False Dilemma's

Pick one concept from either text, not already discussed, that you found useful or interesting and discuss it. Use either Chapter 6 or Chapter 7.

False Dilemmas 

Chapter 6 explains another way in which we can identify when a compound claim is a bad argument. It is called a false dilemma.  False dilemmas occur when you exclude possibilities from your argument, which makes your “or” claim false or dubious. The reason why false dilemmas make a bad argument is because they leave out certain possibilities that will ultimately lead you to a false conclusion.

For example: Your mother tells you off and says that either you eat your vegetables everyday or you’ll be unhealthy for the rest of your life.

This is an example of a false dilemma because your mother is giving you an either or claim by saying either you do this or that will happen to you. She is leaving out all the other possibilities of ways in which you can live a healthy life so that her child will think that they have to eat their vegetables everyday or else they will be unhealthy for the rest of their lives. This claim is certainly not true as her child could eat fruits and exercise to live a healthy life. Vegetables are good for you but not eating them will not make you unhealthy. Ultimately, the reasoning behind this mother’s claim is to make her child eat his/her vegetables. However, the claim is dubious, has a false conclusion, and she leaves out other possibilities, which makes this claim a false dilemma and a bad argument.

Chapter 7

In Chapter 7, I learned that it is important to Raise Objections when you want to make a stronger argument. There are also direct and indirect ways to refute an argument to prove that an argument is dubious in some way or is a false argument. In addition to refuting arguments, there are four bad ways of attempting to refute an argument such as phony refutations, slippery slopes, ridicule, and strawman.  Finally, with understanding these different concepts, we can learn to reflect on our claims within the arguments that we create, which will ultimately benefit us in the future, as we will start to make better arguments, identify ones that are bad, and know when to refute other people’s arguments.

Raising Objections:

When you raise objections to the claim you have created, you will be able to reflect on the claim you’ve made to see whether it is weak, or if the unstated premises you’ve created are dubious.

Here’s an example of Raising an Objection:

Me: I want a new pair of black high heels.

Friend: You already have five pairs. (objection)

Me: But I love shoes.  (answer)

Friend: You could spend your money on something better that you don’t already have. (objection)

            You could buy a DVD player. (Objection)

            You could buy a Netflix account. (Objection)

            You don’t really need new shoes. (Objection)

Me: I don’t like buying things that I can’t wear. (answer)

Me: I always need shoes. (answer)

Me: So I will buy a new pair of black high heels. (answer)

By imagining that my friend is objecting my claims, I can see that my argument for wanting new shoes isn’t very strong and that I would need to add more support to back my reasoning for my claims to become stronger. Maybe I could add in that I love shoes and the ones that I have are worn out, therefore I need to buy new ones. Maybe I could add in that I got a bonus this week and I love spending my extra bonus. Since I only like buying what I can wear, then I will spend my extra bonus on a new pair of black high heels. I could add other claims as well to make this stronger as well, but this is just a simple example of showing how you can reflect on claims and question your reasoning to make an argument stronger by raising objections. I also want to add that I learned that raising objections is an important concept to know, because after reading this section I’ve realized that it can be very beneficial towards creating good arguments.

My last concept I will talk about is refuting directly, which occurs when:

·      You show that at least on the claims in the argument in question is subject to doubt.

·      You show that the claim isn’t valid or strong: it is weak.

·      You show that the conclusion isn’t true.

When you are directly refuting, you are taking an argument and dissecting its claims to show that the argument at hand is unrepairable. You are showing the person who made the claim (it could be yourself) that the argument is false or dubious. 

Ultimately, once, you have shown by the rules indicated above that the argument isn’t good, you can honestly refute someone’s argument.

Thank you for reading my post!! I hope you all have a clearer understanding of these concepts! :)

Chapter 6

In chapter 6, I learned other ways of how to identify or make an argument good or bad based on the different types of compound claims: “or” claims and conditionals.

This whole chapter was about looking at claims and seeing if we can reason with them based on their truth-values. It is important to understand the rules of both compound “or” claims and conditionals as we use them in everyday life and understanding their concepts will help us make stronger arguments in the future.

Today I will be talking about the contradictory of a compound claim and conditionals and their contradictories, which were two concepts presented in chapter 6.

1) Firstly, compound claims are two claims seen as one that can be connected by words such as or, and, or but. The two parts of the claim that are stated within the one claim have to be related to each other in order to have any type of truth-value.

For example: Either I won’t eat breakfast before class or I will eat breakfast before class.

These are two claims within one and have truth-value.

Determining the Contradictory of a claim: “The contradictory of a claim is one that has the opposite truth-value in all possible circumstances.”

This same rule applies to a Contradictory of an or claim and the contradictory of an and claim. When understanding contradictory of these compound claims, it is useful to identify each claim by using A, B, C, or D.

For example: The Contradictory of an or claim states that:

Claim A or Claim B’s contradictory is not claim A and not claim B.

 Or an easier way to put it is: A or B = not A and not B

So…

Claim:            (a) I will eat breakfast before class or (b) I won’t eat lunch at school.

Contradictory:  (not a) I won’t eat breakfast before class and (not b) I will eat lunch at school.

This is contradictory because it has the opposite truth-value than the initial claim. As you can see, sentence A said, will then won't. Sentence B said, won't then will.

The Contradictory of an and claim is: A and B = not A or not B.

In addition: These two contradictory concepts will help us to state claims as being false. The concept of using A, B, C, or D to identify claims will also help in future scenarios of reasoning with the other claims.

2) Conditionals and their contradictories: Conditional claims are similar to compound claims by the fact that they are considered one claim made up of two. However, they are different than compound claims because they are not connected by words such as or, and, or but, but rather they can be connected by the words: if, then.

For example: a) If don’t watch t.v right now, b) then I will get my homework done.

It is important to remember that in conditional claims, the sentence that follows if, is referred to as the antecedent and the sentence that follows then, is the consequent regardless of the order claims in the statement.

In the example above, claim A would be identified as the antecedent since it follows if and B would be the consequent since it follows then.

The Contradictory of a Conditional: “If A, then B has contradictory A but not B.”

In simpler English this would be: If A, then B = A but not B.

For example:

Claim: If I didn’t finish my homework, then I will fail my class for sure. (if A, then B)

Contradictory: I didn’t finish my homework but I won’t fail my class. (A but not B)

One final rule: “The contradictory of a conditional is not another conditional”

For example: I am a good student, even if I failed my test.

                        I am a good student, although I just failed my test.

I hope that I showed you all my understanding of the difference between compound claims and conditional claims and their contradictories. Compound claims use: or, and, but. Conditional: if, then. Understanding these types of claims will benefit to understanding whether or not an argument is good or bad. Whether its false, weak, valid, etc.

Accepting and Rejecting Claims

In chapter 5, I found that the author’s discussion on accepting and rejecting claims based on appeals to authority to be the most interesting to me, as I do believe that many people fall into the trap of accepting claims without considering whether or not the claim was made by a true expert. According to Section B of Chapter 5, “We can accept a claim made by a reputable authority whom we can trust as an expert on [a] claim and who has no motive to mislead.” However, we cannot just accept a claim based on the mere fact that they are an authority figure because that would be a bad appeal to authority.

An example of accepting the claim by an authority we can trust:

We can accept a doctor’s claim about the type of prescription his patient needs to recover from his/her cold because he is an expert in this field and his motives are to help the patient. Therefore, in this clinic setting, we have no reason to reject the claim, as we can trust his expert opinion and that his motives are not to mislead.

An example of rejecting a claim by an authority:

We can’t always accept a claim just because the person is an authority figure, as this would be a bad appeal to authority.

For example: A doctor could claim that blow drying and straightening your hair leads to split ends. Although the doctor’s motive may not necessarily be to mislead, we cannot accept this claim just because he/she says so. The doctor is an expert authority, but he is not an expert on hair-care.  Therefore, we cannot accept this claim because in doing so, would be a bad appeal to authority.

In addition to these examples, there are also advertisements today that are geared to mislead their audiences into accepting their claims. Ultimately, it is up to us to use our reason to either accept or reject the claims by first considering the background of who is stating the claim and their motives behind it.

Advertising on the Internet

http://www.luckybrand.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-LBJ-Site/default/Default-Start?cm_mmc=Google-_-Search %3E Brand-_-General%3EGeneral%3EBroad-Broad-_-lucky&gclid=CKSBrODGxqsCFcwbQgodbm073w

For my Internet advertisement, I chose to discuss the ad for the popular brand of jeans called, Lucky Brand. According to this advertisement, Lucky Brand is America’s favorite and finest pair of jeans. We should all buy a pair today.

It can also noted that this advertisement definitely did not imply the conclusion of the ads promotion, as it tells us, “buy a pair,” “do it today,” which is different then other companies who often have unstated conclusions.

From my own personal experience, I can say that my two pairs of Lucky Brand jeans are my favorite, since they both look and feel like a fine quality pair. However, even though I categorize Lucky Brand jeans as my own personal favorite, I can easily reject this advertisement’s claim. The reason that I can reject this claim is because of my other experiences and observations that I have made in life. I know that not everyone believes that Lucky Brand jeans are America’s favorite and finest; if they were, wouldn’t everyone in American own a pair? They certainly don’t. People are wearing all different kinds of jeans that they believe offer them the most comfort and quality. In addition, Lucky Brand also may not be America’s favorite pair of jeans to purchase because they aren’t always cheap. America does not like expensive. So ultimately, we can reject the advertisements claim that we should buy America’s favorite and finest Lucky Brand blue jeans since its premises appear to be false based on my personal experience.

Repairing Arguments

Example of an argument:

My dance teacher was a professional ballet dancer.  She has been involved in the world of ballet for over 50 years. Therefore, I would trust her advice on what type of point shoes I should purchase for my ballet class.

When evaluating this argument, we must first decide whether or not we can reason with the argument presented. By the Principle of Rational Discussion we can assume that the dance teacher knows “about the subject under discussion” as the first and second premises show that she must be an expert on ballet related issues. We must also assume that the argument is intended to reason well and that the person who is presenting the argument isn’t lying about the facts presented. If we can do that, then we can repair the argument by either adding on or deleting plausible premises to make the argument stronger. After further evaluating this argument, we can find that we can repair the argument to make it stronger. We make an argument stronger and more plausible for the readers by either adding or deleting a premise or conclusion, but we only do this when we believe that it will make the argument better. “We only repair when it is needed.” In this case, we could add the premise, “Anyone who has had 50 years of ballet experience could give you expert advice on all questions concerning ballet.” This is a premise that is “plausible and would seem plausible” to the person reading the argument and would therefore make the argument stronger. Overall, this argument has become stronger with the added on premise as it gives the reader a valid reason to trust that my dance teacher would give good advice on ballet related issues such as what type of point shoe to purchase.

Negotiating Effectively

Negotiating Effectively

According the Group Communication Book, the act of negotiating can occur between two businesses or more as well as within a single organization and the most common form of negotiation is compromise.

Negotiations within an organization can include:

Negotiating working hours. (If I work the night shifts this weekend, could I have next weekend off)

Negotiating vacation time. (If I give up some of my sick days, could have more vacation time?)

Trading off responsibilities. (If you get the boss coffee today, I’ll do your paperwork)

Most often than not, comprising while negotiating is the goal that most people want to achieve. However, you cannot always expect a compromise to take place because what you negotiate has to be appropriate. What this means is you have to be realistic in your comprise. For example, if you fully believe that you deserve a raise, then try to negotiate with your boss till you reach a compromise. That is an appropriate situation. In an inappropriate situation would be one in which you are asking more for less.  For example: I want a raise even though I never show up to work to work on time. This is an unrealistic goal and could even sway your boss to fire you.

Another alternative to compromising is brainstorming.  The process of brainstorming involves formulating alternate ideas that would appeal to both you and your boss. For example: You could say to your boss, “I didn’t take any sick days last year and I was wondering if I could use some of those days for vacation time this year.” You could include in your compromise that you are ahead on your charts and have been working overtime as well. If the boss says, “you can have an extra two days this year of work off,” it’s best to close the deal or suggest a new negotiation.  It is never a good idea to test your boss so “suggesting alternate solutions is often an effective negotiation strategy” (O’Hair/O’ Weimann)

The 5 Key Strategies for Negotiating

1)   Always listen to the person you are negotiating with. In order to present them an effective argument you must know their argument and reasons as well.

2)   Understand the other person’s feelings and belief.

3)   Ask questions about the other person’s argument. Who, What, When, Where, Why.

4)   Be opened minded. If you come into the negotiating without settling for less than what you are asking, you are likely to not reach a compromise.

5)   Be calm and rational. Do not lose your temper.