Mission Critical Website

I found the Mission Critical Website extremely useful! I really enjoyed reading all of the different information on parts of an argument, basic relations, and the analysis of arguments. Each part provided great tools to utilize when it comes to arguments. It was also great review on inductive and deductive reasoning. The exercises helped me understand the topics more clearly as well. In the past, fallacies have been difficult to understand, but it was a great review on all of the different appeals. There are misdirected appeals and emotional appeals as well. In a misdirected appeal it is misapplied by being used to support an unrelated claim. But, an emotional appeal is never a legitimate strategy in an argument. I also liked learning about identifiers. Identifiers are the function played in an argument. They are usually word or phrases and can either be premise identifiers or conclusion identifiers. The purpose of an argument is always to communicate the idea clearly and precisely. All of the information I read and the exercises for critical thinking. 

Chapter 15

I learned that there is a certain criteria for cause and effect in Chapter 15. There are six major steps that one should follow. First you should always remember that the cause happened and that the effect happened as well. The cause will always precede the effects in arguments and it is nearly imporssible for the cause to happen the effect not to happen given the normal conditions. It is important to also remember that the cause does make a difference because if the cause had not been true then the effect would not have happened and been proven true. The last rule that I learned about steps for cause and effect is that there is no common cause. I also learned in Chapter 15 that there are two mistakes in evaluation cause and effect. Most people tend to reverse the cause and effect and they also look too hard for a cause which can end in a bad argument. I found Chapter 15 very effective and useful in my learning. 

Cause and Effect Website

The Cause and Effect website was very useful because it provided detailed examples on casual arguments. To strengthen a casual argument I learned that there are three main factors that I need to follow. I have to figure out 1) how acceptable or demonstrable the implied comparison is, 2) how likely the case for causation seems to be, and 3) how credible the “only significant difference” or “only significant commonality” claim is. These three factors helped me in the practice exercises because they used examples where I would have to decide how significant each answer was.  The exercises focused a lot on deciding what answer had the most significant “commonality” or the most significant “difference”. I also learned that there are two main rules to remember when you are dealing with causations. The cause must always precede the event in time and even a strong correlation is insufficient to prove causation. The Cause and Effect website was a very interesting read and I learned a lot of new valuable information from the exercises as well. 

Reasoning by Criteria

Reasoning by Criteria 

One starts by defining the criteria by which the outcome of a decision will be judged. Then one identifies the best decision and evaluates it as well. 

Different Types of Reasoning

Reasoning by Analogy:

Example: Is a peach more like an orange or a banana?

Sign Reasoning:

 When the school fire alarm is going off, everyone should exit the building.

Casual Reasoning:

Everyone in the car accident was injured in the car accident and had to go to the hospital. The car was traveling over 50 mph when it crashed, so everyone was hurt.

Reasoning by Example:

You should have your driver’s license if you are 20 years old. Since you do not have your license then you are going to have to rely on everyone else for rides.

Reasoning by Criteria:

I really like country music, so my mom bought me a concert ticket to Jason Aldean for my birthday.

Inductive: I have class at 8:30 am on Monday’s and wake up at 7:50 to get ready. So next Monday, I will wake up at 7:50 to get ready for my class that is at 8:30.

Deductive Reasoning:

Everyone who joins the Marines must take a drug test in order to pass. Tom is going to join the Marines, so he must take a drug test.

Judging Analogies

Judging Analogies-

We learned throughout chapter 12 about the different types of reasoning and reasoning by analogy. But, judging analogies is a useful topic as well. An anaology needs to be very clear and well stated, but if it is not then one should examine the similarities to find the general rule that will apply to both sides of the anaology. After you find the similarities, one should try and find the differences to see if the general principle might not apply to one side.

 Under judging analogies, there is a term called fallacy of composition.  The fallacy of composition is to argue that is what is true of one individual person is therefore true of a whole group. Or what is true of a group, is then true of an individual.

There are also seven main steps to evaluate an analogy.

First, one must ask is it an argument and what is the conclusion? Then one should ask what is the comparison? For the third step, one should ask what are the premises and is it both sides or only one side of the comparison? Then ask what are the similarities? For the fifth step, one should focus on if they can state the similarities as premises and find a general principle that covers the two sides? The sixth step is to question whether or not the general principle applies to both sides and if the differences matter. Lastly, one needs to figure out whether or not the argument is strong or valid.

Appeal to Spite

Objective Number 6.

Appeal to spite focuses on revenge and is also known as “wishful thinking”. In some cultures, it focuses on preserving one’s culture by defending honor and pride.

An example of appeal to spite is the following:

Ann- “Hey Jane, can you please take notes for me in class tomorrow because I cannot make it to class today?”

 Jane- “Yes of course, I’ll type them up and send them to you as well.”

Erica- “Jane, why would you say yes to Ann? You asked her to take notes for you last week and she rolled her eyes at you and said no.”

The premise was needed to make the argument strong because Erica was question Ann on why she would help someone that wouldn’t waste their time to help her.

People question whether or not two wrongs make a right for an appeal to spite and whether or not it is a good thing. Appeal to spite is usually looked upon as a bad morals. 

Prescriptive and Descriptive Conclusions

Prescriptive and Descriptive Conclusions:

When you label an argument as an appeal to emotion, then you are on the path to determine whether or not the argument is good or bad. The arguments try and persuade one of their emotions as well. There are two different arguments to decipher when you are looking at appeal to emotion, which is prescriptive and descriptive.

When one uses a prescriptive conclusion with appeal to emotion, the argument can be either be good or it can be bad. When one is alert to the use of emotion being presented in an argument, then one can analyze the premises more easily. The purpose of a prescriptive argument is to try and convince a person that they should do something.

A descriptive conclusion is bad if the appeal can’t be removed as a premise. It is also known as “wishful thinking” in an argument and we cannot be controlled by our emotions. 

Appeal to Emotion

Appeal to Emotion:

Appeal to Emotion focuses on the premises saying that you do something a certain way or have a certain belief because of the way you feel. Emotions play a significant role on our every day lives and have a lot of effect on the decisions we make.

An example of appeal to emotion is the following:

“Girl Scouts came to the door and I didn’t have any money, so I had to turn them away and they looked like they were about to cry. We should go down to the grocery store where they are selling cookies and buy some.”

This is an appeal to pity and it is implausible.

Another example of appeal to emotion is the term appeal to fear. Many politicians and advertisers persuade people for their campaigns. Appeal to spite focuses on revenge and people with bad or wrong morals use this type of appeal.

Appeal to spite strikes me the most because it refers to certain cultures and how people preserves "ones honor" and how they reject people who try and get even with one another.