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?

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 seems kind of tough. During criteria reasoning, you need to start by defining the criteria by which the outcome of a decision will be judged, and then identify the best decision. First, you need to establish the criteria to be valid.. Now I will use a similar example to the one offered online...

- Imagine you were helping you Dad pick out an outfit for your Mom.. " Dad, I know Mom's loves animals, so how about this zebra printed dress?"

So this would be a type of criteria reasoning. When I helped my dad pick out an outfit for my mom, I kept in mind what kind of dress she would like. I did not flat out tell my dad which dress she would like, but I gave him evidence for why she would like the zebra-dress.

Reasoning by Example

Exemplar reasoning is the use of examples in an argument. The example you use to explain your reasoning in an argument may be told as a story or may be a short comparator. You can use an example that is a duplicate of a particular situation or you can use a metaphor. Furthermore, it may be of a known person or situation, or it can be something not directly known to the other person. Now, I will present a few examples of Reasoning by Example.

- It is not good to copy on a test. I have a friend who got caught for cheating on a midterm and he was expelled from school!

- You know, you really should not eat fast food. There was a documentary called, "Supersize Me" and it showed a man that ate strictly fast food for a month and he became extremely sick and out of shape.

After reading about exemplar reasoning I noticed a few things. I noticed that this style of reasoning works better when a person with credibility is using it. Because imagine a bum off the street tried reasoning with you by using his own personal examples. More than likely, you would not trust him and therefore not listen to him. But on the other hand if you heard exemplar reasoning from a lawyer, then you would probably listen more carefully.

Appealing to Pity

An appeal to pity is an attempt to make a person feel bad, and in turn persuade them to think what you think. This is another way of manipulating a person. For example... When I was in 4th grade I had a teacher who was an absolute push over. Kids in my class would never do homework assignments and they would make it so the teacher did not punish them. They would never do assignments so I thought I did not have to either. Everyday when I got home from school I would tell my mom I did not have homework; then finally one day she found out I did always have homework but my teacher was a push over still was going to pass me anyways. She went on to tell me, "Son, even thought other kids don't do their homework, doesn't mean that you do not have to. Just do your homework for the sake of your teacher, just to make her happy for a change."
This is considered an appeal to pity because my mother convinced me to do my homework just because I felt bad for my teacher. So as you can see, appealing to pity can also be a good tool for manipulating people.

Appeal to Patriotism

If you were to appeal to patriotism you would try and persuade something to someone by referring to their loyalty to their country. Here is an example of this...
Jack - "Hey, you need to vote in order approve prop 14. All good Americans vote, so if you do not vote, then you are not a true American."
Jill - " Oh my gosh. You are right, Jack. Of course I am a true American so I will definitely vote on prop 14."
Here, Jack manipulated Jill in to voting on prop 14 by questioning her faith to America. This is a useful appeal only if your are using it on a person with a lot of American pride. Because if you appealed to patriotism on somebody who is not from America or does not care if he or she is considered to be a true American, then this would not work. When you appeal to certain people, you need to keep in mind what ideas will work on those specific people.

Appeal to Emotion... Appealing to fear

An appeal to emotion in an argument is just a premise that pretty much says, you should believe or do something because you feel a certain way. There are three different types of appeals... Appeal to fear, appeal to spite, and appeal to vanity. Out of the three different types the one that sticks out to me is the appeal to fear and that is the topic I will be discussing today.
Appealing to fear is a way politicians and advertisers manipulate people. If you were to appeal to someone's fear, you would include premises in an argument that would put fear in to a person, in order for them to believe or do something you want them to do. In a way, this is kind of a type of bullying. I think when you purposely attempt to strike fear in to somebody, then that is a bit cruel. Here is an example of appealing to fear...
If you were in jail and a guy says to you, " Hey you need a body guard in here so you should pay me to be your bodyguard. If you don't, then I won't help you when all of the gangsters beat you up." This can be considered appealing to fear because the guy manipulated you in to paying him to be your bodyguard because he made you scared by saying you would get beat up.

Between One and All

There are a lot of quantities between one and all. Furthermore, when talking about generalities for this topic there is either precise generalities or vague generalities. Precise generalities are statements that involve percentages and/or facts. Vague generalities are statements that are summarized mainly by using all, some, most, many, few and very few. Another way to explain vague statements is when a particular person talks about all or a part of a collection without specifying a precise number.
Despite the ambiguity of the words "all" and "some," we can still analyze whether arguments using those are valid or not. We do this with the direct way of reasoning with almost all. For example... Almost all S are P; a is S so a is P. Or, arguing backwards with almost all. For example... Almost all T are Q; a is T so a is Q.
To be honest, this topic is still a little confusing for me. However when I keep these few key points in mind then it helps me out a lot.

Usefulness of Major Course Assignments

In both of the major course assignments I worked with people I never met before and I had to communicate in more ways than just face to face contact. This was a little different for me because normally I am a people person and I like to work in group atmospheres. However, these times around I was anxious and did not know what to expect with my group partners. The projects forced me to cooperate with people I had never met before and produce quality work, even though we were limited with a few meetings. Furthermore, it taught me to be a good team member. Because in order for our group to come up with a quality paper, it required everyone to do their part. Lastly, it made me improve my communication skills. Because in order for our group to even be able to meet, it took communication skills to figure out a convenient time and place for everyone. This was tough because we had to do it all through email and text message. Luckily, I had a great team to work with which made it all an even better experience.

General Claims and their Contradictories

For me, this chapter was particularly hard to understand. The boxes on pages 160-161 were very useful for me. In those boxes, it explains the meanings of the indicator words: All, Some, No, and Only. Whenever I was confused on a portion of Chapter 8, I looked back to these boxes as a reference. The main thing I got out of Chapter 8 was the ability to really dissect a claim.
For example, the other week my sister and I got in to an argument. She argued that some baseball players are tall and some are short, and that all baseball teams have both tall and short players. I knew that this was not a valid argument but I had no way of proving it. However, with the tools I learned in Chapter 8, now I know for a fact that her argument was not valid. Because even though baseball is filled with tall and short players, that does not mean every team has both.

Compound Claim

A topic that I found interesting just happened to be on the first page of Chapter 6 in Epstein's Critical Thinking. Compound claim's are used more times than you may think. Simply put, a compound claim is a claim that is composed of other claims, which has to be viewed as just one claim. A common word that connects multiple claims in a compound claim is "or."

When thinking about this topic, I find that it is easiest to understand when you use an example. So here is mine... "I will clean the dishes or I will have some one else clean them." Here in this sentence, two separate claims are made in to one. Did I promise to clean the dishes? No. Did I promise to have some one else clean the dishes? No. Although it may sound like I did make two promises, I actually just made one; which is that I will do one or the other. So even though it sounds like two claims, they are both considered to be covered under the same claim, which is called a compound claim.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 of Critical Thinking is based on Counterarguments. This come is to play when you are debating. This chapter talks also about raising objections, refuting an argument (both directly and indirectly), and attempts to refute an argument that are bad arguments. To me, the sections on refuting arguments were most interesting. So, now I will talk about the difference between refuting directly and indirectly.

Refuting Directly: There are three fundamental ways to directly refute an argument.. You just need to point out reasons why a particular argument is no good.
1. Show that at least one of the premises is dubious.
2. Show that the argument is not valid or strong.
3. Show that the conclusion is false.

Refuting Indirectly: Sometimes you can't exactly point out a specific reason why an argument is no good, even if you do know that there is something wrong with the premises. When this occurs, you should Reduce to the Absurd. Meaning that you should show at least show that one or more claims is false, or that collectively they are unacceptable. You can do this by drawing a false conclusion from them. Because if an argument has a false conclusion, then at least one of the premises is false.

False Dilemma/ Contrapositive

A false dilemma is a bad use of excluding possibilities where the "or" claim is false or implausible. Here would be an example of the use of false dilemma...

Jack- "Man, I sure do love eating brownies."
Jill- "You are going to eat all of our brownies! Either make more brownies or eat cookies instead."
Jack- " Umm.. I guess I will make more brownies."
Jill- " Perfect."

Here, Jill is not imagining other possibilities. Jack could have also bought more brownies. In order to avoid false dilemma, you should imagine other possibilities.

Contrapositive The contrapositive of If A, then B is If not B, then not A. So in other words, a contrapositive is re-wording something so that it sounds different but is the same. A contrapositive can sometimes be used to further explain something. For example... If it sunny, then there is practice. But if it is not sunny, then there is no practice.

Inferring and Implying

Located in Chapter 4, under section E, on page 74 0f Critical Thinking

I found this topic both interesting and very informing. A lot of times, people confuse inferring and implying as synonyms, including myself. As I learned, inferring is used in the context when someone decides that an unstated claim is in fact the conclusion. While on the other hand, implying is when someone leaves a conclusion unsaid, and leaves the other person to come up with the conclusion based on what they already know.

When reading about this topic, A good example of inferring popped in to my mind... Back when I lived at home, my mom would make me do chores every Wednesday and Sunday. Being the rebel that I am, I would always try and put off from doing them in hopes that my mom would forget. However, every time I tried, she would always tell me, "Son, do your chores." Even though she did not tell me what chores to do, I knew exactly what she meant. So in this case, my mom would imply that I had to do my already assigned chores. And I would infer what she meant.

Internet Advertising

http://www.payless.com/store/

Here I looked online for advertising and I found an interesting subject. I looked for shoes and saw that Payless was advertising that they have designer shoes and clothes at a cheaper price than all of their competitors. I must admit, their prices are very affordable. However, Payless has no way of knowing that their prices are in fact the cheapest out their for the products they sale. For all they know, their products are being sold in some random town for even cheaper. I know this argument is a little hard to believe, but it does not change the fact that it is a possibility.

Payless also offers a few deals that encourage potential buyers to buy their products. For example, they offer deals on free shipping if you spend a specific amount of money. Also, they offer a flat rate on ground shipping, no matter what the size of the package. These small techniques are great tools for advertising.

Repairing Arguuments

Example: Michael has a Bic lighter. So Michael can produce a flame.

Analysis: We can't make this valid by adding "All lighters produce fire," because that is false.

It is false because once a lighter runs out of lighter fluid, then it will not produce a flame. We could make this argument stronger by adding "Michael's lighter is new and has plenty of lighter fluid in it." This way it would rule out the possibility that the Bic lighter has ran out of lighter fluid. When you have an argument that leaves room for debate, than it is not a strong argument. However, you can't just make up anything in order to make an argument strong or valid. For example, you can't say "Michael is an outdoors man" or "Michael knows everything there is to know about fires." Because even though these two claims would add to Michael's credibility, an outsider has no reason to believe that they are true.

The only premise that we can add here is one that rules out lots of possibilities without specifying any one of them. "Michael's lighter is new and has plenty of lighter fluid in it," because that statement links the premise to the conclusion. Then it would be a good argument.

What is Leadership?

Leadership can be defined as the exercise of interpersonal influence toward the attainment of goals. There are two main types of leaders: direct and influence. A direct leader is the type of person that will get in your face and tell you what to do. While on the other hand an influential leader is the type of person that leads by example. Me personally,I consider myself to be a leader by example. Neither type of leadrership is better than the other. People often mis inturpret the jobs of a leader. A leader is not a person who you have no respect for. In order to be a leader, you must have the respect of your peers.

Think of the last group you were in... Was there a leader in the group? And if so, what types of decisions were made? A leader should look out for the better of the group. Furthermore, in order to be an effective leader, you must put all of these qualities together. It will not help if a person knows everything their is to know in the world, if nobody wants to listen. And the same goes the other way; even if a person has the respect of all his or her peers, he or she still may not be capable in leading a group.

Violating the Principle of Rational Discussion

On page 202 of Critical Thinking, Epstein illustrates that Violating the Principle of Rational Discussion is pretty much an argument that is intended, or not, to mislead another person. The principle of rational discussion is that we want to try to use all of our reasons for and against a theory, when talking about a theory that is definiteyet able to be criticized. But VIOLATING this principle, refers to an argument that is not entirely true. This fallacy relates to people who sometimes say a premise or premises that are not relevant to the conclusion. This particular person may not have purposely misguided the other person he or she was talking to. However, there are certainly times where a persons intentionally violates the principle of rational discussion.
For example, When I play baseball, there are always guys who talk bad about a Coach. They often say that this Coach is dumb, or doesn't know what he is talking about, or even that he deserves to be fired. But the funny thing is that more times than not, it is the player who is out of line. He will say a Coach is bad only because he can't handle the pressure a Coach puts on him. And he may say a Coach doesn't know what he's talking about; when in reality, the player is just capable of doing particular drills the right way. So this player is actually sending out the wrong message about a Coach being bad, when he really is the "bad" one.

Structure of Arguments

My neighbor should be forced to get rid of all the cars in his yard. 1 People do not like living next door to such a mess. 2 He never drives any of them. 3 They all look old and beat up and leak oil all over the place. 4 It is bad for the neighborhood, and it will decrease property values. 5

Argument? (yes or no) Yes.
Conclusion: My neighbor should be forced to get rid of all the cars in his yard.
Additional premises needed? If people do not like to live next to a mess, with beat up old cars that never get driven, then the neighbor should be forced to get rid of all the cars.
Identify any sub argument: 2, 3 and 4 are independent and support 1. And 5 supports the conclusion, 1.
Good argument? Yes I believe it is.

I think this exercise was useful. It helped me identify all the components of the argument; which also helped me understand it better. I think it's important to be able to depict the structure of an argument because it will allow me to analyze more complex arguments.

Good or Bad Argument?

All men are mortal. Michael Angelo is a man. Therefore, Michael Angelo is mortal.

Analysis This is a valid argument. As long as the premises are true, the conclusion must also be true. This is a good argument because the premises leave little room for debate. It would be extremely tough to argue that certain men are not mortal, because that would mean these specific men would be immortal, which we all know is not true. Furthermore, the premises are more plausible than the conclusion. There is no way the premises could be true and the conclusion false, therefore, this is a good argument.

Introduction

Hello class! My name is Caleb. I know I am a little late introducing myself, but here it goes.. I am in my 2nd year and I am still undeclared with my major. I am a student-athlete on the Baseball team so I stay pretty busy with that, as well as school.. I come from a big family, which has made me humble. Being the youngest of four kids taught me to stay grounded, and that there is always somebody out there who can teach you something. I normally am not a very good public speaker. I hope to learn from this class how to began the process of becoming a better speaker. I also hope to get better on getting my thoughts out. I feel that an online comm class is a perfect way to help me do that. First by writing it out, and then I will eventually be able to speak with more confidence. I am excited to get started on this class, and I can't wait practice on my communication skills!