One Concept

One concept I feel that I can use in a discussion was the chapter about "Valid vs. Strong arguments". A valid argument is always completley true.  With valid arguments there is never a false conclusion about the subject.  On the other hand, a strong argument can be proven false with clear evidence.  An example of a valid argument would be "In the game of Basketball, there should always 5 players on the court for each team"  This is a valid argument because there are always 5 players on the court for each team.  This cannot be argued because it is a valid fact.  An example of a strong argument would be saying "All students who graduate high school, should go to college"  Although this is a strong argument, not all students go to college.  There may be a financial issue or they just might not feel like pursuing the next level of education.  Basically, a valid argument is always 100% true, and a strong argument may be true, but it can be proven false.  

Post 2: What I liked/disliked

There were a lot of things that I liked about this class.  One of the things that I liked was responding to my classmates post.  It was cool to see what other people thought about the subject.  It was also good that I got feedback from my other classmates.  I think this is good for us so we can see what other students think about our response.  It was also a good expierience to do this online class.  Rather than going to class everyday, we got to see what it was like turning things in by a certain time rather than the teacher telling you what to do everyday.  It is a good way to learn to be responsible.  One thing I didnt like about the class was how we had to do the essays.  It was pretty hard because our group didn’t see each other everyday, like we would have if the class was in person, so it was a little bit harder.

Post 1: What I Learned

During these two summer sessions, I have learned a lot in this comm 41 class.  The goal in this class was to learn about critical thinking. Some of the things that I learned were, claims, types of arguments, and many more.  I believe that Epstein's book "Critical Thinking" is was very informative.  One thing that I noticed was it was focusing more on claims and arguments.  For example, he talked about strong vs. valid arguments.  This was good information to know because we use this in everyday life.  We always find ourselves in an argument, but you usually never win the argument unless it is a strong one.  We also use claims in everyday life, because someone is also trying to persuade you.  For instance certain companies try to convince their audience to buy their product.  Overall, I learned alot from this class, and I will use what I learned in real life situations.  

Mission Critical Website

When I clicked on the Mission Critical website, I really sure what to read.  I clicked on the "About Mission Critical" page and read about that.  From this website I found out what he website is all about and what its goal was.  The website said is to create a "virtual lab," capable of familiarizing users with the basic concepts of critical thinking in a self-paced, interactive environment.  After reading the "About" page, I decided to go through all the concepts that were listed below.  For example there were, The Basics, Analysis of Arguments, Fallacies/Non-Rational Persuasion, and other common fallacies.  I have already previously learned about these subjects but it was good, refreshing my memory.  I didn't know what the website was all about at first, but now I have a pretty good idea, and the information is pretty useful and the exercises were as well.  

Cause and Effect Exercise

I think that the exercise for casual arguments was pretty effective.  The page where it explained all about cause and effect was very helpful.  I pretty much already knew about what cause and effect meant because I did a response about it last week.  I think that cause and effect is basically common sense.  The introduction on casual arguments had a lot of good information that was useful.  It is basically pointing out different ways that cause and effect can come into play in real life situations.  For example in the example they used talks about how the bicyclist's lawyer will probably claim that the illegally parked truck caused her client to swerve into the lane of traffic.  I think that almost every situation in life has a cause and effect and that is why I believe it is important to learn about the different types.  Overall the website was effective and I really got to go deeper into the definition of cause and effect.

Cause and Effect

After a re-read Chapter 15,  I like this chapter because it was pretty short.  I found many concepts that were pretty interesting.  The one that I was most interested in was the section about I causes and effects.  Epstein starts off talking defining exactly what a cause was and what an effect was.   He also states “Whatever causes and effects are, we can describe them with claims.” I believe this concept is simple because I learned about this when I was in elementary school or middle school.  Basically a cause leads to an effect.  For example, I wake up to an alarm everyday.  So if the alarm rings, it causes me to wake up.  The cause is the alarm, and the affect is that it wakes me up.  We use cause and effect in everyday life and I feel that it is a pretty easy concept. 

Course Assignment: Critical Thinking in News and Politics

The course assignment “Critical Thinking in News and Politics”  seemed like an overall good assignment.  Basically we had to find an editorial or letter, and analyze it using critical thinking.  We had to figure out the major claim of the editorial and we also had to mention premises/claims that support the main claim.  My groups editorial was about NFL and concussions.  It was basically saying that the NFL needs to be more aware of those kinds of injuries and how they can affect players in the long run.  I think that the assignment wasn’t easy.  It took alot of work because we had to find the right editorial or letter to choose from and there were hundreds of them.  I believe that this assignment was good for me because I had a chance to analyze the editorial deeper so I understood what the author of the editorial was trying to say. 

Chapter 13: Graphs

In Chapter 13, I read about many concepts.  For example, misleading claims with number, graphs, and averages.  The chapter was basically talking about how certain stats and numbers can fool people and mislead them.  One concept that I was really interested in was the section about graphs.  Epstein talks about how graphs are useful at times, but we have to be careful when reading graphs because some of them are wrong and can give us the wrong information.  You have to even pay attention to the angles of the lines  because some can either be too narrow or too wide.  Or a company can exaggerate their numbers just to persuade the customers that their business is progressing.  So basically what Epstien is trying to say is to do more research on companies to make sure their statistics are correct.  I see graphs all the time, and now I will make sure to look at them more carefully.  

Chapter 12: Reasoning by Analogy

In Chapter 12, I read about Reasoning by Analogy, Judging Analogies, and Analogies in the Law.  The one that I found most interesting was Reasoning by Analogy.  Epstein says that 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.  Basically, an analogy is a statement of a logical relationship between two similar things that are compared with each other.


A good example of Reasoning by Analogy would be:
Firemen and fires are like soldiers and war.


This is a good comparison because they both have a lot in common.  They both wear uniforms, they both put their lives at risk, and they both fight (Fires/wars). I believe that people reason by analogy everyday when they are trying to compare a certain subject.   

Appeal to Fear Advertisement (Question 7)

This week out of questions 1-7 I chose to do number 3.  It ask to find an advertisement that uses an appeal to fear.  Appeal to fear is basically a company using fear to win their customers over.  Trying to scare them in order to convince them to buy their product or to agree with them.  An advertisement that I found was on this website. http://www.penn-olson.com/2010/08/29/createive-fear-appeal-ads-from-wwf/

It is the first picture.  Basically it says "Stop climate change before it changes you" and it has a picture of a man turning into some kind of creature.  This is appeal to fear because the company is basically trying to scare people by saying if climate change doesn't stop then this will happen.  I believe that almost all appeal to fear advertisements are not true because the company is lying their way through the customers mind just to get them on their side.

Appeal to Emotion: Prescriptive and Descriptive

 Appeal to emotion means to decide on a certain subject, due to your emotions.  For example, certain diet food companies try to win people over by saying they will lose 20 pounds if they eat and drink their products.  They will also add that everyone will be attracted to you, and if your a man, women will be constantly staring at you (Vice Versa).  This will cause people to be persuaded by their emotions, and what they feel.


While reading the "Too Much Emotion" chapter, I found many different kinds of Appeal to emotions.  For example, one that I found that was pretty interesting was, appeal to emotion with a perscriptive conclusion and descriptive conclusion.  Appeal to emotion with perspective conclusion can be good or bad.  On page 194, Epstien states "Being alert to use of emotion helps clarify the kinds of premises needed in such an argument, so we can more easily analyze it"  Epstein says that a descriptive conclusion used in an appeal to emotion argument is “wishful thinking”.  An appeal to emotion with a descriptive conclusion isnt usually a good thing.  Wishful thinking is about believing someone’s description of something and we believe it because it interferes with our emotions. 

General Claims & Their Contradictories

In Chapter 8 I read about a lot of interesting concepts but one that was most interesting to me was the section about General Claims and Their Contradictories.  Epstein starts off talking about how we need to know how to reason using general claims that assert something in a general way.  This relates to real life situations because we are always using claims in our conversations.  An example of a general claim would be "Dedicated football players practice hard everyday. John practices hard everyday. So John is a dedicated football player." This would be an example of a general claim that we may use often.  Even though this may sound like a valid claim, it is not.  It doesn't say "All" dedicated football players, so therefore John may not practice hard everyday.  To make this more clear Epstien talks about how "All" means every single one. "Some" means At least one, and  "No means not even one."

Aristotelian Logic: Syllogisms

In this weeks reading, I read both the Truth Tables and The Aristotelian Logic chapters.  I found alot of interesting things in both chapters.  The concept that I found most useful was the section in Aristotelian Logic, "Syllogisms".  My definition of a Syllogism is an argument that has many parts with two statements which are most of the time true, and they eventually lead to a conclusion.  In the chapter Epstein talks about Categorical syllogisms.  He states "A categorical syllogism is an argument composed of three categorical claims (two premises and a conclusion)."  An example that Epstein gave in the chapter for a categorical syllogism is: 
No Police officers are theives.
Some theives are sent to prison.
So no police officers are sent to prison.


The first two are claims, and then the last sentence is the conclusion.  I believe categorial syllogisms are used in everyday life because it is often where these kinds of situations come up in an argument.

Chapter 8: Precise and Vague Generalities

In this weeks reading I found a couple of concepts that were interesting to me.  My favorite one that I thought I knew the best were the two generalities; Precise generalities, and Vague generalities.  Epstein first talks about how there are a lot of quantities between one and all.  All means “Every single one, no exceptions.” It can also mean “Every single one, and there is at least one.” Some means “At least one,” but can also be interpreted as “At least one, but not all.”  An example of All would be. "All sports are fun".  An example of some would be "Some games are not fun".

Precise generalities and vague generalities are both specifying a claim.  Precise generalities specifies a claim so that we can understand it clearly.  Vague generalities specifies a claim where it can be understood in many different ways if it is not clear.  I believe this applies to real life because usually high school students and some college students use vague generalities because we usually use slang.  Educated adults like teachers usually use precise generalities, to get their point across clearly when they are teaching. 

Slippery Slope Arguments Chapter 6

I decided to talk about Slippery slope arguments.  This was interesting to me because it was kind of funny in a way, and it kind of relates to what happens in real life.  In the book it defines a slippery slope argument as a bad argument that uses a chain of conditionals, at least one of which is false or dubious.  An example that really caught my eye was the one about the football player (Chapter 6, Pg.133, Section B)  I can relate to this because this is what people actually think what will happen if you date a football player.  There are many assumptions that usually are not true.  For example, Zoe says "You'll get pregnant. And you'll marry the guy. But those guys are such jerks…"  This is some of the many assumptions people have about football players that may not be true.  Basically a slippery slope argument is an argument using false assumptions to convince the person to change their mind.

Chapter 7 Raising Objections

In chapter 7 I read about raising objections, I picked this because I felt like we use objections in an argument in our everyday life.  Basically in the book it explains that  raising objections is a standard way to show that an argument is bad.  An objection is defined as a reason or argument offered in disagreement, opposition, refusal, or disapproval.  This means that a raising objection has various objections that go against the answer.  An example of this would be: 

Joe: We might as well get rid of that TV.

Kim: Person Why? we can just put it in the guest room. (Objection)

Joe: But It will just take up space. (Answer)

Kim: We can arrange the room to where it fits. (Objection)

Joe: That will be too much work (Answer)

This relates to real life because these kinds of situations happen everyday. 

Chapter 6 (False Dilemmas)

In Chapter 6, I read about False Dilemmas.  I found this useful because I felt as if I needed to get some extra information on this fallacy.  I was a little unclear about this before I read it.  In the book it says that a False Dilemma "Is a bad use of excluding possibilities where the "or" claim is false or implausible."  For example in the book they used an example of a husband and wife, arguing over cigars.  She tells him that he either gets rid of the expensive cigars or she'll have to get rid of the dog.  She made a valid argument but it wasn't a good one because he basically had no choice. Obviously they were not going to get rid of the dog so it had to be the cigars.
Another personal example of a False Dilemma would be:


Dad: We'll have to cut down on grocery shopping this month.

Mom: Why?

Dad: Well, either we cut the grocery shopping or we will not pay for the cable bill, and we cant live without cable.


This applies to everyday life because this kinds of things happen where you don't really have a choice, but you give a choice anyway, that you know wont happen.

Chapter 4. B) The Principle Of Rational Discussion

I chose to write about this section in Chapter 4 because it was pretty interesting to me.  First it talks about how we assume that the other person who is dicussing with us or whose arguments we are reading is sussposed to know about the subject, they are able and willing to reason well, and they are not lying.   One example that I found interesting was how they talked about the "lying" section (Pg. 60 "Condition 3").  It talks about if you find somebody continuously lying their is not point with reasoning with them because they are just going to keep telling lies.
There were two other conditions that were also discussed in this chapter.  At the end of the chapter it explains what "The mark of irrationality" is.  The mark of irrationality is if you recognize that an argument is good, then it is irrational not to accept the conclusion.

Advertiment blog. Question 2

I found an advertisement on Facebook for the relief fund in Alabama. I was unable to upload the picture on this post. Alabama recently had a tragic tornado incident, leaving many people without there homes. This was a relief fund made by the red cross. On the poster, there was a picture of a Red Cross worker hugging an Alabama resident looking very sad. Under that was "You can help, Donate here." I put this advertisement up because it is real and there is proof. The advertisement is chapter 5, Section C. was obviously a scam because there was no trace of it on the Internet.

On facebook, below the Red Cross relief fund poster, there was this comment by the person who uploaded it. "This flyer is proof that proceeds are going to Red Cross... If you have any questions, the contact info is on the bottom of the flyer! :)"  This is proof that the advertisement is real, so people will feel safe giving their money to something that is worth it.

Content Fallacies

After reading the section Content Fallacies in Chapter 11, I decided to talk about the fallacy "Appeal to emotion".  I picked this one because I believe it was easy to understand.  Appeal to emotion means to decide on a certain subject, due to your emotions.  This is a fallacy because the conclusion is not always true.  For example, certain diet food companies try to win people over by saying they will lose 20 pounds if they eat and drink their products.  They will also add that everyone will be attracted to you, and if your a man, women will be constantly staring at you (Vice Versa).  This will cause people to be persuaded by their emotions, and what they feel. 
Another example of "Appeal to emotion" fallacy might be "The new Apple MacBook Pro laptop gives you the power you need. If you buy one, people will envy you. They will look up to you and wish they were just like you."  By saying this, it may persuade people to buy the laptop even though what the company said may not be true.

The test for an Argument to be good (Chapter 3)

There was a lot of interesting information in this weeks reading.  I chose to talk about the argument section because I believe it is important to know what a good or bad argument is.  As people, we face arguments with other people everyday and it is important to know if our arguments are even good.  In the chapter it states "Test for an argument to be good"  The three bullets are; The premises are plausible, The premises are more plausible than the conclusion, and the argument is either valid or strong.  If an argument doesn't have any of these factors, then it is most likely NOT worth arguing about.  Every good argument is either valid or strong.

After reading this chapter I learned more about arguments, and the proper way to state a valid argument.  I can also tell if somebody is giving an invalid or a weak argument.  This was definitley the most interesting chapter.

Valid Versus Strong Arguments

A valid argument is always completley true.  With valid arguments there is never a false conclusion about the subject.  On the other hand, a strong argument can be proven false with clear evidence.

An example of a valid argument would be "In the game of Basketball, there should always 5 players on the court for each team"  This is a valid argument because there are always 5 players on the court for each team.  This cannot be argued because it is a valid fact.

An example of a strong argument would be saying "All students who graduate high school, should go to college"  Although this is a strong argument, not all students go to college.  There may be a financial issue or they just might not feel like pursuing the next level of education.

Basically, a valid argument is always 100% true, and a strong argument may be true, but it can be proven false.

Subjective and Objective Claims

A subjective claim, is an opinion someone may have or their personal beliefs on a certain subject.  Subjective claims cannot be proved right or wrong.  Objective claims on the other hand can be proven right or wrong.  Objective claim is usually something that is either true or false.  An example that I have heard of a subjective claim was "Kobe Bryant is better than Lebron James"  This statement cannot be proven true or false.  Many people have their own opinions and beliefs on each player.  There is not any proven evidence that one player is better than the other.  If a person states a specific stat of one of the players, for example "Lebron scored 40 points against the Lakers."  This would be a fact because it actually happend.  This leads into an example of an objective claim.  Another example of an objective claim may be "The president of the United States is Barack Obama"  This is an objective claim because it is a proven fact that he is our president.  In basic terms, Subjective cannot be proven true or false, and Objective is a proven fact.

Introduction Sean Linton

Hi my name is Sean.  Im a sophmore here at San Jose St, and I also play for the football team. I was born in Rochester, New York and moved to San Diego when I was three years old.  Other than Football some of my interest are, hanging out with my friends, watching tv, listening to music, and playing xbox.  My major used to be Business Management, but I decided to switch to Communications.  I feel like communications will be a good major for me because there is a very broad range of careers you can enter with Communications. Thats pretty much it about me. Im looking forward to reading other student's blogs this summer session.