Most Interesting Concept

Like what I mentioned in my past blog, I have learned so much from this class. However, the one that stood out the most and I really enjoyed learning is about General Claims. I always notice people saying some or all, no or only, as well as vague generalities. Before this class I thought that mentioning those words was just fine when stating facts or doing a report in class, because it seems like everybody else says it. However, after this class I am very much more careful when it comes to using those words because it is misleading for people that you talk to. I remember one time when I told my friend and said “Some cars are harder to park in the SJSU parking lot.” By saying “some” I could have meant just a car or two or I could mean more than the half of the type of cars that park in the garage. By learning about being vague, I notice more how I use some words very lightly even if they can be misinterpreted by many.

Opinions About The Class...

I had an online class just a semester ago, and I had a tough time because our lectures were online, and watching it on the computer was the least motivating thing you can do for an online class. This class was surprisingly different from the one I took, and is so much more manageable without having the student lag on their classwork, because there is a due date for each discussion every week- which I like because it makes me have to do work to earn a good grade, and not push it off until the last minute. The exercises we used as well were very helpful and something that anyone can relate to so it is easier to comprehend and apply to our own situations.

The only thing that I least like about this class is how I did not really get to know the people in my group as well as those people that I see in class, but the group work that my group had was tremendously great. Through that I know that the group members are just as amazing as they are online. I also don’t really think this class need any much more improvement since it is a pretty good and enjoyable class- I love getting comments from my fellow students on my blog and the idea of a blogging class is also fun. I really enjoyed taking this under Professor Perez because she made it very much enjoyable :)

What I Have Learned From This Class...

This Critical Decision Making class has helped me in many ways, not only to support my arguments and claims but also how to communicate well with other people as well as through groups. I have learned so many ways to exercise critical thinking for school and also for communicating with others- particularly, analyzing claims such as prescriptive, objective and subjective claims, the difference between vague sentences and ambiguous sentences and how to identify if a statement is one of those.

I also learned a lot of different fallacies that people use in their statements to lure the person on leaning towards their side when it comes to arguments. Since I already encountered fallacies in my English 1B class, I like how this class supplemented more fallacies that I did not learn. Some that I learned from this class are: begging the question, shifting the burden of proof, strawman, relevance, slanters, and ridicule- which are the Violating the Principle of Rational Discussion. I specifically liked the appeal to emotion chapter, because I have noticed how appeal to pity usually gets me every time that I see the commercials about animal violence or children from Africa on the television. Appeal to fear is also something that candidates use to earn more votes, that I did not even realize they are using until the book we use in class mentioned it.

Chapter 15

Like any other claims and arguments, it is unavoidable to make mistakes when it comes to evaluating cause and effect. There are particularly two mistakes in evaluating cause and effect, according to Chapter 15 in Epstein.

I think the easiest way to explain how reversing cause and effect can be a mistake is by showing an example. Here it goes…

Duncan: Spending too much time on the computer is bad for you.

Martin: Why is that?

Duncan: Well, because most people tend to disregard personal communication or physical activities, and this can affect relationships in the long run.

Martin: Well, maybe people aren’t just going on the computer to go on Facebook or Twitter, but to actually do school work. You know how most school work now is all online.

Another problem that we encounter when evaluating cause and effect is when we look too hard for a cause. There are times when we don’t always have to be looking for the reason why things happened. Most of us have a tendency to think or even make up our own inferences why such things occur or as they call it in Epstein post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this).

Thoughts on Mission: Critical Website

The most useful thing I found in the Mission: Critical website is the way they defined each topic thoroughly and gave very good examples that the reader could easily comprehend- some of the examples given can even relate to their readers, which makes it easier to understand and learn. The explanations were very straightforward and helpful especially when one needs to know how to properly argue and/or state claims.

The website also supplies multiple links to other topics on the website that supports a certain topic to explain it more and show how it connects to other aspects of the argument. Not only does the website give great explanations and examples, but it also offers exercises, which indicates reasons why you chose the wrong option, that can help the reader understand the topic better and test themselves as well. I think the website is a great supplement to what the book we have for class offers, since we get to see more examples and definitions.

Cause and Effect

The information from the Cause and Effect website was very helpful. The website diligently explained how cause and effect arguments can be similar and different in some ways that the arguments can make the statements stronger or weaker. According to the website, http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/itl/graphics/induc/causal.html, the three factors that affect a causal argument’s strength are:

1.       How acceptable or demonstrable the implied comparison is.  

2.       How likely the case for causation seems to be.

3.       How credible the “only significant difference” or “only significant commonality” claim is.

The example used was also very effective since it’s something that any of the reader can experience while driving, and it may be good to know how to argue well if ever one gets into a situation like that. The exercises provided in the website were also very helpful since it also tells you the reason why you get the answer wrong, if ever you do. It also shows you how well you know the subject.

Sign of Reasoning and Casual Reasoning

I found the picture on page 253 on Epstein really interesting, because it reminded me of the questions that they had for the tests I took before getting into college. At first I thought that they were just a simple methodology of reasoning, but it turns out the pictures actually have more elaborate meaning when it comes to analogy.

Anyway, that was only one of the things I found interesting in this week’s topic, but the one that really caught my attention was Sign of Reasoning, because even if we’re just having a casual conversation with friends or in class, we don’t really focus that we are pretty much almost always reasoning when we talk. Not only that, but we also use Casual Reasoning when trying to make sense of things by figuring out why such things happened. For example:

Amanda has been working as a volunteer at the children’s hospital, and she hasn’t been getting enough sleep. She probably caught the cold from one of the patients and lack of sleep making her more vulnerable to it.