said to be ambiguous if it has at least two specific meanings that make sense in context.
• A word or phrase is said to be vague if its meaning is not clear in context.

The difference, then, is a clear one: If a person does not know what is meant by a phrase, then that phrase is vague to him. If a person does not know which of two or more specific meanings is intended, then it is ambiguous to him.
If i just remember these simple tools, then I can remember when to use ambiguous and when to use vague.

Cause and Effect Website

What was useful about the Cause and Effect Website?

I know we are suppose to talk about how this website was useful, however, I did not find it very helpful. I thought the website consisted of a lot of run-on sentences that were tough to comprehend. On the other hand, the example that they used to illustrate inductive reasoning and arguing causation was easy to picture. The ideas behind it all were very easy to understand however the actual content of the website was tough to understand.

Since it was tough for me to grasp the concept of the website, I read over it multiple times. It took me three times reading the entire section to finally understand it.. On a lighter note, I really enjoyed to exercises that went along with the website. I answered a few questions wrong, but it was nice because it told me why my answers were wrong. That helped me further understand the material. So even though I did not like the website very much, I still gained some knowledge out of it.

Chapter 12 - Reasoning by Analogy

Reasoning by analogy is the main topic of Chapter 12, by Richard Epstein in Critical Thinking. A comparison becomes reasoning by analogy when it is part of an argument. On one side of the comparison we draw a conclusion, so on the other side we should conclude the same. To best illustrate this concept, I will use an example...

- Women can vote. Women can run for presidency. Therefore, women should be able to attain high powers in a Church.

Reasoning by analogy starts with a comparison, but not every comparison is an argument. To add on to this topic, there are seven ways to evaluate an analogy, which you will ask yourself these seven questions...

1. Is this an argument? What is the conclusion?
2. What is the comparison?
3. What are the premises? (one or both sides of the comparison)
4. What are the similarities?
5. Can we state the similarities as premises and find a general principle that covers the two sides?
6. Does the general principle really apply to both sides? Do the differences matter?
7. is the argument strong or valid? is it good?