Strong vs. Valid Arguments

Even though I've read about strong and valid arguments, I am still confused about it. I wish they would have given more examples of a strong argument versus a valid one. I don't get when an argument can be strong, but sometimes can't be valid or when an argument is valid, but not strong. I can locate weak arguments, but not good, strong, or valid arguments. Every time I feel like an argument is valid or strong, I end up being wrong because they're using some type of fallacy or one of the premises isn't true. I think it's hard to find a strong or valid argument. I question myself every time I think an argument is strong. I end up second guessing myself and questioning whether or not there's something wrong in the argument. I just wish the book could have gone into it more and given more examples of valid and strong arguments.

What I've Learned

I have learned many things throughout the semester. I learned how to argue and the types of fallacies that we use every day in arguments, that I thought were never fallacies. I didn't think that appealing to emotion or fallacies like ad hominem were not valid arguments. They're just so common when we use them, that I would have never guessed them to be fallacies. I now know and can locate when someone isn't using a valid argument or even a good argument. I can use that to my advantage when arguing with someone or when I'm trying to prove a point to be right, especially to people who always think they're right. Other than learning how to argue, I learned how to think critically. I learned how to determine whether something someone says or something I read is justified by the reasons they give. I learned how different people work in groups and how they interact differently and I learned that how people come to their conclusions are all different. I learned from these blogs that writing out your thoughts is very helpful because when you're thinking sometimes you forget about what you think about, and you can go back to these blogs and see what you've analyzed or what you've learned. I've learned about how people think differently and how people think alike. I learned that everyone's opinion matters and I like how easy it was to relate to each other.

Chapter 14 Generalizing

I thought that generalizing was an interesting topic because we use it a lot. According to the Epstein text, "we are generalizing if we conclude a claim about the group, the population, from a claim about some part of it, the sample." There's a lot of generalizing in statistics and in every day life. For instance, I generalize when I say that the pad thai at this restaurant is good, every item on the menu must be good then or when I say that the a sports team won their first 5 games, they're probably going to make it to the playoffs. Another thing I would relate to generalizations is stereotypes. From picking a sample in a group of people sometimes we assume that all of them are the same, like a typical stereotype would be that Asians have chinky eyes. We say this by taking some people of Asian ancestry and seeing that they have chinky eyes, so we conclude that all Asians have chinky eyes. Just by taking a claim on some part of a group or population we assume that the whole group is like that. I don't think we generalize on purpose, it's just easy to assume things for the whole population when some part of that population is exactly what you're assuming.

Cause and Effect in Populations

A concept that I found interesting was cause and effect in populations. According to the Epstein text, "cause in populations is usually explained as meaning that given the cause, there's a higher probability that the effect will follow than if there were not the cause." If you have no specifics on the normal conditions then you go to statistical conclusions. Just like the example they used in the book about smoking, there are some people who smoke who don't get lung cancer and there are some people who smoke who do get lung cancer and when you're using an argument like "smoking causes lung cancer," we have no normal conditions for this, so we use statistics to better the argument. What I also found interesting about cause and effect in populations were the different experiments like the controlled experiment, uncontrolled experiment, and uncontrolled experiment from effect-to-cause. In an uncontrolled experiment we start with the suspected cause and see if the effect follows, but it's uncontrolled so people in the experiment may be doing something or make their own decisions that changes the outcome, there are more factors to consider. In a controlled experiment, people follow what they're supposed to do and don't do anything that they're not told to do.

Mission Critical Website

What I found useful about the Mission Critical website were all the links to describe everything about arguments. I found it useful because it helps to see the basics of how to form an argument, how to analyze arguments, and their fallacies. It described each in detail and described it in a way that I can understand. I also found it easier to navigate than a book because it divides everything into sub categories that are linked to different pages. You don't have to go through pages to find specific words or phrases because each key word has their own page.

Another thing I found useful were the exercises because instead of just reading things to understand, it helps to actually do them to understand. If you get an answer wrong in the exercise it tells you why it's wrong and if you get it correct then it explains why it's correct.

One concept I found useful on this website to read were about the other common fallacies because I read about them in the book, but it wasn't very clear to me. Reading about these fallacies on the website were more clear, not to mention, the exercises helped.

Cause and Effect

The Cause and Effect reading and exercises helped me to understand inductive arguments where there is only one significant difference or one significant commonality. It helped me to understand that cause and effect can be used in arguments with a mixture of difference or commonality reasoning. Reading about this confused me at first, but doing the exercises helped me to understand it better. The exercises were more clear to help me understand a most significant commonality and a most significant difference in an argument. This is how to argue causation. The reading talking about how lawyers argue a case by using similar arguments and causal arguments also helped me to understand it better. How one thing happened could be the cause of another thing, like if person A leaves the xbox on for a while, then person B comes to play the xbox and presses a button then it stops working. You could argue that it is person A's fault because they left the xbox on causing it to overheat, but you could also argue that Person B might have done something wrong to cause it to break or you could argue that Person B should have turned it off first.

Another example of cause and effect:
10 people in the class passed the test.
The most significant commonality could be that they all studied.
The most significant difference could be that no one else in the class besides those 10 people studied.

Call in your debts

Another concept I found interesting was appeal to spite because I hear it used all the time. According to the Epstein text call in your debt appeals to the opposite of spite: "You should believe or do something if you owe someone a favor." I hear this used a lot from my some of my friends, and it is especially annoying when they offer to do something and tell you that you don't owe them anything and then next thing you know they bring it up like you owe them.

For example:
Person 1: No, it's cool I'll pay for your food.
Person 2: Are you sure? I could pay you back next time.
Person 1: No really it's cool, I got you, you don't have to pay for me.
Next time...
Person 1: How about you pay for me this time since I paid for your food last time? or
Person 1: Since I paid last time you can pay this time.

Example 2:
Person 1: Do you need a ride home?
Person 2: Yea! Thanks!
Person 1: No problem.
Next time...
Person 1: Can you give me a ride home? C'mon, I always give you rides!

Example 3:
C'mon go out with us tonight! Don't flake like you did last week!

I think an argument that calls in your debts is so annoying! If you offer to do something and you say you don't expect anything in return then don't expect anything in return! Don't try to get someone to do something or agree with you by sending them on a guilt trip.