A concept from chapter 15

A concept from Epstein Chapter 15 that I found useful was the concept of cause and effect. According to Epstein the general cause and effect: for it to be to be true, lots of particular cause and effect must be true. There is also a criterion for cause and effect. The criteria for cause and effect are:

-The cause happened (the claim describing it is true)

-The effect happened (the claim describing it is true)

-The cause precedes the effect.  

-It is (nearly) impossible for the cause to happen (be true) and the effect not to happen (be false), given the normal conditions

-The Cause makes a difference – if the cause had not happened (been true), the effect would not have happened (been true)

-There is no common cause

An example of a cause and effect claim is: Clarence studied all night for his test, therefore Clarence received a good grade

Mission Critical

I found many things interesting about the Mission Critical website. The website was very useful because it gave details on various concepts.  The website explained the concepts so well that you can refer to the website instead of the book if you want to understand the concept.  The website gives you a better understanding than the book does. I liked the introduction of induction.  The website goes into great detail about the concept and gives exercises so that you can understand the concept. It tells you the elements that the argument depends on to tell its strength. They are how accurate and comprehensive the previous observations are, how strong the causal link seems to be, and how similar the two cases are. If you get a question wrong on the exercise then the website explain to you why you got it wrong, I found that very helpful. Overall the explanations were easier to understand. 

Cause and Effect Website

I found many things useful about the Cause and Effect website. What I found useful was how detailed it explained the cause and effect concept. Inductive reasoning is based on observation or experience. There are two rules to remember when dealing with cause and effect.

1. I found the cause and effect website useful for many reasons. What I found useful about the website is. The cause must precede the event in time. On one hand, arguments that have the effect before the cause are examples of the relatively rare fallacy of reverse causation.
2. Even a strong correlation is insufficient to prove causation. Other possible explanations for such a strong correlation include coincidence, reversed causation, and missing something that is the cause of both the original "cause" and its purported "effect."

The website makes it easier to understand the cause and effect concept. It also gave exercises that are helpful too. 

Judging Analogies

After learning about the many types of reasoning, a concept from chapter 12 I found interesting is judging analogies.  There are seven questions to help evaluate an analogy. These considerations clearly matter in determining the relative strength or weakness of an analogy. These questions are:

1. Is this an argument? What is the conclusion?

2. What is the comparison?

3. What are the premises? (one 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 apple to both sides? Do the differences matter?

7. is the argument strong or valid? Is it good?

If you are able to apply these questions to the analogy you will successfully be able to evaluate the analogy.  This was very useful because I can use this to evaluate an analogy each time.

Deductive Reasoning

The type of reasoning I found most difficult to understand was deductive reasoning. After doing some additional research on the internet, I was able to understand it better. Deductive reasoning is a basic form in valid reasoning in which begins with a general case and deduces specific instances. Deductive reasoning begins with a theory. The truth of the premises is supposed to guarantee the truth of the conclusion; in an inductive argument, the truth of the premises merely makes it probable that the conclusion is true. The argument is valid if  the conclusion doesn’t really follow from the premise .An example would be: All Biologist are smart. Biologist are scientist, therefore scientist are smart. This is an example of deductive reasoning because the theory is made, and the conclusion follows. The basic idea is that if something is true of a class of things in general, this truth applies to all legitimate members of that class is shown in this example.

Reasoning

In chapter 12, Epstein introduces many different types of reasoning. The different types of reasoning are reasoning by analogy, sign reasoning, casual reasoning, reasoning by criteria, reasoning by example, inductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning .Examples of each are:

Reasoning by Analogy – “John Got A’s in every class this semester. People who get A’s are smart. Therefore John is smart”

Sign Reasoning – “It’s been a long time since you’ve been out of your room. You must’ve been studying”.

Casual Reasoning – “I didn’t do well on the midterm, so I definitely won’t get a good grade in the class”

Reasoning by Criteria – “Doug wants to play a physical sport. John wants to play football.

Reasoning by Example – “You should drink coffee before you study. I did it and I was able to stay awake”

Inductive Reasoning – “Every test we have had so far have been multiple choice. There for the next test will be multiple choice

Deductive Reasoning – “Since all squares are rectangles, and all rectangles have four sides, all squares have four sides

Appeal To Pity

A concept from chapter 10 not yet discussed that I found interesting is the appeal to pity. Appeal to pity is when the arguer tries to get someone to agree with them by evoking pity or sympathy. There is no evidence provided so the arguer must persuade their listeners to believe their conclusion by using sympathy.  Using pity can definitely be effective, and cause someone to believe their conclusion.  This is very effective, and commonly used.  This type of argument is fallacious because our emotional responses are not always a good adviser to truth; emotions can cloud, rather than clarify, issues. We should base our beliefs upon reason and evidence, instead of on emotion, if we want our beliefs to be true.An example of appeal to pity would be Pro- Life campaigners.  They show images of aborted fetuses to turn them against abortions.  This has been very effective in persuading people out getting abortions.

Appeal To Fear Advertisement

This is an advertisement that uses appeal to fear that I found very interesting. The ad begins talking about how hair loss may run in your family, but it doesn’t have to if you don’t want it to. Rogaine states that if there are any signs of hair falling out that you should use their product right away to prevent any addition hair loss from happening. This product can help you keep the hair that you love. They also mention that they are clinically proven to prevent hair loss. This advertisement appeals to fear because Rogaine knows that many men fear hair loss, and would do anything to prevent it. This is a good argument because they provide evidence stating why you should use their product over others since it is clinically proven .Rogaine using the  fear of hair loss in their advertisement  have been very effective. They have been a business for many years.

http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/advertisements/fear%20ads/pages/rogaine_jpg.htm

Appeal to Emotions

According to Epstein appeal to emotions argument “is a premise that’s says, roughly, you should believe or do something because you feel a certain way”. No evidence is provided to prove the persons argument.  The persons aim is to persuade their listeners by methods of instilling fear, pity, guilt, etc. Many advertisements use this fallacy to persuade people to buy their products.This argument is very effective .

Example:

Please officer, There's no reason to give me a traffic ticket for speeding because I was just on my way to the hospital to see my wife who is in serious condition to tell her I just got fired today and our car is going to be retrieved today as well

The person is trying to persuade the officer out of receiving a traffic ticket by pity.  If the officer feels bad enough for the person he may be convinced to not give him a ticket.