Chapter 15

Chapter 15 talks about cause and effect and it was actually somewhat confusing for me. One part in the book that I found helpful would be the criteria for cause and effect. There is a chart on page 307 that lists the necessary criteria for cause and effect. One important element that it tells us is that the cause makes a difference – if the cause had not happened, the effect would not have happened. An example of this could be….
Example. I got paid early this week on Thursday so I had money in my account otherwise I would have been broke. I wanted pizza, so I went to the bank to get money so I could afford the pizza.
I got paid early which allowed me to get pizza because if I got paid on Friday like I normally did then I would not have been able to get pizza on Thursday. This was one part I was unclear about but I think I understood correctly.

Mission Critical

this mission critical page was extremely useful. It helps you with complete understanding of various subjects that we are studying in this class. It gives lots of in depth helpfulness on each topic you need help on. For someone like me, who struggles on certain parts with understanding, I wish I found this earlier. One part that I felt was extremely helpful was the Fallacies and Non-Rational Persuasion section. This section has all of the appeals and even groups them into two separate categories. I had a problem understanding the appeals because there were so many of them and after going through each one of the subjects it has helped me learned to look for specifics which will prove the difference between them. The website also provides exercises to look at. I personally did not do any of them but looking at them I can see that they are helpful because you can use the website while you look at the exercises to get a more hands on effort.

Casuse and Effect

This webpage is a great piece of reading that discusses cause and effect. It helps further understand all the key specifics that need to be present in order for the argument to be successful. Basically this webpage went step by step through the trial case sort of on what if scenarios. Each one of these different what if circumstances was to help further understand the specifics. I felt that some of the most important information presented to us here was determining the strength of a causal argument. According to this webpage there are three factors in which they rely on.
1. How acceptable or demonstrable the implied comparison is. In this case its basically asking is this circumstance basically the same as other similar incidents on this street.
2. How likely the case for causation seems to be. Basically, can a bicycle swerving into the traffic lane cause an accident?
3. How credible the “only significant difference” or “only significant commonality” claim is. In this case, is the illegally parked truck the only difference compared to previous incidents which were identical or extremely similar?

reasoning by example.

Reasoning by example I thought was a very interesting topic. Just because you give an example does not mean it is going to be a good argument. When you think of an example for your argument you are going to make one that fits into your topic and makes your argument strong. Your example that you think of might not correlate directly with the current situation and in effect hurt the strength of your argument. An example would be:
Playing World of Warcraft hardcore will destroy your life. I have had friends go through this so you should not play hardcore.
This is an argument with an example, but there are so many technicalities which can put holes within the argument. Just because we provided an example does not mean our argument will become stronger. You need to look and see what kind of reasoning will most benefit your argument because it might not always be the best choice.

Appeal to Fear

Appeal to fear was something discussed in chapter 10 that i felt was an important topic. Today's society uses this tactic whether it is from a commercial or a politicians campaign. This tactic can be very great for your argument because it will make the viewers want to agree with whatever you are saying.
As far as appealing to fear, commercials have the greatest impact on everyone i think. One commercial i remember vividly is the Life Alert one. This commercial is aimed towards scaring the elderly into getting this device because if they do not then there is the possibility that they will die. This is a strong approach and it is very effective i think. Playing off the emotions of your audience is a very succesful tactic. If you are able to master using this appeal to fear then you can bring a much stronger argument for your argument.

Appeal to emotion

Appealing to emotion i feel is a very strong tactic that one can use when in an argument. You can make people feel bad in order to agree with you but at the same time appeal to emotion can be a bad thing for your argument. The aspect of appealing to spite was interesting to me because it showed how it can make your argument worse. Appealing to spite is basically letting revenge cloud your judgement.
One example could be.
Me: I am going to vote for George for class president because he is the best qualified.
John: Why would you vote for him? He copied from your paper and made you fail your math class.
Me: your right, im not going to vote for him, i am going to vote for Steve.
This is a bad argument because all im doing is changing my vote in order to get even with George.