Interesting Concept

I found the concept of generalizing really interesting from Chapter 14 of Epstein.  I am sure everyone had a previous understanding of this concept before reading Chapter Fourteen.  After reading this section I realized how many people, including myself, generalize on a daily basis.  When making a claim people sometimes assume EVERYONE does this.  According to Epstein generalizing is defines as, “We are generalizing if we conclude a claim about a group, the population, from a claim about some part of it, the sample.  To generalize is to make an argument” (pg. 280).  This definition is very clear and concise.  Epstein makes it extremely easy to understand.  A generalization that I hear a lot from friends is, “Nobody understands.”  They are making an argument that nobody understands them.  They are generalizing to the whole population. 
            To conclude this post, since it is my last for this class, I would just like to say that I have enjoyed reading everyone’s posts.  It has really helped me to better understand the concepts discussed in the book.

Favorite and Least Favorite Thing

One of my favorite things about the class was the fact that it was online.  Also, it was extremely easy to contact the professor and ask questions.  She always responded within an extremely timely manner with the answer to your question.  Another thing that I liked was the blogs and comments because they kept me on task and learning the material.  It also helped me to better understand the concepts because it was explained in a different person’s point of view.  The projects were a big help to pulling everything together and applying it to real life.

My least favorite thing was the fact that the posts had to be twelve hours apart.  It was really hard with my busy schedule to make sure I posted them twelve hours apart.  Also, having to meet up with our group was horrible.  It was hard enough to try to get together, but especially for the last project it was extremely difficult to get our group together AND bring 7-10 other people. 

I think overall, the class was a really good class to take.  However, I think the time limit for the blogs should be removed and I think that we should not have to meet up in person for the projects.  People take online classes so they can do them on their own time.  It was really difficult to meet up.

What I have Learned

I have learned a lot in this class over the course of the semester.  In fact, I think this is the most I have ever learned from an online class.  I learned a lot about how to make a clear argument and how to support that argument.  A lot of the concepts from this class I had already learned in previous classes but the book and the website links given made the concepts a lot clearer.  I was able to better understand how to point out an invalid or weak argument that someone else had made.  The book gave really good examples and explanations.  I also learned a lot about other people through the blogs and comments that were posted.  The projects also taught me a lot, not only through the concepts but also how to organize and put together projects through an online class.  The small tool boxes in the book gave me a clearer understanding of what Epstein was trying to explain.

Interesting

Chapter 19: Cause and Effect, was useful with the examples given and detailed explanations.  However, I do not find cause and effect to be a difficult concept to understand.  Something that I found helpful, though, was the Criteria for cause and effect box on page 307.  Epstein explains, “There are certain necessary conditions for there to be cause and effect, once we describe the cause and effect with claims” (pg. 307).  The box explains the necessary criteria for something to be considered cause and effect.  A few of the criteria were: the cause precedes the effect, there is no common cause, it is nearly impossible for the cause to happen and the effect not to happen.  I thought that these points were very helpful when trying to determine if a statement is a true cause and effect.  Some of these points are obvious when determining the validity of cause and effect, but they really make idea of a true cause and effect a lot easier to understand.

Cause and Effect Website

I actually really liked the cause and effect website and found it extremely useful.  It was very easy to learn from and gave really good examples.  I find that cause and effect is used widely on a daily basis and a lot in people’s arguments.  The website was very interactive and interesting whereas the book seems to be just the same reading and can get quite boring.  It was good to change things up and learn from an interactive website because I found that I actually paid more attention.  Cause and effect is something that we all have been learning since grades school so it was not really something that needed much further explanation.  Another thing I found interesting about the website was the website showed more examples of real life situations where as the book normally just shows simple examples that do not always relate to our everyday lives.

Causal Reasoning

I thought that causal reasoning was interesting and could be a little difficult to understand.  However, once it is understood I think it is a very basic type of reasoning.  This reasoning is used when someone wants to show that “A” caused a certain effect or conclusion.  Many people do not realize how often we use this type of reasoning on a daily basis and consistently in conversations.  When making a cause and effect statement, we do not always use the word cause.  http://faculty.uncfsu.edu/jyoung/causal_arguments.htm

I thought this website really helped a lot because it gives examples and definitions of causal claims and arguments.  An example of a causal claim would be “Smoking causes cancer.”  Even though this is a simple example I believe that it helps those who do not understand causal claims.  In this example it is saying that when people smoke it can give them cancer.  In order to judge these types of claims as either true or false one has to think logically and can often determine the conclusion.

Reasoning Examples

*Reasoning by Analogy:  This type of reasoning is another form of inductive reasoning in which you compare two things that are logically similar.

            Example: Premise 1-  Alcohol is legal.

                            Premise 2-  Tobacco is legal.

                            Conclusion-  Marijuana should be legal.

This was an example from the book on page 253, but I thought it was a really good example because it relates to our lives today in that people were trying to legalize marijuana in California.

*Sign Reasoning:  An argument by sign declares two or more things are so closely related that the absence or presence of one indicates the presence or absence of the other(s).

            Example:  A footprint in the snow is a sign or indication that someone has just recently walked by.

*Causal Reasoning:  When we have reason to believe that the events of one occasion are related to the events of some other occasion. This is cause and effect.

            Example:  The house burned down because someone lit a match.

*Reasoning by Criteria:  You spend a lot of time using examples and evidence trying to explain why your reasoning is valid.

            Example:  If I wanted to go out to a party I would spend a lot of time explaining to my parents how much fun it would be and how many new people I would meet since I just recently moved from a different state.

*Reasoning by Example:  Giving examples in an argument.

            Example:  Me-“Mom can I drive over to my friends house?” Mom-“No because it is late and there are too many drunk and crazy drivers out on the road at this time of night.”

*Inductive Reasoning:  This type of reasoning uses our own past examples, observations, and sometimes experiences. 

            Example:  I had a horrible time in Wisconsin.  Therefore, I will probably never go back based on my past experiences there.

*Deductive Reasoning:  Where one believes that the premise is true, therefore the conclusion itself must also be true.

            Example:  You can not purchase cigarettes in the United States unless you are 18.

                        My brother is 18, so therefore he can purchase cigarettes.  

Judging Analogies

Judging analogies seems to be something that people use and do on a daily basis.  I found the “evaluating an analogy” box on page 257 very useful and helpful.  It gives an outline on how to determine the evaluation of a good analogy.  There are seven steps to evaluation an analogy.  The first step to evaluating is:

1. To determine if this is an argument and what the conclusion is. 
2. Find the comparison.
3. What are the premises?
4. Similarities?
5. Then you have to determine if you can state the similarities as premises and find a general principle that covers both the sides.
6. Does the general principle apply to both sides?
7. The last step is determining if the argument is strong or valid and also if it’s good.

This box really seemed to help me because it shows this evaluation as an easy step by step process.  One of the more important ideas about judging analogies seemed to be if the general principle applies to both sides.

2 Things from Chapter 8

I learned a lot when reading about claims and their contradictories in chapter 8.  I found very useful the chart on page 162 about claim words and the contradictory of each.  Epstein explains that there are so many ways that people make claims it is hard to give a set formula for the contradictories.  Some of the guides in the chart include:

Claim: All…

Contradictory: Some are not…

                        Not every…

Claim: Some…

Contradictory: No…

                        All are not…

                        Not even one…

An example of a claim: Some dogs are nice.

Two contradictories:  All dogs are not nice. Or: Not even one dog is nice.

The contradictory of the claim is the opposite.  These contradictions are like what we have learned in previous chapters, but here they use specific words like all, some, some are not, no, and only S are P.

            Another thing that I learned was reasoning in a chain with almost all.  Epstein explains, “Reasoning in a chain with “almost all” is usually weak” (pg. 172).  An example of using almost all: Almost all cats like fish.  Almost all things that like fish don’t meow.  So almost all cats don’t meow.  This example relates to the one in the book but gives a different idea for the reader.  The conclusion in this example is false, which makes it very weak.

Conditional Claim

I thought there was a lot of information to take in from Chapter Six so I decided to do Conditional Claims.  In the text a conditional claim is defined as, “A claim is conditional if it can be rewritten as an “if…then…” claim that must have the same truth value” (pg. 121).  Conditional claims are often “If A, then B.”  A would be the antecedent and B would be the consequent.  An example of a condition claim:

If there is a lot of traffic, then I will be late for class.

The antecedent is “If there is a lot of traffic” and the consequent is “then I will be late for class.”  In a conditional claim the consequent depends on the statement of the antecedent.  People use conditional claims on a daily basis.  Almost everything we do is dependent upon something else and that is why conditional claims are used so often.

Raising Objections

I chose raising objections because I thought it was fairly interesting.  We reason on a daily basis through arguments, counterarguments, and counter-counterarguments.  As Epstein explained in the text, “raising objections is a good way to show that an argument is bad” (pg. 147).  When we raise objections we are making another argument (which is the counterargument) that calls the premises into question or shows why the argument is weak.  If someone puts forward a counterargument that is true it makes one of the claims of the argument false or not believable.  We then have to answer that claim in order to prove our argument true.  When you include counterarguments in your argument it makes your argument seem stronger and more valid because you are not ignoring objections.  When you include these objections it helps you to see where to give more support for a premise that one may see as doubtful.  I learned this technique a few years ago and have used it in my arguments and papers.

Contradictory of a Claim

I found the Contradictory of a Claim section very interesting in Chapter six.  The definition that Epstein gives is, “One that has the opposite truth-value in all possible circumstances.  Sometimes this can be called the negation of a claim” (pg. 114).  I thought that the examples in the book were very simple but obvious.  After reading this section it really brought to my attention all of the contradictions that people use in claims on a daily basis.  An example of a contradictory claim is:

Claim: I will get a bad grade in this class.

Contradictory: I will get a good grade in this class.

This is an example because the Contradictory is the complete opposite of the claim.  A claim is only true if its Contradictory is proven false.  In this case the claim is false because the Contradictory is true. I AM going to get a good grade in this class! J

Criteria for Accepting or Rejecting Claims

I thought that Criteria for Accepting or Rejecting Claims was very helpful and useful to me.  I never knew that our most reliable source of information about the world was our own personal experience.  This is the section I found most interesting.  I often thought this myself but I never knew that it was really a valid claim to make.  The idea behind this is that all we know is one hundred percent true is our own experience.  We base our whole lives around our experiences.  This is how our opinions are made.  As it was stated in the text, “We accept a claim if we know it is true from our own experience and we reject a claim if we know it is false from our own experience.”  The problems with this are that we often do not remember what we actually experienced and only take away what we deducted from the experience.  This often involves a lot of inferring.

Advertising and the Internet

 Advertising has become extremely popular over the internet the past few years.  The media has found that the internet is such a popular place and they can get an extreme amount of customers by advertising their products and convincing people that their product or service “works for everyone.”  Epstein states, “Many advertisements are arguments, with the (often unstated) conclusion that you should buy the product or use the service” (pg. 94).  A popular advertisement for a product that I see online is Jenny Craig.  They claim that “if it worked for me, it will work for you.”  As some people know not every weight loss program works for everyone.  It is not to say that it will not work, but it is not true that since it worked for them it will work for you.  Many people fall into this trap believing this particular statement.  Just as Epstein explained, it may be accurate that the product works, but it may not be for everyone.  It is amazing how many advertisements are thrown at us on a daily basis through media.  Shows how much more careful people need to be when determining the accuracy of an advertisement for a product or service.

Violating the Principle of Rational Discussion

I chose begging the question, “The point of an argument is to convince that a claim is true.  So the premises of an argument have to be more plausible than the conclusion” (pg 202).  This is a fallacy in which a premise in an argument contains a direct or indirect assumption that the conclusion is true.  This often makes the argument circular because the person is assuming what they are trying to prove is true.  An example that I found was, “Executions are moral because we must have a death penalty to discourage violent crime.”  This assumption came up in my moral ethics class last year.  The arguer was assuming that the death penalty is a deterrent of crime.  This may be true, but it is just as questionable as the idea that the death penalty is moral.  This argument was extremely debatable in my class and created a circular argument because of the many different opinions on what is morally right and wrong.

Complex Argument Analysis pg. 225

I chose #2.

"I’m on my way to school.  1. I left five minutes late.  2. Traffic is heavy.  Therefore, I’ll be late for class.  So I might as well stop and get breakfast."

Argument: Yes, I believe this is an argument.  She is mainly arguing with herself about the situation and what to do about it.  By being late the person has left themselves with more choices, such as getting breakfast.

Conclusion: The conclusion is that since the person is already late they might as well get some breakfast to eat.

Additional premises needed?  Yes, I believe there are more premises that are necessary to make this a better argument.  The person was very vague and did not mention any reasons as to why they left five minutes late.  Maybe those five minutes would have been the difference between traffic and no traffic?  But no further explanation was given.

Identify any sub-argument:  The person thought that since they are already going to be late, being even later would not be a problem.

Good Argument?  I do not believe that this is a good argument.  More explanation was needed because the argument was very vague and did not give a detailed reasoning.  If this argument were to be given to a teacher I do not think that the teacher would be very understanding because the argument is not very valid.

I think that this exercise was useful.  It helped me to pick out the different parts of an argument and to understand what makes a good argument.

Definitions

In the reading I found the definitions section very useful and helpful. It is often very frustrating when people misunderstand each other in their conversations. In Chapter 2, we read that we can replace vague or ambiguous sentences to make them clearer. Another way is to use a definition to help explain a specific word or phrase so that the other person does not misinterpret what we are trying to say. A definition does not always mean what it says in the dictionary. We can make our own definitions to help further explain. For example, we can use a synonym for a word as the definition or we can just further describe the word.


An example of a synonym:

If you were to use the word evading in a conversation and the other person did not know what that meant you could tell them it means the same as escaping.

An example of a description:

The word misinterpret could be described as: something that is not understood or maybe understood in the wrong way.

Subjective/Objective Claims

Epstein explains a subjective claim as a claim that whether it is true or false depends on what someone thinks, believes, or feels. This type of claim has to do with more of an opinion base. Someone may feel that there claim is true, but when they ask someone else what they think they may feel the opposite. An example of a subjective claim:


My family is the best that anyone could ask for.

I always make this claim to other people because my family and I are really close. This claim is subjective because although I think that my family is the best, it is my opinion. Someone else may disagree with me or feel that there family is the best. The word “best” is a key word in this sentence which is often used when people are describing their feelings or opinions.

An objective claim, on the other hand, is a claim that is not subjective. Whether it is true or false does not depend on what anyone thinks or believes. This type of claim is based more on a true or false basis and can be verified as either true or false. An example of an objective claim:

I drive an eclipse spyder convertible.

I have used this claim many times already this semester in classes. The professor usually has the students talk to other students and get to know them and this is one of the questions that I ask or am asked. This is a true objective claim that is not based on feeing or belief. This claim is objective because it can either be verified as true or false.

Vague Sentence

After reading Chapter 2 in Epstein, I was amazed at how many people, including myself, consistently use vague sentences. In many conversations I have found myself confused as to what the other person meant in their statements, since it was too vague to determine the true meaning. A vague sentence that really sticks in my mind was when I was at work the other day. I work in a restaurant as a waitress. One of my co-workers had a table walk out on them without paying their bill. She explained to me what they looked like, “They were a group of 4 white teenagers.” Since, a “walkout” means that the waiter or waitress pays the bill, she really wanted to find the group. I then went outside to look for them, but soon realized that her description was too vague to find them. Outside of the restaurant in the parking lot there was a car show going on. There was no possible way to find them.

Introduction

Welcome, classmates, to my blog! I am a full time student here at SJSU and I also work part-time. I currently commute to SJSU and live in Livermore. I am a pre-nursing major and I am almost finished with my pre-requisites and generals. I am taking this class for a general requirement fulfillment. In the past I have taken Public Speaking, but that completes my communication studies thus far. I am interested, however, in learning about the subject and becoming more knowledgeable on how to correctly communicate my opinion and thoughts with others. One of my main goals for this class is to earn a good grade. Another goal is to learn to listen and respond correctly to others' decisions and opinions. The main thing I want to get out of this class is knowledge to help me with my major and career. Nursing requires a lot of decision making and communication and I hope to use the knowledge I receive from this class to help me in my career.