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.

Course Assingments

I found the second major course assignment to be very useful. After researching about the specific organization to do the paper on I found it useful to have gained the knowledge I learned about that organization. It’s always useful when learning about an organization such as the World Wildlife Federation, the organization my group chose. Just knowing about what the WWF does and how I could help if I wanted to was important information that I was glad to have learned about. The essay itself was also very useful too. Finding how the organization used emotionally appealing advertisements was useful to me. It showed me how not only this organization but many others use emotion in their ad’s to lure you into their cause. Learning about this has definitely made me more aware of any ad that uses emotional appeal to see whether this cause is something that I am passionate about or something that is just emotionally appealing to me. For example my group used an ad the WWF had that played on peoples emotions using September 11th and relating it to Brazil Tsunami in May 2009. Emotional appeal is how a lot of these organizations draw people in to them. It was useful for me to be able to better understand and analyze advertisements and see what different concepts that these ads are trying to relay. The second paper was useful to me in many ways and I am glad I learned a lot from it.

Ch 8 Concept

A concept in chapter eight that I found to be useful was general claims using words like all, some, no and only. The definitions of these words are very important for their use. For example all means, “Every single one, no exceptions (Epstein p.160)”. After reading these precise definitions it made me think of how many times any one of those words is misused. I know personally I am guilty of using the word “all” incorrectly. Just the other day I told my sister that she leaves her clothes out everywhere all the time; in reality it just seems like it’s all the time but it’s really only some of the time that she does this. It’s really important for the purpose of an argument or claim that these words are used correctly so that you’re speaking truthfully and exact to the situation. Learning this concept has made me more aware of these words and how to use them effectively. When making any claim we should all make sure to use words like all, some, no and only correctly so that others can know exactly what you are talking about.

Something Interesting from Chapter 5

One concept that I found interesting was in chapter five about criteria for accepting or rejecting claims. In this section it explains how “our most reliable source of information about the world is our own experience”. This statement was so interesting to me because you would think that something like an Encyclopedia or even the internet would be more reliable. The more I thought about the concept it became cleat that even something you read on the internet is at least a second hand or third hand source if not more down the line. What you witness and discover about the world is always a first hand source to you and your most credible source, “we need to trust our own experience because that‘s the best we have, everything else is second hand. We accept a claim if we know it is true from our own experience and we reject a claim if we know it is false from our own experiences. This is because we are so credible that if we know different we can reject the claims.

Internet Advertisment

Url: http://barrettclark1files.wordpress.com/2009/11/tag-vball-ad-downloadable1.jpg



The advertisement that I found on the internet is for Tag body spray cologne. The picture has a bunch of women volleyball players piling up on this guy. The guy is portrayed as irresistible to women once this spray is used. In big letters across the ad saying, “WARNING” reassures the confidence of the product along with the “tag warned” card cut-out for emergency paper work in case of pile –up. A classic “look; cool” attention getter for the young audience to lure in for the product purchase. The ad is basically claiming with the help of Tag body spray cologne you will be irresistible to women. I personally reject this claim. No man will create such an event through the smell of his cologne. The ad is presenting a false claim we cannot trust the company especially when no respectable authority figure is present. My little brother uses Tag body spray cologne and it in no way makes me want to act any different just by smelling it. Although this ad does not trigger my attention it seems to be popular amount young boys and they are appealed by the ad.

Repairing Arguments

There are three guidelines required in repairing an argument in order to make it better. If the argument is bad, we are justified in adding a premise or conclusion that satisfies these three guidelines.
1. The argument becomes stronger or valid.
2. The premise is plausible and would seem plausible to the other person.
3. The premise is more plausible than the conclusion.

Example: “All models are tall; Sally is tall, therefore, Sally must be a model”

Analysis: “Sally is a model” is the only premise that will make this valid or strong argument. Saying Sally is a model is the only premise plausible enough for the other person to understand the argument. This is when you say an assumption works in both directions, even if there’s no reason to believe so. Just because A means B doesn’t mean B means A. The sentence is also a good indicator of a conclusion because it uses the word, “therefore” which shows that a conclusion is coming up.