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.