Claims

One concept I have gained knowledge about and found useful and interesting is subjective and objective claims. According to the textbook “Critical Thinking” by Richard L. Epstein, a subjective claim is subjective if “whether it is true or false depends on what someone (or something or some group) thinks, believes, or feels. A subjective claim invokes personal standards.” “A claim is objective if it is not subjective. An objective claim invokes impersonal standards.”

An example of a subjective claim is, “Tiger Woods should be the worst player in golf because he has no morals.” This claim is subjective because it represents how someone feels. Subjective claims are can also be viewed as opinions in which people have.

An example of an objective claim is, “Tiger Woods has won 14 major professional golf tournaments.” This is an objective claim because it is stating something that is a fact and does not invoke personal standards.

My Favorite Thing

I enjoyed several things in this class. My favorite thing about this class however was the group assignments. I enjoyed working in groups because I like being a part of a team. We were able to divide the work and we each were responsible for our own work. We came together and worked well. Having an assignment divided up is sometimes better because we don’t have to spend as much time on it as we would if we were each doing it individually. My least favorite thing about the class was the posts each week. I felt like sometimes it was just busy work. An improvement I would suggest is not making each post be 12 hours apart. Students these days sometimes have a large workload in addition to a job and don’t always have the time to accomplish assignments when they want to. Student’s resources can also be limited and forcing them to make each post 12 hours apart can be very difficult. I would maybe shorten the length to 8 hours apart or shorter. This way they most certainly have time to complete assignments.

What I learned

I have learned many concepts over the course of this semester. One concept I have learned about is vague sentences. “A sentence is vague if there are so many ways to understand it that we can’t settle on one of those without the speaker making it clearer.” An example of a vague sentence is, “Where are they going?” A lot of things aren’t clarified with this question. Some questions raised are; “Who is they?” “Are ‘they’ people?” Animals? This question needs to be made clearer in order for it to be understood. Another thing I learned in this class was the tests for an argument to be considered good. The first test is, “the premises are plausible.” This means that we have good reason to believe that the premise is true. The second test is, “the premises are more plausible than the conclusion.” The third test is, “the argument is valid or strong.”

Cause and Effect

I found the Cause and Effect website to be helpful and very useful. Causation is very important to the concept of inductive reasoning. I liked the example that the website gives regarding the case of a car accident. Upon first reading the example, I felt that it was the illegally parked truck that ultimately caused the car accident. With an inductive argument, it “carries as part of its second premise the implication that there is otherwise no significant difference, these causal arguments carry the implication that there is only one significant difference.” I learned that there are two rules when dealing with causation.

The first rule is that, “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. One the other, arguments whose only proof of causation is that the effect followed the cause are examples of fallacious post hoc reasoning.”

The second rule is that, “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 and its purported "effect."

Vague Generalities

One concept from our readings that I found useful and interesting was vague generalities. This concept was discussed in Chapter 8 of our “Critical Thinking” textbook. Vague generalities are made when a precise number is not specified. Certain key words used in vague generalities are; all, many, most, a lot, some, a few, and very few. Our textbook points out that it is possible for us to analyze whether arguments using the ambiguous words, “all” and “some” are valid. There are two vague generalities that we can use in strong arguments, “almost all” and “very few”. An example would be; “Almost all tigers have a lifespan of 10-15 years in the wild.” “Very few tigers live longer than 25 years.” There is a direct way of reasoning with “almost all” and you can also argue backwards with “almost all.”

An example of direct reasoning would be; “Almost all tigers have a lifespan of 10-15 years in the wild. Manny is a tiger. So Manny will have a lifespan of 10-15 years in the wild.

An example of arguing backwards would be; “Almost all tigers have a lifespan of 10-15 years in the wild. Manny has lived 14 years in the wild. Manny is a tiger.”

Reasoning By Analogy

The type of reasoning that I found most difficult to understand was reasoning by analogy. According to our “Critical Thinking” textbook, “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.” When I first read this, I wasn’t too sure what it meant. A site that I found that helped me out was;

http://www.philosophypages.com/lg/e13.htm

On the page, analogical reasoning is discussed and an example is provided. The example given mentions the idea of buying a car and having 3 friends who bought the same car from the same person and were delighted. The conclusion you could draw is that if you were to buy the same car as your 3 friends from the same person, then you would be delighted as well.

Here is my example: “Three of my friends have the same type of Hummer vehicle and all complain that they get poor gas mileage. If I buy the same type of Hummer as them, I will have poor gas mileage as well.”

The website also gives you some criteria for evaluating analogies.

Types of Reasoning

1) An example of Reasoning by Analogy is; “Reading a book will give you knowledge. A book is a form of literature. A newspaper is a form of literature. Therefore a newspaper will give you knowledge.”

2) An example of Sign Reasoning is; “Leaves turning brown is a sign that the season of autumn is starting.”

3) An example of Causal Reasoning is; “Consuming excessive amounts of sugar filled products on a regular basis raises your blood glucose levels and can lead to the development of diabetes over time.”

4) An example of Reasoning by Criteria is; “How will we win? Defense will be the key. Winning is scoring on the offense.”

5) An example of Reasoning by Example is; “I had a laptop just that would always overheat like yours. I bought a cooling fan to go underneath it and keep it cool.”

6) An example of Inductive Reasoning is; “I always get stopped by the train on my way to work during the week. Tomorrow I will be stopped by the train on my way to work.”

7) An example of Deductive Reasoning is; “All the houses in this neighborhood have a swimming pool. Malcolm lives in this neighborhood. Malcolm’s house has a swimming pool.”

3.

3. “Appealing to fear is a way politicians and advertisers manipulate people. An advertisement that uses an appeal to fear that I found was a 2010 campaign ad in which a a lady by the name of Rebecca Kleefisch attacks her running mates opponent. Rebecca Kleefisch is the running-mate for Scott Walker who is running for governor of Wisconsin. In the campaign ad, Rebecca Kleefisch states that her running-mates opponent Tom Barrett “supports a government takeover of our health care. Rebecca Kleefisch, herself is a colon cancer survivor and disagrees with the views of Tom Barrett. This is not a good argument in my opinion. What Rebecca Kleefisch has said has actually been seen as a lie. Tom Barrett has never supported a government takeover. The fear that is seen here is, “If you vote for Tom Barrett, then you will be asking for a government ran healthcare system.”

Appeal to Emotion

According to the “Critical Thinking” textbook by Richard L. Epstein, “An appeal to emotion in an argument is just a premise that says, roughly, you should believe or do something because you feel a certain way.” The type of appeal to emotion that strikes me is the appeal to pity. Appeal to pity is a premise that seeks to make an agreement with people by the use of sympathy. An example of this type of fallacy is; “That commercially on TV was so sad. It almost made me cry seeing all those poor, abandoned animals. That place said they only offer a temporary home more the animals. We should go to that place and get a dog.” The unstated premise is that “If we feel sorry for the abandoned animals, then we should help them out by getting an animal from there or help spread the word and influence others to get animals from this organization.” I have taken notice to this type of appeal to emotion more recently since I have learned more about it.

Assignment #2

The second course assignment, Critical Thinking and Social Organizations, was very useful in my opinion. It was useful to me because it helped increase my knowledge of the topics we’ve been learning about. It also helped give me a better understanding of the concepts and how they are used and seen in common aspects of life. It helped expand my knowledge on concepts such as, concealed claims, fallacies, and the use of emotion to appeal. I found out that many websites and organizations use the concept of emotion to appeal. This concept is used by organizations who want to get a person’s attention and maybe influence them to do something, such as donate, or help spread awareness about an issue. They could also want the viewer to help promote something such as a product. In the case with the American Cancer Society, the concept of emotion to appeal was used to help gain support for breast cancer and to donate money to support the cause.

Chapter 8

I learned a few different things from Chapter 8 from the “Critical Thinking” text which talked about General Claims. One thing I learned was that there are key words involved when dealing with claims and their contradictories. The key words are; all, some, no, and only. An example that uses “all” is; "All animals can swim."Its contradictory would be; "Some animals can swim." An example using some is; "Some birds can swim." Its contradictory would be; No birds can swim. An example using No is; No women play hockey. A contradictory would be; "Some women play hockey." An example for only is; "Only Russians like vodka." A contradictory would be; Some Russians don’t like vodka. Another concept I learned about was precise generalities. In the text it states that, “If the percentages are very high or very low, though, we can get a strong argument, assuming we know nothing more about the people or things involved.” An example of a precise generalization is; “27 out of 30 people who take the Alabama driving test passes. Cheryl took the Alabama driving test. So Cheryl passed the Alabama driving test. In this case, the percentage of passing is very high; therefore, it is a strong argument to say that Cheryl passed.

False Dilemma

One concept that I found useful or interesting is the concept of false dilemmas. This concept is found in Chapter 6 in the critical thinking book. According to the book, “a false dilemma is a bad use of excluding possibilities where the ‘or’ claim is false or implausible. Sometimes just the dubious ‘or’ claim itself is called a ‘false dilemma’.” I notice a lot of examples of false dilemmas on television shows, specifically, ones based around comedy. An example of false dilemma is the following common statement; “You’re either with us or against us.” This seems like an extreme point to make. What if you were the only one who declined to go on a ski trip for your friend’s birthday party and he said this to you. Just because you don’t want to go doesn’t mean you’re against them. What if you can’t afford the trip or have a fear of mountains and there being an avalanche. There are many possibilities excluded.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 titled “Counter-arguments” was a short chapter which discussed “Raising Objections” and “Refuting an Argument.” What I first learned when I began reading the chapter was that, “raising objections is a standard way to show that an argument is bad.” By raising an objective, you are creating another argument that can prove a premise to be false or show how a premise can be weak. Take for instance the premises;

Everyone should use public transportation.
Using public transportation will decrease traffic.
Using public transportation will be safer and reduce the amount of drivers on the road that uses their cell phone while driving.
Public transportation is cheaper and will reduce pollution from cars.

An objective would be; “Public transportation doesn’t travel as fast as a person would driving a car.” Another objective that could be raised is; "Some people would rather carpool than pay a bus fare and also busses, trolleys, and trains don’t run 24/7 for those who work at night or early mornings."

Another concept I learned about is strawman. This is where a person tries to refute a claim by putting words in the person’s mouth that made the claim. An example would be; Mike is against the legalization of marijuana. Clearly he does not like people who smoke weed.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6, titled “Compound Claims” mentions many concepts. I leaned that when it comes to compound claims, it is simpler to view each claim independently. Also in an argument, “but” works the same way as “and,” it is just a stylistic variation. When considering valid arguments with two claims, and one claim is not true, then is known as disjunctive syllogism. An example of this form of argument is; “Either I will go to the store now and miss the beginning of the baseball game, or I will stay home and watch the whole baseball game first, then go shopping.” I can’t miss the first pitch of the game. Therefore I will stay home and watch the entire baseball game then go to the store. Another concept that I learned about was claims and their contrapositives. An example is; “If I get a tooth pulled out, then I went to the dentist.” The contrapositive is, “If I didn’t go to the dentist, then I didn’t get a tooth pulled.” Both claims in the example are equivalent.

Bad Appeals to Authority

A concept that I found interesting in the Critical Thinking book was, Bad appeals to authority. The definition of appeal to authority is stated in the book as, “when we accept a claim because of who said it.” When we “accept claims from people who aren’t authorities on the subject or who have a motive to mislead,” then it is a bad appeal to authority. I know sometimes I’ve treated my friends and relatives as authorities sometimes. I accepted their claims because they were older than me; therefore you would think they would have more knowledge and information on a subject that you don’t know too much yourself. I have found them to be wrong sometimes. Many times I felt like I should have gone with my way of going about something or using my logic. A person can sound like they know what they are talking about but can also be completely lying. That’s what I have learned.

Advertising and the Internet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O0gNlZFymM

The piece of evidence I found for this discussion question is the product by the name of iRenew. It is a bracelet that has been and is currently being advertised on television. The iRenew bracelet has many claims. One claim that it makes is, that “it uses natural frequencies to promote strength and balance.” It is said that, “every iRenew is programmed with a natural frequency that your body responds to.” I have wondered if products like these really work. There has been a similar product on the market before called the Q-Ray bracelet that made many of the same claims iRenew has. The video can be very convincing, especially with the demonstrations shown and the testimonials they have. However, much information is not given in support of the claim. What natural frequencies are used? How are they made? So every person’s body responds this way? This product is known as a pseudoscience. There is actually no scientific evidence proving that this product works.

Advertising and the Internet

The piece of evidence I found for this discussion question is the product by the name of iRenew. It is a bracelet that has been and is currently being advertised on television. The iRenew bracelet has many claims. One claim that it makes is, that “it uses natural frequencies to promote strength and balance.” It is said that, “every iRenew is programmed with a natural frequency that your body responds to.” I have wondered if products like these really work. There has been a similar product on the market before called the Q-Ray bracelet that made many of the same claims iRenew has. The video can be very convincing, especially with the demonstrations shown and the testimonials they have. However, much information is not given in support of the claim. What natural frequencies are used? How are they made? So every person’s body responds this way? This product is known as a pseudoscience. There is actually no scientific evidence proving that this product works.

Repairing Arguments

An example is: “Smoking cigarettes is bad for you. It can be addictive and costly. Smoking also causes stained teeth, gives you bad breath and leaves a bad odor on your clothes.”

Analysis: The conclusion here is that smoking cigarettes are bad. Many people can argue with many of these claims made. Some people feel that cigarettes are not addictive and that they do not cost much. A premise that can be added is, “Cigarettes contain nicotine, a deadly poison that makes cigarettes addictive.” Just because something causes stained teeth, bad breath, and leaves your clothes smelling doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad for you. Coffee can stain your teeth but it can also have some positives to it. Some studies show that coffee can reduce the chances of certain diseases such as type-2 diabetes and certain cancers. A premise we can add to the claim is, “Cigarettes are one of the leading causes of heart disease and cancer.” Heart disease and cancer are bad for you. This premise makes the claim stronger than what it was before.

Decision Making in Groups and Teams

In the book, “The Essential Guide to Group Communication” by Dan O’Hair and Mary O. Wiemann, there is a topic called “The Process of Decision Making in Groups and Teams.” This is a part of the third chapter in the book titled, “Leadership and Decision Making.” This caught my attention because it gives a process for decision making which is shown. It is an eight-step process that starts with identifying the problem. Next, is conducting research. , then establishing guidelines and criteria. Followed by, generating alternatives, evaluating the alternatives, selecting the best alternative, implementing the solution, and lastly evaluating the results. What I learned in this chapter is, when you are identifying a problem, there should be a thorough understanding of the problem from each group member. For instance: “There needs to be more recycling done in this town.” What type of recycling are people not doing enough of? Are they not recycling bottles, cans, or are wasteful of too many paper goods? What is specifically going on here that is the issue? This was something useful to me.

Content Fallacies

One common content fallacy is false dilemma. False dilemma basically means, there are only two possible choices, and only one of them can be true. However this is false because in fact, there could be many unmentioned options that are true that make the claim false. One example of false dilemma is: “If the Chargers score at least 14 points this game, then they are going to win.” This means that if one option doesn’t happen, then the second option automatically has to happen. This was said during the beginning of the most recent game the San Diego Chargers played against the Kansas City Chiefs that I happened to be watching. This person automatically ruled out the fact that the Chargers could score 14 points and lose because they end up giving more than two touchdowns away, scoring on an interception and winning, or allowing the opposing offense to run touchdowns on them and other options. I guess the person figured the Chargers defense would be good enough to allow fewer point than 14 in a football game. However the Chargers did score 14 points and ended up losing 21-14. So this claim is false because there was a way for the Chargers to lose even though they scored at least 14 points in the game.

Structure of Arguments

My neighbor should be forced to get rid of all the cars in his yard. 1 People do not like living next to such a mess. 2 He never drives any of them. 3 They all look old and beat up 4 and leak oil all over the place. 5 It is bad for the neighborhood, 6 and it will decrease property values. 7

Argument? Yes

Conclusion: My neighbor should be forced to get rid of all the cars in his yard.

Additional premises needed? If a car leaks oil, then it should get fixed, otherwise sold, if it is not in use or in good running condition. a

Identify any subargument: 5 supports 6 and a. 2, 3, 4 ,7 are independent and support the conclusion, 1.

Good argument? Premise 7 is not proven to be true. But if it was then the argument would be good and valid.

This exercise was very useful. It helped me to analyze arguments and identify sentences that are claims and ones that could be possible conclusions.

Leadership

Over the years I have taken notice to people with leadership roles and I have also been in leadership positions myself. In my opinion, effective leaders are able to influence a person or group of people to complete a certain task or execute a mission. Leaders take the initiative and they also provide a path or direction for others to follow. Leaders assist in resolving conflicts, bring ideas to the table, communicate effectively, and provide an example for others. I recall being in a club in high school. We were notable around campus because we were a special group of individuals that had requirements to be a part of this club. We were looked upon as role models and leaders. We had the qualifications to be young men and women of excellence and quality. We were mentors for other students and helped them to become better students and better persons in general.

Strong vs. Valid Arguments

According to the book, “Critical Thinking” by Richard Epstein, “a strong argument with true premises is sometimes better than a valid one with the same conclusion.” A strong argument is one that gives “good reason to believe the conclusion is true.” If the claim is not believable, or the claim leads us to believe that it is no more possible than the conclusion then it is safe to say that the argument is a bad one. An example of a strong argument is: Malcolm has made over half of the teams game-winning baskets. Therefore, Malcolm is good basketball player. This is a strong argument but it may not be valid because Malcolm could have missed every shot in those games but made the last ones by luck.

Valid arguments cannot be strong. A valid argument is one in which its premises are true and they are more reasonable than the conclusion. An example of a valid argument is: Malcolm made 15 shots in a row during his basketball game. Therefore, Malcolm is a good basketball player.

Good Argument

A good argument has premises that are plausible. This means that the claims that the person makes are reasonable and possible. A good argument also has premises more plausible than the conclusion. When the claim is more believable than the conclusion then it satisfies one of the tests for being a good argument. Lastly, a good argument is valid or strong, meaning, the premise is true and the reasoning is most likely true as well or the evidence supports the claim very strongly. A good argument has strong support to back up the claim. Arguments can be weak or strong. Take this argument for example: Professor Garfield is an art teacher. All art teachers are supposed to wear a nametag with an easel on it during school hours. So Professor Garfield has a nametag with an easel on it.

This argument is valid. It is not possible for the claim that Professor Garfield is an art teacher and the fact that art teachers wear and easel on their nametag. This is a bad argument however because all art teachers don’t wear their nametags. Sometimes they forget or don’t feel like wearing it that day.

Prescriptive Claims and Value Judgments

According to the book “Critical Thinking” by Richard L. Epstein, a claim is prescriptive if it says what it should be. I have spoken many claims recently not realizing that they were prescriptive. A prescriptive claim I said just the other day to m friend was, “You should get your keys out of your car.” Often statements in ads on television and in everyday conversations contain lots of prescriptive claims. On T.V., you may hear in an ad, “You shouldn’t take this drug with alcohol.” “You should recycle that bottle,” is a prescriptive claim you may hear someone say in a conversation.

Value judgments take place when there is a personal reasoning on whether something is good, better, or best. Value judgments are prescriptive but too vague to be a claim. Other key words that suggest value judgments are; bad, worse, or worst. An example is, “Mr. Rowe was the best teacher I ever had.” The word “best” adds a value system to the statement causing it to be a value judgment.

Vague Sentences

The vague sentence I heard recently was, “How far away is it?” This was asked after I sent a text message asking a friend of mine if he could possibly go with me to purchase a T.V. What qualified the question as a vague sentence is the lack of information it doesn’t share. Some of the questions it brings up are; What does ‘it’ refer to? How do you measure far? What is the method of transportation? Are you walking? Is far a mile? Is far ten blocks away?

A lot of things aren’t clarified with the sentence “How far away is it?” Is ‘it’ a place? Is ‘it’ an animal? Where is the starting point? Is the starting point from where my friends car is or is it measured from the location of where I currently stay. All of these unanswered questions that arrived cause the sentence to be a vague sentence.

Subjective and Objective Claims

An example of a subjective claim I heard recently was that, "Kobe Bryant is the best player in the NBA right now." This was said as some friends and I sat around in the living room watching ESPN cover the basketball section on their channel. This claim is subjective because it is an opinion in which my friend believes is true. And although there are probably many who would agree with him, including me, there are still other people who disagree and believe that he is not the current best player in the NBA. Whether it is true or false depends on what a person or group thinks.

An example of an objective claim I stated recently was that, "I am diabetic." I told this to my roommates and friends who were unaware of my condition. This is an objective claim because it is true and not arguable since I have actually been diagnosed by a doctor. There is no opinion in this claim. Objective is pretty much the opposite of subjective.