Further discussion...

Before learning about the “inferring & implying” concepts, I had already thought and implanted in my mind that “infer” & “imply” were synonyms. So, reading this section made me a bit confused and a bit irritated. Having a different understanding of what the words meant beforehand just made things harder instead of easier (which I had thought when I first skimmed the chapter of Repairing Arguments). When I first read what “infer” meant I was confused on what “unstated claim” meant. I understand the word “imply,” but “infer” just keeps confusing meThe example confused me even more saying, “ we infer this from the person’s remarks; he has implied it.” Infer and imply in the sentence made me believe that they meant the same thing. Also, the section was short, which made it seem like the concept should be simple and easy to understand, but instead, it was short and had a lot to say which I think made it overwhelming. At the end, just when I think I understand and believe I can differentiate the two words, I read more and I get confused again. The “inferring & implying” concepts definitely need further discussion in my point of view.

Favorite...least favorite...improvement...

My favorite thing about the class was how we blogged about the different concepts that we learned throughout the semester. I thought it was pretty cool that in order to participate in class, the students had to blog, which when you hear “blog” you think of social networking sites that are not beneficial to one’s life. I also liked the feedback I received from the other students in the blogs because it felt as if we were all engaging about learning the subject, even though were not physically there.

My least favorite thing about the class is having to learn the concepts on my own (I know it is an online course). I know that if we were to meet up in person or maybe even have the professor show videos of her teaching, I would understand the course a bit easier. Also, I really didn’t like how the tests and especially the quizzes were limited. It felt as if there was so much to do in so little time…I think it would be better if the test time limit were as long as regular class meetings such as an hour and 15 minutes or at least 45 minutes to an hour.

This class can be improved by providing the right answers to the tests and quizzes. Everybody learns from his or her mistakes. I feel that if I were to be able to know what the correct answers were I would understand the different concepts a bit more clearer rather than being clueless in what question I got wrong and right. After taking the tests and quizzes, I would not feel confident in any of my answers just because I wasn’t able to receive feedback from them; instead, I was just in doubt. 

I learned...

Over the course of the semester I’ve learned that in everyday life, people argue, debate, and reason using different concepts, but they just don’t know exactly what kind of argument they are making. The two concepts that really popped out to me taking this course were the vague versus ambiguous sentences and the appeal to emotion concepts. In reasoning, we can tolerate some vagueness, but we certainly cannot tolerate any ambiguity. With vagueness, one person can say, “Add a pinch of salt to the dish.” Then we can question them and be “smart” by asking, “What’s a pinch of salt…50 grains or 100…but isn’t everybody’s finger different in size…?” With ambiguity, one can say, “Everybody has to dance in front of the mirror.” With that, we can question if the person is saying everyone has to dance as groups or individuals. As with the appeal to emotion concepts, there were two that caught my eye. I would constantly see heartbreaking advertisements about young children fighting diseases and also ones that frighten me. Know I can watch these advertisements knowing that they are trying to persuade me to do something about the situation because of the appeal to pity or the appeal to fear. 

Cause and Effect in Populations.

I thought the section in chapter 15 about cause and effect in populations was interesting and easy to read and understand.

Cause in populations: given the cause, there’s a higher probability that the effect will follow than if there were not the cause

For example: Studying gets you higher grades.

*In relation to cause in population, people who study will have a much higher probability of receiving a higher grader than people who do not study.

1. Using a controlled experiment: cause-to-effect, we can use a control group of students who will not study and another group who will. Using a control group shows that, at least statistically, the cause makes a difference.

2. Using an uncontrolled experiment: cause-to-effect, we start with the suspected cause (of studying) and see if the effect follows (higher test grade). Though it’s uncontrolled: some people may only study for a certain amount of time, some people may already be knowledgeable about the subject, etc.

3. Using an uncontrolled experiment: effect-to-cause, we start with the effect in the population and try to account for how it got there. We would pick out all the high-grade tests to see if there is some common thread with the students’ studying that got them such a high grade.

Mission Critical Website.

Looking over and participating in the Mission Critical Website seemed like a review because the website pretty much went over everything that we have learned from the beginning of the semester to this day. I really liked how the website broke down the different concepts into sections which made it easier to take in and absorb. I’ve always had a hard time differentiating between ambiguous and vague, but after I read that part of the website I finally came to an understanding…and that is, “ambiguous” means it has at least two specific meanings, but “vague” means it is not clear in the context. I also love how the website had exercises and quizzes that I was able to practice with. I really favor the fallacies (especially the emotional appeal) and reading over the fallacies section made me learn even more about them. Overall, the website was useful in being a little review with help exercises and quizzes to heighten my knowledge about critical thinking.

Cause & Effect website, reading, and exercises.

Reading the book and doing the exercises and reading the website increased my knowledge about cause and effect (causal arguments). I thought that the book would have been easier to understand so I read that first, but I was still a bit confused until I looked over and read the introduction to causal arguments website. Reading the book was a little overwhelming with so many different examples thrown at you, but the website only followed one example and applied all the concepts within a casual argument which made it easier to comprehend. Though, I liked how the book broke down the parts into sections of deciding what is the cause such as: causes and effects, the normal conditions, particular causes, generalizations, and general causes, the causes precedes the effect, the cause makes a difference, overlooking a common sense, tracing the cause backwards, criteria for cause and effect, and the two mistakes in evaluating cause and effect (reversing cause and effect and looking too hard for a cause) because it helped me understand how to look for a cause. Both book and website helped me, but the website was more helpful in terms of simplicity and not so overwhelming like the book. 

Judging Analogies.

When judging analogies saying that one side of the analogy is like the other is too vague to use as a premise. To evaluate an analogy you have to consider:

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?

Example:

Police offers are allowed to use their cell phone while driving. So everybody driving should be able to use his or her cell phone.

What do police officers have to do with regular people?

There are similarities such as them being licensed people who are able to drive and differences such as the type of car they drive and the clothes they wear, but these similarities and differences does not hit the main point of the argument.

Police officers may be able to use their cell phone for job purposes, but regular people use their cell phone for their own pleasure, which can risk the life of another person on the road.