What I liked about the class/ what I did not

My favorite thing about this class was that we can take this class at our own pace and post the blogs anytime before the due date. Since I was booked with homework and classes, this online critical thinking was good. The blogs we had to do were pretty easy to do and I had no difficulty in doing them. My group project with my other team members was fun. Even though I did not meet with them for the first meetings in person. The last one was a good one where all worked together. We all had fun within the group. We got our stuff done efficient and good for a very good grade. 

There were a few things I did not like about this class. I took an online class in the summer and we meet with the teacher a few times. Face time with the students is important, even though it is an online class. Another was the twelve hour in between posts. If someone forgets to do it they are kind of screwed to get full credit.

Generalize

Generalizing can be two very distinct meanings. The first one is we conclude a claim about a population from a claim by a sample. The next is finding the inductive evidence for the generalization. Generalizing also means in a statement to find the key words to see the sample of the statement to show the inductive evidence in a statement. From personal experiences to a mad up story, generalizing shows that  a group of population to sample from. In theory sampling is done with a research of a group of people. For example if you want to sample how many SJSU students are Engineering majors there are a few ways. We can randomly ask 1000 students what there major is and assume Engineering is the greatest. Or get the info from the department and make a percentage who are from the whole school. Generalizing is good in big groups of people and not small, because there is not enough info to generalize what you are trying to research.

What I learned

This class was very helpful to me to learn different types of arguments ad how to approach them. Critical thinking has more in depth about what there is in it. What I thought was most interesting to me was the different types of fallacies to use in an in direct way or not. I did not know how to tell a good argument to a bad one without the help of fallacies. Since they range from Drawing the line - the Strawman, reading the different types will help me define a statement if it is true or false. Another theory I will use is repairing an argument because I put random words that make a statement to be plausible. By adding more depth like so, this, for, given that, theses words can improve my argument to make it more valid. Overall I have learned so much in this class that will help me in life now. 

mission Critical Website

What I found useful to the Mission Critical Website was that it was organize to find the parts of argument and the different types of arguments there are. When you click on a word, it give you an example for the word and the description of how to use it and when to use it. For example when I clicked the “ambiguous and vague”, the website gives you the definition of each word.  Next are a A, B and C section where it gives you a phrase and the next sentence in it.  The website also includes a section fallacies. They list the different types to appeal to loaded questions in the section. This website is really helpful for a person who needs help within the vocabulary. Its simplicity and ease to move around will help me to study for the final by using the Mission Critical website. The only bad thing I did not find useful was that there were some stuff still under construction, which can help now then later.  

Cause and Effect Website

What I found useful for the Cause effect website was that they gave many different examples we use to find a cause effect to a problem or and argument. In the website, they gave an example of a bicyclist who gets hit by a car because he passed a truck when he was opposed to be in the bike lane. So who do we say who’s fault is it. The truck was illegally parked in the parking zone which caused the accident. Second the car’s sudden stop made his client hit him. There are a few ways that the accident could be avoided. If the truck was parked legally. The biker stayed in the bike lane. The lawyers for all persons involved have to tell their side of what happened. The example goes into the trial of what happens next to the effect to what happens. The strengths of the casual argument is : How acceptable the implied comparison is. Likely the cause of causation seems to be. How Credible the claim is. 

1. Types of reasoning

The Reason by Analogy is a comparison becomes reasoning by analogy when it is part of an argument. 

For example: John plays video games all day not going to school. He gets good grades without going to lecture sometimes. Therefore, he is smart and can take advantage of his time. He can survive college if he passes all the exams.

Sign Reasoning 

If the iPhone comes out to Verizon Wireless by next year many will switch over. Then both Apple and Verizon stocks will go up in the first quarter. 

Casual Reasoning 

Tom had homework to do before going to work. He missed the bus from finishing up his homework. Therefore he missed work which lead to him being fired. 

Reason by Criteria 

Tim Lincecum wants to be the best pitcher in MLB history. How about two Cy Youngs and a World Series Champ in less then ten years? 

Reason by Example

Do you like Hip-Hop and Rap? Artist with talent? Then listen to the new Kanye West album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that comes out Nov 22nd. He blends his beats and artist lyricism in this Genius album of all time. 

Inductive

All my roomate does is play video games and online poker. Therefore he has no friends.

Deductive 

All asians are smart. Studying is a sport for asians. Therefore Asians get good test scores and good grades. 

Indicator Words

 We use indicator words or claims added to a claim to tell the role of the claim in an argument or what the speaker thinks of the claim or argument. These words clarify the argument in which it is  not part of a claim. Some words fro conclusion indicators are: so, thus, it follows that and hence. Premise indicators include: since, because, for, it follows from and given that. The two sets are different when using it to what the speaker thinks of a claim or argument. If the speaker does not use an indicator word, then good English style suggest that the topic concludes the argument. 

Example: Journalists are using YouTube to report the news. So anyone can be a journalist. 

In this example we can say that anyone can be a journalist from a friend to a CNN reporter on YouTube. The only difference is that the ones we see on TV and YouTube is a pay difference of none to salary pay. 

I like to use indicator words to show how my argument can be persuasive enough to another person. 

Conditional claim

A conditional claim is if it can be written as an “if...then” claim that has the same truth by value. The statement is assumable because we do not know the outcome until later. I use conditional claims to find out what would happen if prop 19 did pass then will California gain money or make people more dumb from prop 19. The condition is the subordinate and then the consequence is the main clause. We sometimes assume that conditional claim can be argued because we do not know what will happen if the premise to be true or false. If the Rangers hit the ball or Cliff Lee did good then they would have won the World Series. This could be true but it is not and the Giants won by getting all the good breaks to win it all. Or if the Rangers won, they have the best hitters in the majors right now. 

Exercise 10 #3

This midterm election, I witnessed many attack ads that appeal fear to the opponent. There are many new ways for advertisements instead of billboards. Many politicians have invested millions of dollars in putting ads on the internet to attract young voters to swing in that direction. Depending on the age group of voters they want  to attract, they will put ads anywhere. Newspapers for the older generation, 30-50 by TV and the younger voters by internet. The one battle was for Governor of California. Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown made many attack ads against each other to discover the truth about each other. One was about Meg Whitman having a similar speech to former Governor Arnold  Schwarzenegger. They both said the same words in different speeches and at the end it said “ We tried this already”. I thought it was funny because it is true what Brown said. Whitman countered by stating about herself and how she created thousands of jobs through Ebay. Also Whitman contributed $147 million dollars in ads to lose to him. I feel that this is a good way of political arguments because they offer funny or attacking ads against their opponents. 



to watch the ad heres the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSLoTJySZmg

Appeal to Emotion

The Appeal To Emotion is an argument which is emotional based that a premises says, roughly, you should believe to do something in a certain way. It appears to appeal other people in fear. Politicians and advertisers, use this as a scare factor to the opponent in a campaign or to manipulate people to vote or buy a product. In this election year we see many appeal to emotion in many politicians’ advertisements against their opponents. Jerry Brown released an attack video about Meg Whitman about we tried this already and it failed. An appeal to spite, the hope of revenge, is invariably rejected as bad by some people on moral grounds strikes me because we use this on people who do not like or have something against another person. For example, an appeal to spite is a lie to another person. Or if another person says something and does the opposite of what he/she tells him to do. I use it even though I hate the person. Its an act of kindness that God wants us to do. 

Strawman

The stawman principle of rational discussion is when you misrepresent something by putting words in other peoples mouth in an argument. It misrepresents the opposition of the other person by attacking the other persons stance to an argument. Sometimes they exaggerate the truth or misrepresent version about the proposition of meaning. We see this method when we say something wrong or has no meaning but someone picks it ups and corrects it. In the media, government officials sometimes make mistakes in interviews about a wrong statement or an unclaimed truth. So their public relations specialist always have to fix the problem especially in an election year. The etymology for strawman has not been clear where it came from. In europe strawman is called Aunt Sally. 

For example: 

1. Person A has something to say about X
2. Person B presents with proposition Y
3. Person B refutes with Y
4. Therefore X is false or incorrect

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html

Chapter 8

What I learned from chapter eight is to use diagrams when finding if an argument is valid or invalid. This method is very helpful because it shows steps of what is right or wrong in argument. The validity with diagram is an enclosed are method where if a conclusion is false, the premises is true. There was a list of words that we should use to find a general claim. For example: all, some, some are not, no, and only s are p. Each of these claims are good to use in a claim which we start with a claim word. Contradict words are used to counter claims. The diagram that we use to represent if a premises is to be true. To find if it is true for example: I wear basketball shoes. If you wear basketball shoes you must be a ball player. Therefore if you play basketball you are tall. The diagram looks likes this to be true: 

#2 assignment

Both assignments were useful to explain an issue or an organization effecting our community. I thought that assignment number two is useful because we need to help many organizations fighting a cause. If we donate a few dollars here in there would mean feeding a family to getting someone a check up. We can change someones life if we help these organizations out. Even though some advertisements on TV can be heart warming or depressing, it is true to help another person out. Our group did the American Cancer Society. It is a good time to pick this organization because it is breast cancer awareness month. Pink ribbons are being worn by people to show how you support the disease. There have been many ways to show support against the illness. The “Boobies” bracelets have been popular with many young adults. The money from the bracelets help support an organization for breast cancer.Another example is the NFL is putting an emphasis on this issue. Players wear gloves, towels, and chin strap that are pink. If we can help by donating to the American Cancer Society or small organizations, we can defeat this illness around the world. 

False dilemma

A false dilemma is a bad use of excluding possibilities where the claim is false or implausible. A false claim can be dubious or another claim. We use false dilemma to contradict two plausible to figure out which is better. If there are two alternatives to the opinion of the claim it is a false dilemma. For example in fantasy football we  go through a false dilemma in choosing the player who will do better prior before a game. If we had to choice one player between Chris Johnson or Ryan Matthews who would it be? We gather enough info to make a false dilemma decision in choosing Chris Johnson over Ryan Matthews. A false dilemma can back fire if choosing the wrong option. When another person scores more points then the other but on the bench. Another way we use a false dilemma is a black-and-white-thinking when we label people as good or bad from one another. 

Ch. 7

A counter argument is when we use another claim to the argument to further understanding the premises. I use it to question if there are any other claims to get the answer when my friends have a dubious claim. There are a few ways to find a refuting argument if: one of the premises is dubious, there is no valid or strong arguments and if the conclusion is false. A bad claim cannot be a good counter argument, hence forth a slippery slope contains a contradiction.  An example of a counter argument is when the media says that the best tram in the NFL are the New York Jets. New Orleans are the current Super Bowl champs so they get a vote in it. Or the Kansas City Chiefs because they are the only team undefeated right now. Also media does a strawman because each has a say on who is the best team to get more readers/viewer. Every media on sports put more info in fantasy that they counter argue each other. For example, one can say that Peyton Manning will get 20 points and another can say he will get 25 points which can make or break a game.

ch.6

Chapter 6 is a bout compound claims that we use all the time. Compound claims have two contradictory: A or B and A not B. What I learned was that claims have different methods of contractions to see if it is a good claim to an argument. We use conditional claims  that must have the same truth-value. For example, if a football player uses steroids then he will be caught and be banned, but the contradictory is if he uses it and will not be caught. In my daily life I use the contradictory of a conditional to contradict something I do but regret it. Another example we use for a compound claim is that claims can be sequential to what happens next. Just today When I woke up there were different possible ways form A to B. There were different ways that I woke up too. Alarm clock, phone ringing, or when they clean the streets is ways I woke up.

Advertising The Internet

The online advertisement that I thought would have a good premises is an ad for a video game. The game is Lord of the Rings a MMORPG game playing characters from the movie. It is a free game even though some charge $30 for a annual charge. They want it free because they want the game to have a good competition to World of Warcraft. WOW has ruled the MMORPG market with 30 million subscribers and charge a fee every couple months. The  Lord Of the Rings game makes a plausible clause that they want more people to play their game. Free games make their clause that they do not have enough people to play their game to make it free. From having bad graphics, bad story mode or action is why they sell gamers to play it for free. If their game production team spent time with the problems it could compete with WOW and other games. 

http://www.ign.com/

Bad appeal to common belief

Bad appeal to common belief is a mistake to accept a claim as true solely because many people believe it. We use this belief for rumors on celebrities, sports, government, and all around us. It is a misleading argument with a bad plausible clause to its argument. For example when the Government hides something it can be misleading information. Still many people still believe in Area 51 or other conspiracies. If companies want to advertise their product, this is what they use to promote it. Bad appeal to common belief in companies by praising their product even though it may be bad for you or it will not sell. Another bad appeal is peer pressure to our friends. From drinking to smoking, we get our friends to do it because they say it is good for you to have fun and relax. The end result of drinking and partying is getting arrested and health concerns. Think twice about everything and only trust a good source to prevent a mistake to an argument. 

Repairing the Arguments

Mike is very tall. So he plays basketball. 

Analysis  is that Mike is 6'11" and African American.

This is still a weak argument because what if he does not play basketball but a different sport or does not play a sport at all. He could have a different talent away from sports like music or acting in which he doesn't play basketball. Mike could play football or volleyball which has very tall men but do not play basketball professionally. Or he could have a medical condition that permits him from playing sports at all. From his race and height we assume he plays basketball because in the NBA, it is majority tall black men who play. We also assume since he is black that he lives in the ghetto and his family is very poor. The argument cannot be repaired because we do not know if Mike likes basketball or has another activity he likes do to. Also the plausible clauses could be false as well the conclusion to the argument. 

 

Slippery Slope

The slippery slope fallacies is a chain of small steps that states a related event to a negative conclusion. It leads to series of events that give the inevitability of the event is  questioned. Each event will connect to each other in a chain of events until it will lead to either a true conclusion or a false one. For example: 1 leads to 2, 2 leads 3, and 3 leads to 4 but the conclusion will end as 4 to 7. This is a slippery fallacies because the conclusion 7 does not connect to 1-4. 

My example is the whole Lebron James free agency sweep stakes. After winning his second MVP, the Cavilers lose in the playoffs leading to a bog upset. From July 1st to the 8th, he had meetings with many teams that wanted to get him on their team. Chris Bosh verbally committed to play with D Wade on the Heat. That Thursday, LeBron publicly dissed the state of Ohio to play for the Heat with a good chance of winning a Championship. For the 2010-2011 season, The Heat will win the championship beating the LA Lakers.

The conclusion to my example could be dubious because there are many ways of the Heat not winning the championship for example: injuries, getting on a cold streak of winning, or losing in the playoffs before making it into the championship game.

Complex Arguments for Analysis

Las Vegas has too many people (1). There’s not enough water in the desert to support more than a million people (2). And the infrastructure of the city can’t handle more than a million: The streets are overcrowded, and traffic is always congested; the schools are overcrowded, and new ones can’t be built fast enough (3) . We should stop migration to the city by tough zoning laws in the city (4). 

Argument: Yes

Conclusion: To decrease overcrowded populations in big cities, zonings law will decrease congestion in the city. 

Additional Premises needed? The water supply for the people has decreased every year with droughts. Las Vegas has to turn to many out of state eater sources to fill the need of the people in Las Vegas. The over congested streets, are putting many blocks of the strip filled with trash that people throw on the streets. Schools cannot afford the supplies of new students incoming into k-12 schools in the LV school districts.

Identify any subarguments?: Arguments 1-3 are all independent that support the conclusion.

Good argument? It could be a better argument with more plausible clauses in the argument but it has a central idea to support the conclusion.  Premises 2 could have been divided into more premises than cramming buildings and streets in the premises. 4  could use more depth on zoning laws in the city to understand what needs to be done. 

This was a useful exercise because we broke down if it was a good argument and added more premises to make it a better argument. It helps me to understand how to use better arguments in daily routine.

Dubious arguments

A dubious argument is if we have no reason to believe it is true. We use dubious arguments that will never happen or a tie that we tell for an argument. It contains plausible claims that are not true to the person. We get many dubious arguments from movies or what we read because it is make believe and will never happen. An example of a dubious claim is gunning a Delorean 88mph to go to the future, from the movie Back to the future. The claim is dubious because no car with nuclear power and hover crafting ability, cannot go to the future or past for fun. Another machine from Back to the Future is the Nikes with the technology do to everything. It can fit to your feet and air blow when it gets wet, also it talks to you confirming what to do. Its dubious because I don't think we will get this from way advances technologies.

Argument to be good

There are three steps to test an argument is good. The first is to to see if the premises are plausible which we have good reason to believe it is true. The second test is the premises are more plausible than the conclusion, meaning that if it is a true premises  of the conclusion is false. The last test is if the argument is strong or a valid argument. We use strong argument if there is some way for its premises is true and conclusion false, and valid if there is no possible way to find a true premises and a false conclusion.

An example is LeBron James is signed to Nike to wear in every basketball game. He gets paid millions to endorse Nike in public appearances and commercials. Also he has made his own signature clothing line, shoes, and other products for Nike. In conclusion, Lebron only wears Nike shoes and clothing everywhere he goes. 

For the three step test for a good argument, the premises that Lebron wears Nikes is true to make is plausible. Nike has made Lebron their star athlete because he has won two straight MVPs in the NBA . The conclusion is false though because he does not only have Nike in his closet. Since The NBA makes player wear shirts and ties before and after games, Lebron must wear that to not be fined and Nike specially is for sports wear not formal wear. 

Strong Vs. Valid Argument

Both strong and valid argument is if there is no possible way for its premises to be true and its conclusion false. A strong argument for example would be McDonalds is  the healthiest fast food restaurant. Therefore people who eat there are healthy. They have many healthy food choices there offered like salads, chicken sandwiches and yogurts. McDonalds has reduced the calories and portions of their food to keep it healthy. The premise were true, McDonalds is actually one of the worst fast food restaurants in the world by increasing the amount of sugar, salt and fat a person should have in a day if you eat it. A salad there is equal to a big mac which is two thousand calories in just a salad.

An example of a valid argument is that if you play in the NFL, you make millions of dollars. Players like, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and other NFL superstars are getting paid  at least 10-20 million a year to play football. In reality there are players getting paid the minimum salary to play the game they love. If they get cut or released by a team, they will not make money from the team and have to attract other teams to sign them.

3. Definition

We use definition to find more depth and explain a word or phrase. In college defining words to fully understand it is very important to the teachers and whoever reads papers. Words can have different definitions to one word. For example season has two meanings, the time of year in which the weather changes or as a spice we add to our foods. Another is bear the furry animal we are all scared of or to carry something with you. Definition of a word can trick people in sentences in what the writer is talking about. Back in grade school I used to have a problem of writing the word read because it can be present or past tense.  I always be assure that I use the right meaning because if we do not we can loose points in an essay or other writings. Definition is very important in sentences because you can confuse the readers in a different direction of a sentence. 

2. Vague Sentence

A vague sentences is if there are many ways to understand it without the speaker making it clear. We use it to describe a place, thing or object that we use commonly use with friends. A good example is when I play basketball with my friends I always get confused on which court they play on. Back where I’m from there are about five places where we play ball at the park or schools. Usually we play at a park near my high school but when they change courts, they tell me when I’m already at another one shooting around. My friends always change their mind depending on who plays and how many people play with them. Since I go home at least once a month they always have a new place to play where more competition and people. This a good example of a vague sentence because the basketball courts show the differences my friends have in the different courts we play on each time. From one court to another, I’m always stuck on the nearest courts even though my friends play on a court with a half court and slippery ground. 

1. Subjective and Objective Claims

Subjective claims are personal expressions, belief or an opinion on a topic. An example is debating weather or not who will win the Superbowl for the NFL this year. Many columnists debate the fact that the New Orleans Saint can win it again because of their passing attack. Some disagree the fact they would win again  from a poor defensive show in the pre-season that leaves questions about there run game. Another contender that ESPN, CBS Sports, and Yahoo Sports having predicted will win this year is the New York Jets. Picking up running back LaDainian Tomlinson, wide receiver Santonio Holmes, corner Antonio Cromartie and others, put them in a good spot to take it all this year. In the preseason this year both there offense and defense have failed to live up to their hype. This is a good example for subjective claims because it shows two different teams who might win the Super Bowl this year. 

Objective claims is not from just one person but from everyone who is informed that is true. Dubbing Alabama as the #1 team in the country for football, is objective because they won the national championship last year. They are returning many starters on both sides along with the current Heisman winner Mark Ingram. Every poll including the AP and Coaches all agreed that Alabama is the #1preseason team even with good competition at the top 10 this year.

Intro

My name is Matt Ng a Sophomore from SJSU. I am majoring in Business Marketing hoping to become a sports agent. Born and raised in Salinas,CA near Monterey. I like to workout, play sports, hang out with friends and travel to different places. After college I want to move to New York for work and get out of Cali to experience a new state and culture.
My past experience was taking Com 20 last year and it was very fun to prepare a speech about certain topics.  I would like to learn more communication skills to help me prepare for work in the future. Critical thinking should help me to think out of the box and to bring in new ideas in a project.