Question 2 - major course assignment

Both of the first major assignments taught me a lot, but I definitely favored one over the other. I felt that the second course assignment was more helpful than the first course assignment. The first assignment; "Critical Thinking in News and Politics," wasn't very helpful for me. I didn't find to be all that interesting, and I wasn't very familiar with what an editorial was to begin with. The second assignment called, "Critical Thinking and Social Organizations" has been a lot more interesting. By knowing how my group operates, I've been able to judge the paper better. I also enjoyed learning more about the social organization my group chose, which was PETA. Learning about more than just the surface points that the organization is making, and actually seeing what PETA does really opened my eyes even as a vegetarian myself. Writing about news and politics doesn’t really interest me, so the flow of writing was a little more difficult for me.

Vague Generalities

Chapter eight introduces a concept that is used quite often in day-to-day life. The concept is called general claims. General claim are claims that involve words like "all" or "some." When a person used the word "all" there is a strong meaning behind it, "all" means every single one. For example if a student were to say to a teacher, "All of the people in this class hate your teaching style." This is too general, even if this student asked around and everyone said they hated his methods, regardless there may be one student who wasn't telling the truth. In this case, this claim would be false. By using the word "some" in a claim, there can be some misunderstanding of what “some” really is. For example if I were to say, some of the people I work with are getting a raise in January and only one person gets a raise, does that constitute some? Generalizing can lead to a weak and invalid argument, it’s better to use real numbers, statistics, or other solid facts when trying to make a good argument.

Ch. Six: Contrapositive

While reading chapter six under necessary and sufficient conditions, I found the concept called contrapositives interesting because it is one way to understand conditional statements a little better. Conditional claims are “if, then…” statements which ties in with contrapositive claims. The definition of a contrapositive is where a claim and its contrapositive are equal. It’s a little hard to explain, but by giving an example it’s easier to understand! As I read in the book, showing a conditional with the contrapositive is better way of understanding the concept as well. An example of a contrapositive would be the following statements:

If you failed your math exam, then you didn’t study prior.

Contrapositive: If you studied for your math exam, you passed your test.

This shows the formula If A, then B & If not A, then not B. Contrapositive statements can be a little tough to understand, but when comparing them with conditional statements one can have a better perspective.

Ch. Seven: Raising Objections

In most cases, if an argument is worded in a way that one agrees with, automatically we believe that argument is valid. This is not always the case. When raising an objection in an argument one must show that an argument is defined as bad. For instance let's say I'm trying to get you to buy a dog rather a cat.

Everyone should own a dog. 1

Dog’s are man’s best friend. 2

Dog’s can do tricks, whereas cats cannot. 3

Dogs are cuter than cats. 4

For this example none of these reasons are valid to argue that dogs are better than cats, if you are a dog owner already, you may agree with these statements. To show that this argument is dubious, one would point out that saying, “Dog’s are man’s best friend,” is just a biased statement and hold no truth. Subjective and opinionated statements do not make for a valid argument.

Ch. Six: 3. Valid and weak forms of arguments using conditionals

In chapter six, one concept stood out to me to be very commonly used in day-to-day life. This concept is called valid and weak forms of arguments using conditionals. The way this concept works as follows: If A, then B. A, therefore B. I can use an example of this concept for an incident that took place just this past weekend at my house. My roommates and I live in a townhouse that is surrounded by other town homes, in a gated community, and with a Home Owners Association. Some of the ruled the ROA pointed out to us was that if we were loud, they would file a noise complaint with our landlord. On Saturday my roommates and I invited some friends over to our house, there were several of us and we were being pretty noisy, to the point where I know the neighbors would be able to hear us. The next day one of the women on the ROA board came to our house and said she was going to file a noise complaint with our landlord. This situation follows the formula If A, then B. A, therefore B. If we were loud, the landlord would receive a noise complaint, we were loud, and therefore a noise complaint was filed.

Advertising on the Internet

Most websites are totally free to browse, no membership fees or anything like that. So how do we expect elaborate website like Facebook and Twitter to keep up and always flourishing? It's those little advertisements on the side of your screen that are paying these social networking to post up their products. It's almost scary how accurately aimed these ads will be. For instance on Facebook it will suggest I go sell my Forever 21 clothes online. This is something i would definitely be interested in, I do shop at consignment stores and I have sold my clothes to places like Crossroads before, so they are definitely advertising to the right person! Relating to part A In Chapter 5, I can see a connection in that the advertisement is saying, "Join women like you," I could go on and on and try and ask questions like, "What do you mean women like me? Women in college? Women who work full time? 20 year old women?" As written in this advertisement it is just assumed that because I am young and female that I enjoy fashion and shopping. I can either click the link because I agree or I can just keep clicking by it and looking at another friend's page instead. Concerning part B of Chapter 5, personal experience with second hand shopping has been rather positive for me. I find clothes I like at consignment store, the pieces of clothing are usually cheaper, and I'm also helping the environment by reusing instead of going out and buying brand new. Because I've had some personal experience with what is being advertised my attention was drawn to it and I was more likely to inquire. This advertisement is aimed at me with good reason, and I must say I was interested.

Repairing Arguments

Sometimes when we hear someone make a statement, he or she will leave out important pieces of information that are needed to create a valid argument. It is important to give a full explanation of a statement when making an argument. There are times when someone needs to “repair the argument.” The guide to repairing an argument is intended to make the argument stronger, to make the premise plausible to both parties involved, and for the premise to be more plausible than the conclusion of the argument.

For example, Jan is arguing to Henry a piece of information:

Jan: “I think my friend is in the gymnasium. No, actually she’s in the cafeteria.”

Henry: “How do you know?”

Jan: “Because my friend has lunch at 12:00pm, and it’s 12:00pm now.”

For Jan’s conclusion to be stronger and to overall have a valid argument, she should have included that she knows her friend doesn’t have gym class until after lunchtime at 12:00pm. Although, it is possible for her friend to have brought her lunch to school and is eating it in the yard or she may have went home for lunch, it is a plausible statement to say that she would be in the cafeteria because that is where lunch is served. That being said, Jan’s argument would be stronger by giving an explanation of why her friend is not in the gymnasium at 12:00pm and that she is assumed to be in the cafeteria.