A little help here!

Since this was an online calss, being able to understand certain concepts were more difficult to do since we wouldn't be able to fully discuss our questions or confusions with each other.  When looking over the material that we have discussed, the most difficult chapter for me would be Epstein's chapter 9 on Concealed Claims.  In this chapter we learned the concepts Euphemism and Dysphemism.  Euphemism is when a word or phrase that makes something sound better than a neutral description and Dysphemism is when a word or phrase that makes something sound worse than a neutral description. Although the text gives examples of these concepts, it does not go into depth or detail in how we can apply these concepts or how to use these concepts in words.  In our daily conversations, story telling, etc. these concepts are shown in the way we speak but we do not notice at all.  A way that we are blinded by these concepts are in commercials.  Advertisements overly exaggerate the greatness in their products and we completely fall for them and believe it.

What I have learned

Honestly before taking this class, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Knowing that the class was about Critical Thinking, I thought that I would be bored by a lot of situations and stumped by a lot of difficult scenarios.  Little did I know, I learned concepts that I could relate to and apply to my daily life.  We learned many concepts and terms, but what stood out to me were the arguments.  I really never thought about analyzing arguments or even being able to determine that they were good, bad, invalid, strong, or weak.  I just thought arguments are arguments and if it wasn't good enough you were going to lose the argument.  From this past semester, I learned that bad arguments can be unrepairable and these bad arguments are called fallacies.  I really enjoyed learning about fallacies simply because of the names that fallacies were called, such as: strawman, and shifting the burden of proof.  These terms are easy to remember and we can easily spot them in arguments that occur in our lives.

A few of my favorite things...and not so favorite

This was my first time taking an online class and it taught me a lot.  My favorite part about the class was being able to work in groups of people from the class. I honestly was not expecting meeting anyone at until the last test, but it was an awesome experience getting to know people instead of being complete strangers taking a final at the end of the semester.  I loved working in groups; despite the fact that it does become difficult due to everyone's different schedules conflicting all the time, I liked getting to know our group from the beginning of the semester to the end.  What made things a lot easier was that we were able to stay with the same group throughout the semester; I became more comfortable and confident in our group.  The least favorite part and something that can be improved is having all of the blogs finished in 12 hour intervals.  I understand that this helps us become disciplined and up to date with our deadlines, but it does become difficult.  I mean, I took an online class because of my time constraints this semester; I wanted to be able to do things on my own time.  And having to turn in things in 12 hour intervals were tough because of my hectic schedule.  I always had to them towards the end of the week. I think it should be up to the students when to do their blogs but still have a due date, just like 11:59pm at the end of the week.  That way, things will still get done accomodation will be up to the student.

Mission Critical

The Mission Critical website was very helpful because it works as a tool in review of the past semester.  The website goes over most of the topics that we have discussed in the book and also brought new topics.  The concept that I thought that was brought up and I saw as practical was vagueness and ambiguity.  These words can be difficult to understand, but I was able to clear the differences between these concepts.  It's difficult to understand because vagueness and ambiguity seem to have similar definitions.  Something that is vague is defined as something that is general, and unclear.  Something that is ambiguous has the ability to have a variety of different meanings. 


An example of vagueness is shown in this sentence:
That is a hot song
This is an example of vagueness because it is unclear that the song is actually hot in temperature, but in actuality it is hot as in a hit. It is used in a slang manner.


An example of ambiguity is shown in this sentence:
The grass is always greener on the other side.
This is an example of ambiguity because this can be interpreted in different ways. One, that the grass is a different shade of green on the other side. Two, there is always something better for you. It's all int he way you look at things.

Evaluating an Analogy

After learning the different types of reasonings, one of the concepts that stood out was reasoning by analogy. A part that was discussed in Epstein's chapter 12 was about how we go about evaluating these analogies.  Epstein gives us questions to use as a guideline when analyzing an analogy.  It is beneficial to us because it helps us in our critical thinking, making sure we are moving towards the right idea or actually comprehending the reasoning.  These are the steps/questions used to help as a guideline in evaluating analogies:
-Is this an argument? What is the conclusion?
-What is the comparison?
-What are the premises? (one or both sides of the comparison)

-What are the similarities

-Can we state the similarities as premises and find a general principle that covers the two sides?

-Does the general principle really apply to both sides? Do the differences matteR?

-Is the argument strong or valid? Is it good?

When encountering an analogy, we can easily analyze it and determine whether the analogy is a good argument or not by using these guideline questions. 

Reasoning by Criteria

Among all of the types of reasonings, I was having a hard time trying to comprehend the concept of Reasoning of Criteria.  I think that the main reason for my confusion is that I do not have a concrete idea of what criteria actually is.  When doing research on this concept, I made sure to look up the definition of the word "criteria", according to dictionary.com Criteria is "a standard of judgment or criticism; a rule or principle for evaluating or testing something. " Although I had the definition, I still did not understand the concept so I looked up the synonyms for it and came up with: standard, measure, basis. In my opinion, the concept of Reasoning by Criteria is making an argument based on established information, or maybe something simple like a fact. Having facts, these types of arguments are reasonable and valid which end up not being much of an argument anyway.

Types of Reasoning

Different types of reasoning allow us to have different kinds of effect on individuals with the way we reason. 

1. Reasoning by analogy draws conclusions from comparing similar things when it is part of an argument. If one thing is one way with the other thing, the same should be for objects of a similar relationship.
   Example: My sister goes homes early yet doesn't have a social life. I have a social life and still have to go home early.
2. Sign reasoning is similar to judging a book by its cover because it draws conclusions due to appearance or other indicators.
   Example: Bree didn't smile at me when I shook her hand; Bree doesn't like me. 
3. Causal reasoning uses cause and effect.
   Example: I got home from dance practice at 1:00am in the morning. I overslept and didn't make it to my 7:30am class. 
4. Reasoning by criteria uses established criteria for future conclusions.
   Example: Clothing made out of 100% cotton shrink all the time. I shouldn't machine dry 100% cotton clothes.
5. Reasoning by example uses other valid examples for arguments.
   Example: Lisa stretches for 15  minutes every night. She is more flexible now and is able to do the splits in gymnastics. Stretching helps a lot.
6. Inductive reasoning uses past observations to make conclusions or generalizations, with the probability that it is could be false.
   Example: Gasoline prices went up in the past few days. Gas prices will continue to rise. 
7. Deductive reasoning is the opposite of inductive reasoning in that it uses generalizations for specific claims.
   Example: If I practice, I will improve on my dancing skills. I practiced everyday, and did well in the dance audition.