Fallacies

The concept that I think that needs further discussion is the concept of fallacies.  Although I found fallacies to be very interesting, the Epstein book did not cover the concept as much as I wanted it to. The book did not have enough examples to make me understand what the fallacy is about. I had to go search up websites that explained more about the fallacies. When I went to the website, it showed great information and described the fallacies really well. They also put examples of the fallacies which made it easier for me to understand. Another thing I noticed was that there were more types of fallacies compared to the book which only offered a couple. I also utilized this website for doing group paper. Since I had to do my part on fallacies for the paper, I used some of the fallacies the website talked about that the book didn't show. This is the website I used http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/.

Usefulness of assignment 1 & 2

I found both assignments to be very useful. One of the things that were very useful was dividing the paper in to different parts. Many of these parts were concepts that came from the readings in the Epstein book. For example we had to find the premises, evidence, and the major claim for the first assignment. Those concepts were found in the earlier chapters of the reading. In the second assignment, the paper was also divided into different parts which were also concepts in the readings. For example the paper was divided into, concealed claims, fallacies and other concepts we recently read about. I find that putting those concepts in the paper make it easier to understand. I like how the concepts were implemented in the assignments because we could put use the concepts we read about. I also like how the assignments were related to current events so it was much easier to understand.

General Claims & Valid Forms

There are many different ways to use general claims. Certain words such as "all" and "some" are very common in general claims. When we use the word "all"  it means that everyone is used. When we use "some" it means that there is at least one.  There are many ways to use "all" and "some". A real life example is "All my friends are  partying tonight." Other ways we can say "all" is "my friends are partying tonight. Every friend of mines is partying tonight. Everyone of my friends are partying tonight." All this claims are very general and are probably not true because not all my friends like to party. A contradictory to this claim would be "some of my friends are partying tonight. At least one of my friends are partying tonight." Sometimes it is hard to determine a contradictory because there are so many ways to make a general claim.

Another thing I learned about was direct ways of reasoning with "all". An example of one is  "All my friends party. Jayne is my friend. So Jayne parties." This is an example of a valid argument. A weak argument usually argues backwards. An example of one is "All my friends party. Jayne parties. So Jayne is my friend." As you can see this is a weak argument.

Conditionals

One of the new concepts I learned about are conditionals. According to Epstein, a conditional claim is when a claim can be rewritten as an "if...then.." claim and must also have the same truth-value. In a "If A, then B" the A is known as the antecedent and B is known as the consequent. An example of a conditional claim is "If the Lakers win the game, then I will give you twenty dollars" This is conditional because if I'm making a conditional promise, but if I break the promise it then I won't give the money. The antecedent of the claim is  "If the Lakers win the game" and the consequent is "I will give you twenty dollars". There is also contradictory of a conditional in which if A then B would contradict A. An example of a contradictory of a conditional would be " If we win, they would lose all their money". The contradictory of this would  be "Although we win, they would lose some of their money". Since I added "although" it does not make the claim a conditional anymore. 

Counter Arguments

One of the things we do when we argue with other people is we raise objections. We raise objections when we think an argument is bad. In other words we are making another argument that questions the other argument and trying to prove it is bad.  " Everyone should buy a Prius. Prius saves more gas than most cars. The Prius is also good for the environment." A person that would  raise objections would then say. " The Prius is too expensive. The Prius is not good for big families. The Prius also have high maintenance costs." One of the others things I learned about was refuting an argument.  According to Epstein, the three direct ways of refuting an argument are show that at least one of the premises is dubious, show that the argument isn't valid or strong, and lastly show the conclusion is fake. One of the other ways to refute an argument is indirectly in which you have to reduce to the absurd. In order to this you must that the some of claims are false and dubious and then draw an unwanted conclusion.

Compound Claims

One of the concepts I didn't know about but see all the time are compound claims. According to Epstein, a compound claim is claim made up of multiple claims but can be viewed as only one. A good example of a compound claim is "The Lakers are going to win the championship or the Heat the will win." This is a simple example because there are two claims, one claim is the "Lakers are going to win the championship" and the other claim is "the Heat will win". This claim is also an Alternative claim because they are separated by "or". Another claim I learned about is a contradictory claim. A contradictory claim is a claim that has an opposite truth value in any way. An example of  a contradictory claim is  if one claims "The Lakers are the best NBA team" and the contradictory is "The Lakers are the worst NBA Team". These two claims contradict each other because one claim says "best" and the  other says "worst".

Bad Appeals to Authority

One of the concepts that interested me was bad appeals to authority. According to Epstein, bad appeals to authority is when people accepts a claim from someone who doesn't know the subject really well  or wants to mislead people in to believing something. One of the most common things I hear that people say is the world is going to end in 2012. People that often say this are not scientist or experts in the world ending. Probably these people watch videos on YouTube or read articles not made by experts. This gets very annoying especially when my cousin starts talking about it. He's not an expert and he often watches videos on YouTube made by  random people. Just because a lot of people believe the world is going to end in 2012 doesn't mean they are right. Luckily I am not one of those people. This is one of the many examples of bad appeals to authority.

Advertisements on the Internet

One of the most annoying things I see on the internet are the advertisements. They are in almost every website and are also very convincing and sometimes misleading. Advertisements are also popping up in popular sites such These advertisements range from cheap cruises, free ipods, to cosmetic products that remove pimples. Sometime clicking on to these ads could lead to virus or constant pop-ups. One of the most annoying ads are the ones when an add pops up and says "Congratulations you won...." These are also known as the talking ads. Some of these ads similar to the one on top are known to be viruses if you keep clicking on them. I get very cautious clicking on  to these ads. According to Epstein, we must evaluate the premises and see if there is good reason to believe the argument is true. There is also certain criteria in order to accept or reject the claim. For example one of the ways  we can accept the claim is if its from our own experiences. I remember my friend told me to sign up to win a free ipod. In order to get one, I would have to email 8 people and then those  people would have to email 8 different people and then go on forever. Another way we can accept a claim is if it is made by reliable media outlet. For example I read a news article talking about an ad that was misleading. http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-02/click-here-if-you-want-free-ipod