Mission Critical Statement

The mission critical statement Website is useful because it contains various amounts of arguments and definitions for arguments. The Website includes basic parts of an argument and basic relations, analysis of arguments, Fallacies and non-rational persuasion, and other common fallacies. There are many terms that we have learned in the class so far that appear on the web page. For example the conjunction and and the disjunction or. This is one very basic concept that has been introduced in our previous classes. One of the categories that we were not introduced to in class was appeal to indirect consequences. Within that category we have the idea of wishful thinking. This concept is a concept that is often used in comedies in my opinion. Wishful thinking is basically a thought which on a positive note tries to distract the other person from the issue. I found the example in the yellow box very effective. The answer was “I’m not going to let Joe’s actions affect his promotion. After all wouldn’t be better if there was no sexual harassment in the workplace?” I found this a great example of wishful thinking.

Cause and Effect Website

The Cause and Effect Website reading was useful and very insightful. It demonstrated how people think when tracing back from an incident to the cause of an incident. The example was who was responsible for the car accident. The objective is to pinpoint exactly what was the cause of the accident. The question is, was it the bicycles fault for the accident or was it the fault of the person slamming the breaks? The strength of the argument relies on three main factors. According to the website, the first reason is how acceptable the implied comparison is. This basically means that we need to compare to other experiences with this instance in order to come to a conclusion. The second reason is how likely is the case for the causation which means how reasonable is it to say that A happened because of B. In this case, how likely is it to say that it was the bicycles fault that the driver immediately stepped on their breaks. The last claim according to the text is how credible the "only significant difference" or "only significant commonality" claim is meaning how credible is it to say that the bicycle was the only reason why there was an accident. Overall this reading was interesting.

Different Types of Resoning Examples

1.Reasoning by Analogy
Premise 1: I am in the comm40 class that is required for graduation.
Premise 2: Robert has not taken the comm40 class.
Conclusion: Robert cannot graduate

2.Sign Reasoning
I have noticed that I have not done all three of my blogs within 12 hours apart.
I will be sure to do that next week to make up for my mistakes this week.

3.Casual Reasoning
Premise 1: I feel very lazy at the moment.
Premise 2: I wasn’t able to do my homework.
Conclusion: Therefore my day was not productive.

4.Reasoning by Criteria
I have noticed that you have not fundraised enough money to cover the costs of your club expenses. You need to sell more items.

5.Reasoning by Example
You should study at least 3 hours a day for that class to do well. I noticed that people who spend more than three hours studying for that class get A’s in the class.

6.Inductive
The store has been opening at 9 a.m. everyday for the past 6 months. The store will open at 9 a.m.

7.Deductive
Premise 1: All Giants fans were at the Giants parade.
Premise 2: I am a Giants fan.
Conclusion: I was at the parade.

Fallacy of Competition

One concept that I have found useful is fallacy of composition. This fallacy states that whatever is the truth about an individual also stays true for the group. This is a very common fallacy. For example, the school should raise the tuition percentage just as the books that we should buy should be raised as well. Here lies an analogy between school and books. The first argument states that the school should raise tuition. One would ask why. The answer would be to cover costs from students because lack of funding from the government. However, the percentage price of books should not be raised because it just doesn’t make sense. Just because books and school are related, both prices shouldn’t be raised to match the other. It would not make any sense for schools to raise book prices because they are trying to keep low prices to entice students to shop at their store. I felt that fallacy of composition is a common fallacy which can be easily noticed.

Appeal to Spite

Appeal to spite is a very controversial yet powerful method that people use to sway others emotions. The book states that appeal to spite is a “hope for revenge”. I feel that appeal to spite is very controversial because it is solely based on emotion yet it is so common. For example, one of my friends (let’s say Jane) didn’t go to a party for my other friend (John), When Jane wanted John to help her with homework, John refused because he felt that Jane wasn’t being a good friend. I feel that appeal to spite is a very accepted practice especially in America. There are countless of action movies that base themselves on this principal. It is generally an accepted practice in our culture to take revenge. The book states that the principal invokes “two wrongs make a right.” I feel like appeal to spite is an effective way to invoke a strong argument, yet it is hard to distinguish whether it may be plausible.

Calling In Your Debts

One leader that I know in a student organization uses the method of calling in debts as an argument to convince others. This leader gives guilt trips to the members of the members of the organization. One example would be when one member didn't want to show up to an event. That member explained to her that she needed to go to a family party. The leader immediately stated "remember the time I helped you get that project done?" This is an example of callin in your debts. The member thought about it and decided to go to the event. With calling in your debts, the user uses a guilt trip to force the other person into a compromising situation. "Should I go to the family party and look like a jerk not helping out someone who helped me out?" Although this is an effective method of swaying emotion and reasoning, it is not an effective motivational tool. Calling in your debts feeds off negativity and creates fear within people if a person uses it too much.

Appeal to Emotion

According to the text, appeal to emotion is basically an argument that makes you react a certain way because of the way you feel. Emotion is a major aspect of reasoning. Without emotion we cannot reason effectively, but we cannot let it completely control our reasoning. The aspect of appeal to emotion that hits me the most is appealing to fear. Whenever I hear about thefts, rapes or murders in the news I am greatly affected. When I hear about these things I think about my own family and loved ones. This is why I feel that appeal to fear is an effective tool for arguments as well as an effective way to sway people’s viewpoints. As a student, I am fearful of what the politicians who are elected into office are going to do with our public education system. Recently, an effective commercial about Meg Whitman played on the air. It pretty much showed her saying the same things that Arnold Schwarzenegger has said when he ran for governor. This was an effective strategy because voters are fearful of candidates who can’t change California. Many voters like me are looking for reform and looking for new fresh candidates to change California. Appeal to emotion is a very persuasive tool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSLoTJySZmg