Casual Arguments

I felt that learning the basic concepts of casual arguments supplemented what was in the book. The example was somewhat helpful, but it was nice on how they elaborated more about the same example. Also, doing the exercises were able to help me figure out what I need to review about the subject. The site also provided links to other topics if we wanted more understanding on a particular concept. After going through this site, I find it easier now to decipher the cause in events, rather than just pointing at what seems to be the obvious. Causation must be proven with a strong correlation to the actual event.

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

I found both inductive and deductive reasoning somewhat challenging to fully understand after just reading Wikipedia's versions. After reading more examples and some of my classmates' postings, it was a lot easier to understand. I now know that inductive reasons are essentially educated guesses. For example, if a pattern or trend were to occur, it would easy to assume that that occurrence would continue. On the other hand, deductive reasoning is concluding from a set of premises similar to the logic where "If A then B. If B then C. Therefore, if A then C." What confused me was that I thought they were polar opposites of each other. However, after further research, they were just different types of reasoning, not necessarily opposites.

Reasoning Examples

1). Reasoning by Analogy
When a little kid tells his/her parents "If my brother/sister is getting a toy, I should get one too."

2). Sign Reasoning
"I could smell the food from here. We must be close to the restaurant."

3). Causal Reasoning
"If the star player does not play in this game, his team won't perform as well as it should."

4). Reasoning by Criteria
"The Dallas Cowboys team lack discipline. The coaches should make more of an effort to hold players accountable for their mistakes."

5). Reasoning by Example
"I once had a friend that had to go to the hospital because he drank too much. If I were you, I would probably cut down."

6). Inductive
"I was late for work today because I overslept and got caught up in traffic. Tomorrow, I wake up a bit earlier than I thought I had to so I can get to work on time."

7). Deductive
"Forgetting to pay your bills on time will hurt your credit. He hasn't paid his bills on time. So his credit score is getting lower."

Question #3

This advertisement uses appeal to fear because it illustrates the potential side effects of cigarette smoke. It was used to scare smokers into quitting by showing a former smoker with a hole in his throat and having to be aided by a device that allows him to speak. I feel that this was a good argument because there is no way around the side effects of smoking. Smoking can only harm you and others around you and this ad shows that quitting is the only real solution.

Appeal to Emotion

Often, emotions get the best of people and cause us to do things we can't really explain into words. Appeals to emotions in arguments are premises that make a person behave to believe something because of how they feel. For example, politicians mostly use ads that attack their opponents and make themselves not look as bad. Voters are in turn worried about these candidates. This is an example appeal to fear.

Appeal to pity struck me more mainly because it's hard to turn down someone or something in need. Personally, I wouldn't want to be in a bad situation, so seeing someone in a bad time of their life affects me in such a way that I feel like they need my help. Feelings of sympathy is something everyone should have at least to some degree. So appeal to pity is probably the most common.

Usefulness of the Second Assignment

It was definitely easier communicating for this assignment since my group worked well together. This did improve my ability to work in a team environment, which is helpful for my engineering major. I hope to continue to build on that. It's encouraging to know that I don't necessarily have to take an engineering related class to improve my skills related to my major.

Personally, I was not aware of what exactly ASPCA was until this assignment. After doing some research, it was clear on how much they've done and how much they mean to animals in need. What surprised me was the claims and fallacies that were incorporated into the organization's website. For example, I knew that the pictures of sad and neglected animals were displayed to make people feel sad, but I wasn't aware of was that it related to the Epstein's text. Now, I'm aware of the claims listed in the text and how to find them in places other than books.

General Claims and Diagrams

General claims are claims that argue something about all or part of a collection in a general way. These claims may or may not be true depending on the wording. Epstein describes the usage of "all", "some", "no", and "only". An example of a valid general claim is "All drivers must get their license to drive a car. Jeff has his license. So Jeff can drive a car." When using "all" in an argument, one must consider that it means "every single one, no exceptions" or sometimes "every single one, and at least one." Some means "at least one". It can also mean "at least one, but not all." In both cases, the meaning depends on the argument. "No" can mean "no any single one" or "not even one."

Diagrams are a helpful way of understanding these kinds of arguments These types of diagrams are similar to a Venn Diagram. However, like the claims, diagrams can be valid or invalid. Ways to check for validity include: a collection is represented by an enclosed area, and if one area is entirely within another, then everything in one group is also in the other. Additionally, if two areas do not overlap each other, then the two areas have nothing in common with each other.