Xtra Topic

I found the concept about cause and effect in population useful and interesting. Cause in population is usually explained as meaning that given the cause, there’s a higher probability that the effect will follow than if there were not the cause (Epstein p.320). An example is people who tan have a much higher probability of getting skin caner or eye cancer than non-tanners. People who tan or tan excessively have been proven to get certain eye and skin cancers and even though there are other factors that contribute to these illnesses both theses illness have been proven to be caused by cancer. Since the exact number of tans or exposure to UV-Rays is not know to directly cause cancer the cause and effect shows the higher probability of the illnesses. I found this concept in chapter fifteen to be most interesting. Cause and effect in populations are very common and useful to know about and see in life and I like how relatable this topic was to life.

Mission Critical Website

I expected the mission critical site to be a lot similar to the cause and effect website but I found the complete opposite. I was very overwhelmed at first with the mission critical site there was a lot of links and I almost just didn’t even want to start. I then found that the site was surprisingly useful and easy to navigate around. It laid out useful and important information about arguments and fallacies. I like how the concepts were laid out so plainly so each of the individual topics are explained correctly. I found the explanation of arguments very useful. It helped to re-learn those basics of arguments and the different parts of the arguments that we had studied earlier in the semester. I also found it very useful to just go over all this information in general through the website; especially the examples of good and bad arguments really helped me understand the concept that much better. I really liked both the cause and effect and mission critical websites.

Cause and Effect Website

I found the cause and effect website to be very useful and a different experience with learning new material. The book has been our main source of information for this class and it was interesting to be able to try a different style of learning especially with the exercises the website used. I also found the website to be very useful because of the examples that were very easily understood. I especially like the example with the traffic accident that showed how cause effect arguments worked. I also found the information about the three factors in determining the strength of a casual argument: (1) how acceptable or demonstrable the implied comparison is, (2) how likely the case for causation seems to be, (3) and how credible the "only significant difference" or "only significant commonality" claim is. I really liked the learning style of the website and found the website and the information in it very useful.

Interesting Topic

One concept from the assigned reading that I thought was interesting was an argument that calls in your debts. “An argument that calls in your debts appeals to the opposite of spite: “You should believe or do something if you owe someone a favor” (Epstein 193)”. For example:

Jessica: How can you go to the mall with Stacey and not go with me? You owe me from that time I helped you do your homework?

Bringing up the person debt as a way to get what you want is an example of calling in your debts. This in turn makes you feel guilty so now you feel compelled to go to the mall with Jessica. I believe that just because you helped someone does not mean you get to demand when you get the help back. I thought this concept was interesting because this concept applies to an experience that most people can say that they have gone through.

Pg 195 #3

3. Find an advertisement that’s uses an appeal to fear. Is it a good argument?
-Ad URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl5gBJGnaXs
~The advertisement I choose that shows appeal to fear is a drug advertisement from the late eighties and early nineties showing an egg frying in a frying pan to demonstrate what your brain looks like on drugs. This advertisement is not a good argument. There is no evidence to show that your brain looks like a fried egg when you do drugs. This advertisement is meant to scare viewers into not wanting to try drugs because of the horrible effects it has on your brain. The feeling of fear is invoked through this commercial because any damage to your brain is very scary, even though the commercial over exaggerates the damaged cause by drugs. This commercial is not showing any logic to prove there point. How much drugs make your brain fry? Which drugs make your brain fry? The advertisement is making a general statement about drugs that has no support.

Appeal to Emotion

Emotion plays a significant role in making decisions for everyday life, “An appeal to emotion in an argument is a premise that says you should believe or do something because you feel a certain way (Epstein 191)”. When appealing to emotion no valid logic is used instead the recipients emotions are manipulated to make the argument seem valid and logical. Some different aspects to appeal to emotion are appeal to fear, appeal to pity, appeal to spite and appeal to vanity. The aspect that strikes me most is appeal to pity. I would most often find myself feeling bad from advertisements where appeal to pity is used. The appeal to pity the advertiser uses makes me feel compelled to give money to the organization and help when I don’t even know anything about the cause or organization. In my personal experience I find myself most subject to appeal to pity. Emotion does play an important part in making a decision but at the same time too much emotion can change your perception and decision.

Another Ch 8 Concept

Something that I found to be very useful during this assigned reading was the way the book teaches us how to use a diagram to check for valid and invalid forms. The book shows you how to make the diagram to represent the premise by breaking each sentence down into parts within each other to prove whether or not the claim is valid. For example, “All cats meow. Everything that meows is a mammal. So all cats are mammals. The “cat” area is inside the “things that meow” area and the “things that meow” area is inside the “mammal” area. From this diagram we can tell that cats ends up being inside of the mammal area representing that all cats are mammals. The diagram also shows that the premise and conclusion are true meaning the argument is valid. This concept was useful for me to learn because it helped me understand visually a lot better how to check an arguments validity.