Something For Further Discussion

I think something that could use further discussion would be the section where the book introduces truth tables. From what I have read, the truth tables are used to determine the validity of a particular claim. However, the truth tables were pretty frustrating to me because there were too many symbols to remember. There are actually four different symbols used to represent the following words: and, or not, and if… then…. Sometimes I would forget which symbols stand for which word and then I had to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to look over the symbols again. Also, I had trouble understanding how to read the tables as they can be confusing at times. A specific thing I didn’t really get is the tautology because the explanation and the definition were pretty vague. I think it will be much better if truth tables and how to analyze them could be further discussed.

Like and Dislike?

My favorite thing about this class was being able to read over other students’ blogs because it was pretty interesting to see what they wrote about while leaving actual feedback or comments for them to look at. I also enjoyed the blogging thing because it helps me to improve both my communication and writing skills since everyone has to post at least three times to their blog every week. In addition, we also had to post three comments to different people’s blog. I think that’s a lot of writing to do; in fact, it’s like writing an essay every week but to be honest, I actually enjoyed it. The more I write, the better my writing skills will become! As for my least favorite thing, it would be the group projects. Group projects are very complicated when they are done online because of technical issues and problems with people procrastinating. I’d rather work alone because I can get things done on my own time without having to wait on other group members to send their work in. It’s very frustrating when one member in the group waits until the last minute to get the work done. I think this class can be improved if group projects are canceled so that everyone can do their own work.

What I have learned in this class

One specific thing I have learned in this class is being able to recognize whether a sentence is claim or not. I learned that a claim needs to be either true or false in order for it to be considered a claim. For example, the sentence “Stinky tofu is good” is a declarative sentence that can be either true or false so this is considered a claim. Some people may think stinky tofu tastes bad because of the smell but it is not true for everyone. I actually think it tastes bad but my parents actually do like it. However, some claims are too vague to be taken as claims. According to the textbook, a sentence is vague is “there are so many ways to understand it that we can’t settle on one of those without the speaker making it clear”. For example, the sentence “Men are stronger than women“ is pretty vague because we do not know what the word “stronger” meant. What are men stronger for? Are they stronger physically or for emotionally? (Epstein, 2006). Before I took this class, I had limited knowledge of what a claim is because I thought that every sentence I see is a claim. Thanks to critical thinking, now I can be able to distinguish between certain claims!

Discussion of the First Assignment

I had to wait until Saturday, which is today, to start working on this post because everyone in my family is finally free since my parents do not have to go to work on the weekends. There are only four members in our family which includes me so I only have three people to help me out with this assignment. I wish there was one more person but I don’t want to bother my cousins or my neighbor because they might me having a family vacation. I guess Ms. Perez wanted us to gather a group of no less than four people but I think three is just enough. Anyways, I gave my mom, dad, and my older sister each a copy of my first group essay for them to read over. In return, they each provided me with some feedback on how I could improve. They told me that the essay seem a bit awkward since some of the parts did not fit very well together. They said there were some repetitiveness within the essay which I also have noticed.

Usefulness of the Mission Critical Website

The Mission Critical Website provided a lot of information about some of the concepts that were covered in Epstein’s textbook. In fact, there were actually some pretty interesting concepts I have not really learned about yet since they were never covered in the textbook. A few of them I have not learned about were universal statements, identifiers, statements, and conversions. Moreover, the reading was very easy to follow because everything was pretty much explained in full detail and the examples makes the concept even more easier to understand.. Something I thought was very useful on the website were the exercises at the end of each section; I find the exercises very helpful as it helps me to remember what I have just read by refreshing my memory. It actually helps build up my critical thinking skills and my knowledge of how to apply those skills to my writing in the future.

Usefulness of Cause and Effect Reading

What I found useful about the Cause and Effect reading is that it helps me improve my ability to identify the difference between the cause and effect. I learned that the effect results from the cause so in order for the effect to be true, the cause also needs to be true. Here is an example:

Cause: Mary did not do her essay yesterday
Effect: Mary’s grade dropped

Because Mary did not do her homework, it is very likely that she will receive a lower grade. Both the cause and effect is true. One can see that it’s impossible for the cause to have been true and the effect to be false. It doesn’t make sense if the effect is “Mary’s grade went up” because the essay is always an important assignment of her grade so if she did not do the essay, it had to be true that her grade has plunged. Well, unless she is bribing her teacher to raise her grade, then the effect “Mary’s grade went up” would be true but who would do that ?

Usefulness of Second Group Project

I think the usefulness of the second assignment is that it has actually helped me build up my communication skills by communicating the things learned from the textbook to the assigned paper. For the assignment, our assigned group were supposed to choose a social organization and then write a cohesive paper about it by using ideas and skills we have learned from the textbook. As a group, we came up with the American Red Cross organization. To make things fair, we split the sections up with everyone in charge of at least two sections. Then we have to use what we learned from the textbook and apply those concepts to the paper. I thought the frustrating part about group work is that sometimes people like to procrastinate, which lets the group down. This was what actually happened to our group because everyone kind of waited until the last minute to get things done, making everything rushed at the end. Because of this problem, I prefer to work alone but at times there are actually benefits in working in a group as “two heads are better than one”.

Ch 13: Mean, Median and Mode

A few things I found interesting when reading Chapter 13 is mean, median, and mode.
I will start off by talking about the average or mean. An average isn’t the maximum; in fact, it is a measure of the expected value of a collection of numbers. The definition from the textbook is, “the average or mean of a collection of numbers is obtained by adding the numbers and then dividing by the number of items.” (Epstein, 2006) Here is how we would calculate the average of a set of numbers. By the way, this is also obtained from the textbook:
7, 9, 37, 22, 109
We will firstly add up all of the numbers and the sum will total 184
7+9+37+22+109 = 184
Then we will divide the sum of 184 by 5 to get 36.8 which is the average.
184/5 = 36.8
The median is the midway mark of a set of numbers listed in order:
10 20 30 40 50 -------à Here, 30 is the median since it is in the middle
The mode is the number that appears a bunch of times:
10 10 10 30 40 40 50-------à Here, 10 is the mode since it appeared three times
These 3 concepts are very simple. I remember learning about them when I was in middle school so it’s still fresh in my mind.

Ch 13: Numbers

Numbers are tools that are used for measuring and are essential to use in our reasoning; however, they may mislead us so we have to be cautious when using numbers. There are various kinds of misleading claims with numbers: apples and oranges, two times zero is still zero, percentage of what?, there’s no way they could know the numbers. I’m going to first talk about apples and oranges which is “a numerical comparison where it doesn’t make sense to compare the items.” (Epstein, 2006) Here is an example from the textbook:
There were twice as many rapes as murders in our town.
This claim is pretty vague because it seems like it’s trying to tell us something important but we are not able to figure out what it is.
We can also make comparisons using increases and decreases. That is known as two times zero is zero. It’s a numerical comparison that “makes something look impressive but the base of the comparison is unstated:
Enrollment at SJSU is up 50% this year
We don’t know what the enrollment was last year so this claim is misleading.

Example of An Appeal to Fear

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

I found an advertisement on a men’s hair loss product called “Rogaine” that uses an appeal to fear. The appeal to fear can seen from the following statement they used on the ad: “Hair loss runs in the family”. This statement is trying to manipulate their male audiences into buying their product by making them worry or afraid of losing their hair. The unstated conclusion is “You should buy Rogaine if you are afraid of losing your hair.” A personal example is when my cousin wanted to buy Rogaine because he was afraid that he will end up going bald like his father. He thinks that hair loss runs in his family as his grandfather and his father both went bald and he thinks he will be next in line. I think appealing to fear is a very good way for advertisers to sell their products. They make people fear that something bad might happen to them someday and in order to prevent that from happening, they should buy their product.

Ch 12: Reasoning by Analogy

An important concept that was introduced in Chapter 12 was reasoning by analogy. Reasoning by analogy begins with a comparison of two things. According to the text, “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.” For example, there was a situation regarding the legalization of marijuana in the textbook. Since alcohol and tobacco is already legalized, then why shouldn’t marijuana be the same? That’s reasoning by analogy. Alcohol and tobacco is similar to marijuana so all of them should be legal. On one side, we have already drawn the conclusion that alcohol and tobacco is legal, so on the other side we should conclude the same for marijuana. Analogies are used in our daily lives everyday. Sometimes we would make comparisons from the past and apply them to the present.

Ch. 10: Appeal to Emotions

According to Chapter 10 in the textbook, an appeal to emotion is a “premise that you should believe or do something because you feel a certain way.“ This concept is very important when you are trying to reason in an argument. For example, if you saw an advertisement on T.V. regarding poor African kids suffering from malnutrition, then you will become swayed by your own emotions to help them out. There are actually three different aspects of appeal to emotion. The first one is “appeal to pity” in which you feel really sorry for someone and you wish to help them out. In the previous example, I mentioned an ad about poor African kids suffering from malnutrition. If you feel sad for them, then you would want to donate money to aid them. Then you can make the following argument:
“If you feel sorry for the African kids, and you have enough money to help, then you should send them money.”
This type of argument is an “appeal to pity”.
Another type of appeal of emotion is known as the “appealing to fear” which is a “way politicians and advertisers manipulate people”. This type of concept gives people the feeling of fear. For example, if you see an ad featuring a car running over someone due to speeding, then you would feel very cautious about driving. From that, the following argument can be made:
“You should drive at the correct speed limit if you are afraid of running into someone.”
Lastly, an appeal to spite is based on the principle that “two wrongs make a right” which means that you should only help the people who had helped you out in the past. Otherwise, you shouldn’t help them. Basically, you are returning the favor to someone only if you owe them and not to the ones you never owed. Here is an example:
“You shouldn’t help John pay for his debts, because he wouldn’t help you pay for your debts last year.”
Out of the three concepts of appeal to emotion, I think the one that strikes me the most is the appeal to pity because it helps me make better decisions.

Interesting Concept: Aristotelian Logic - Categorical Claims

An interesting concept I found in the textbook are about categorical claims. They are claims that are developed from Aristotle’s method which was known as the Aristotelian logic. It had become a very important method used to analyze reasoning. According to Epstein, categorical claims are claims that can be “rewritten as an equivalent claim with one of the following standard forms”:

All S are P
Some S is P
No S is P
Some S is not P

Here are a few examples for each of them. These claims can be rewritten as an equivalent claim to make them become categorical:

All dogs bark. = All dogs are things that bark
Some dogs eat human= Some dog is a thing that eats human
No dogs climb trees = No dog is a thing that climbs trees
Some apples are not red = Some apple is a thing that is not red

We don’t want to have to always use the phrase “thing that” so we can also write these claims another way:

All dogs are barkers
Some dog is a human eater
No dog is a tree climber

Truth Tables

According to the text, compound claims can be used to analyze arguments. The four phrases “and, or, not, if..then…” are used to create compound claims. Special symbols are used to represent each word. Sometimes we may not be sure whether a compound claim is true or false so for us to be able to check for its validity, we need to use special symbols and truth tables. Take for example a claim that involves the use of the word, “and”:

Michael is a doctor and Nancy is a nurse.

Symbol: Michael is a doctor ^ Nancy is a nurse

How do we determine the validity of this claim? When will it be true? The only way for this statement to be true is for both parts “Michael is a doctor” and “Nancy is a nurse” to be true. This is known as a conjunction claim in which both parts need to be true in order for the claim to be true. Otherwise it would be false. For example, if either one of the parts “Michael is a doctor” and “Nancy is a nurse” is false, then the claim will end up being a false statement. Truth tables that can be seen in the textbook are used to illustrate this example.

Ch 8: General Claims

What I found very interesting and helpful in Chapter 8 was how to reason with general claims. According to Epstein, “general claims are how we assert something about all or part of a collection.” Epstein talks about the different ways on how to use the words, “all, some, no, and only” when making an argument. Sometimes there are arguments in which they may seem valid to us but they’re actually not. The premises could be true but the conclusion may be false. Here is an example:

All guys who go to the gym want to build a six pack. John goes to the gym. So John wants to build a six pack.

The example above may seem valid but it’s actually invalid. If John goes to the gym, it does not mean that he wants to build a six pack; he may want to lose some pounds or even go check out some girls. There are many other possibilities so the conclusion may not be true. To prevent ourselves from getting lured into believing in these kind of arguments, we need to understand the difference between “all” and “some”.
According to the text, “all” means “Every single one, no exceptions” and “some” means “at least one”.
There are actually many equivalent ways to say “all” and “some“. For example,:

All witches are evil = Witches are evil
Some guys are strong = At least one guy is strong

Interesting concept

An interesting concept I found in Chapter 6 are compound claims. A compound claim is a claim that contains one or more claims, but seen as only one claim. A word such as "or" is used to connect two or claims together to form one compound claim. Here is an example:

Either Mary will win the class election or Michael will win

In this example, there are obviously two different claims but seen only just one claim. Either mary or michael is going to win the election, but not both.

1.) Mary will win the class presidential election
2.) Michael will win the class presidential election.

Another important concept in Ch. 6 is the contradictory of a claim. Basically, the contradictory of a claim is the opposite of a compound claim. It's also known as the negation of a claim. It's used to make a compound claim false. Assume that the compound claim is "michael is a genius" and the contradictory of that claim would be "Michael is not a genius".

Ch 7: Raising Objections

Whenever we make an argument, there’s bound to be some objections against it. This is what most of us experience in our lives everyday. We make arguments but then someone else disagrees with it by putting forward a claim that is strong enough to make our argument false and dubious. The people who disagree with our argument are the ones who are likely to raise objections, giving a good reason for us to doubt whether our conclusion is really true or not. Take for example an argument that you wanted to make about abortion:

Every women should have the right to an abortion.

The people who are against abortion or is a pro-life can make objections against our argument by saying:

Abortion is wrong.
Abortion is the same thing as murder.
Therefore, abortion should be illegal.

The objections stated above are strong enough to make our argument false/dubious. If we make arguments, they need to be strong enough for someone to be unable to debate against it. Otherwise, we will lose to the other side.

Chapter 6: Conditional Claims

In Chapter 6, Epstein introduces an important concept known as the conditional claim. A conditional claim is a claim stating that if you had or did something , then your actions will result in a consequence. Basically, it’s the if and then rule that you may have used in your everyday life before. : If A, then B. As you can see, a conditional claim contains both an antecedent and a consequent. In the if-then rule, the A is the antecedent and the B is the consequent resulting from the antecedent. A very good example of this would be:

“If she had quitted smoking a while ago, then she would still be alive today.”

In the example above, the antecedent is “If she had quitted smoking a while ago” and the consequent is “then she would still be alive today.” The statement is very true because if she had quitted smoking earlier, then she wouldn’t have died from cancer and would still be living a longer life.

Chapter 4: Repairing Arguments

In the textbook, I find Chapter 4 to be very useful and interesting. This chapter teaches me about several methods on how to fix arguments that are weak and lacking in an effective premise or an effective conclusion . In chapter 4, Epstein emphasizes the importance of repairing defective arguments by adding an unstated premise or an unstated conclusion. According to Epstein, he thinks that it’s only important to add a premise or conclusion if the argument will become stronger/valid, if the premise is plausible, and if the premise is more plausible than the conclusion. If the argument is already valid or strong, then we may choose to delete a premise to prevent the argument from becoming worse. I also find indicator words to be helpful in determining when the conclusion or premise is coming up in an argument. If I see words such as “so”, “therefore”, or “consequently”, then I will know that the conclusion is coming up. Words such as “since” or “because” are words that introduce the premises. These words make an argument very clear so that people can understand what we’re trying to argue about.

Chapter 5: Advertising on the Internet

I found this Proactive ad online. I thought I want to share it everyone: http://infomarketingblog.com/images/Proactive_Solution_Acne_ad_02.jpg

In this advertisement, Proactive claims that they have “a spotless reputation” because it works by “clearing up the blemishes on your skin and with continued use, helps prevent new ones from forming.” I disagree with this claim because based on my personal experience, I have had a bad experience with using their product. During my freshman year in high school, I was suffering from terrible acne and I tried many over-the-counter products but they didn’t work. When I saw the Proactive advertisement on TV and saw the positive results given by other people and celebrities, I was motivated to try it out. However, the results didn’t turn out very good for me as expected. It was ok the first day but after using it for three more days, I started getting lots of rashes. Plus, my pimples started getting bigger. It was then that I realized Proactive was damaging my skin; it wasn’t working at all. Then I went to go see a dermatologist and he said that i was allergic to proactive and should discontinue to use it. After having that bad experience, I did not trust Proactive anymore and I have to disagree with their claim that their product really works.

Then I went on “yahoo answers” to read over the reviews given by other people. A majority of the people claimed that Proactive was also damaging their skin, not giving the results they had expected. I should've read over these reviews befor trying it out. They were just paying celebrities to endorse their products. How would you know if celebrities had received positive results from using Proactive? I think the best way to get rid of your acne is to go see a dermatologist. Proactive doesn’t work, so don’t waste your money on it.

Violating the Principle of Rational Discussion: Begging the Question Fallacy

Violating the Principle of Rational Discussion: Begging the Question Fallacy

Begging the Question is basically a type of logical fallacy in which an argument asks the reader to accept the conclusion without providing any real evidence.. Why is “begging the question” considered a fallacy? Because simply assuming the conclusion to be true in the premises does not give evidence to prove that conclusion.

Example:
John: Driving on the right side of the road is necessary. (Conclusion)
Kim: Why is it necessary?
John: Because the law says so. (Premise)

In the example provided, John makes the argument driving on the right side of the road is a necessary. However, he hasn’t really provided any evidence on why that is necessary. He just left Kim asking the question, “Why is it necessary?”. By asking that. she is actually questioning the law. It can be seen that John’s argument is begging the question when he replies to Kim by saying “because the law says so”. By doing so, John is actually assuming the validity of Kim’s question.

Communicating in Small Groups and Teams

In the text, “The Essential Guide to Group Communication”, I found Chapter 1 which is entitled “Foundations of Communicating in Small Groups and Teams” to be very interesting. I really like the saying, “two heads are better than one”. This statement is very true because two or more people working together can help solve problems faster compared to only one person working alone. Sometimes working by yourself can be very hard since it takes a while to get things done. Furthermore, whenever you’re stuck or having trouble on something, your team members will be there to guide you or even give you suggestions on how to solve that problem. You can also develop your communication skills while working in groups because you will have the opportunity to talk and share your ideas with your team members.. Overall, I think that groups are very beneficial to our success especially in the future when we are taking part in the workplace.

Valid Arguments VS Strong Arguments

In a valid argument, the premises are all true so the conclusion also has to be true. In other words, since the premises are true, it’s impossible for the conclusion not to be true.

Example of valid argument:
A.)Mark is lactose intolerant. (premise)
B.) Therefore, Mark will get a stomachache from consuming dairy products (conclusion)
In this example, the premise of Mark being lactose intolerant is true so that means he can’t consume any dairy products at all, otherwise he will develop a stomachache.

In a strong argument, the premises could be true and the conclusion could be false.

Example of a strong argument:
A.) Mary was seen kissing a guy’s cheek (premise)
B.) Mary went to the movies with that guy (premise)
C.) So Mary has a boyfriend. (conclusion)

In this example, the premises could be true but the conclusion may be false. The guy she was seen with could’ve been her brother or a close friend. She was only seen kissing the guy on the “cheek”; that doesn’t mean the guy could be her boyfriend. Siblings can also share intimate kisses on the cheek. Also, the premise of her going to the movies with him doesn’t prove anything at all. Maybe Mary’s girlfriends were all busy and the guy was free so Mary decided to invite him to the movies. Therefore, the conclusion of Mary having a boyfriend may be false.

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Example of a Subjective Claim:
Rock music is annoying.

This is a subjective claim that cannot be proved true or false because it’s a personal opinion of how someone think of rock music. For me, I think rock music is very annoying because the screaming voice and the loud guitars gets on my nerves. However, this claim doesn’t hold true for everyone. Unlike me, some people like to listen to rock because they think that it makes them feel better after coming home from a long, stressful work while also giving them the energy to do their work properly.

Example of a Objective Claim.
The September 11th attack was the most disastrous events in US history.

This statement is true. The September 11th attack involved the destruction of the world trade center which in turn led to thousands of casualties. Over 100 people jumped to their deaths because they could not escape the tall buildings. After the attack, this event was broadcasted on the news for days with the scene of the plane hijacking the world trade center replaying over and over again. Many people were very shocked to learn about had happened. As you can see, the claim that the attack was “the most disastrous events in US history” is very true.

Introductory Post

Hello everyone, my name is Laura and I'm going to be in my third year in the fall semester. I'm currently majoring in Accounting as I'm very interested in handling money for a business. My goal is to get a bachelor's degree. I hope to open up an accounting firm someday and employ several accountants working under me. As for my communication experience, it was taking public speaking class last semester and doing oral presentations for my english class. My interests are going on the internet, shopping for clothes, listening to music, and watching T.V. In this class, I hope meet alot of cool people and also to learn as much as I can in the next twelve weeks. :)