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.