Reasoning by Analogy

There are many types of reasoning from reasoning from examples to reasoning from sign to even casual reasoning. The reasoning that I found the most troubling to understand was the concept of reasoning by analogy. Reasoning by analogy is the concept of taking a analogy like Andrew likes video games and plays video games and reasoning that if Brad likes video games then Brad will play video games. This concept gets more confusing when you are arguing it because you can say that Brad is not Andrew so he wont play video games. Brad is his own person so just because Andrew likes games and plays games does not mean Brad will play games. You may also argue that since both Brad and Andrew like games they can play games together making it so that they play games together not separate so if Andrew likes and plays games then Brad likes games he will play them with Andrew. Both of these statements are contrary to each other but can be true based on the analogy making explaining the concept very in-depth.

Examples of Reasoning

There are many different kinds of reasoning. In this post I will discuss the different kinds of reasoning and examples of each different type

Casual Reasoning
Premise 1:I came late to work
Premise 2:I didn’t have time to shave
Conclusion: I had large bread at work

Reasoning by criteria
My brother wants something fast and expensive for his birthday. I should get him a car.

Deductive
Premise 1: There are many cars to buy on this lot
Premise 2: There are Lamborghinis on the lot
Conclusion: Lamborghinis are one of the cars to buy on the lot

Inductive
Premise 1: Every Saturday cartoons come on the television
Premise 2: Today is Saturday
Conclusion: Today cartoons are coming on.

Reasoning by Example:
You should work out with me, my friend works out everyday and he is ripped

Reasoning by Analogy:
Andrew likes video games and plays video games
Brad likes video games
Brad will play video games

Sign Reasoning:
When its raining outside, it must be wet outside.

Appealing to Spite

There are many types of Appealing to emotion. One of the types that the book talked about was appealing to spite. Appealing to spite is when you make two wrongs into a right! This is a complicated principal because it involves making to actions that are both wrong and making them cancel out just so to make the actions equal or right. Though this could be a fallacy at times sometimes this concept can be used in an argument or in real life. An example of the appeal to spite concept would be.

Boy: Dad can I buy a motorcycle

Dad: No you cant it’s to dangerous I am already going to buy a new car for myself, and your get nothing

Boy: Well to Bad for you I just spent all the money on a gambling trip to Vegas

The boy and the father both did wrong things that eventually ended up with two wrongs that eventually canceled each other. We see this concept happen everyday with our overseas relations and military reactions, as well as with movies where a bad guy kills someone and the hero has to get revenge and kill him to make everything even again.

Apple Polishing

There are many way to manipulate an argument one of them would be apple polishing. Apple polishing is when your flattering or sucking up to the audience to get them to buy your product or side of the argument. With apple polishing you are appealing to the emotions of happiness, vanity, and maybe even insecurity to get the audience to believe that your side of the argument or your product will help or improve on your already well off life. An example of this would be like in the Dodge Charger commercial shown during the Super Bowl where they say all the things men do but don’t want to. The ad says all the things that men do and at the end say because men do all these things they deserve to drive the car they want which is the Dodge Charger. They used apple polishing to say in that ad “you do all these things shouldn’t you drive the car you want?” which flatters you and appeals your happiness and vanity to say “yeah I do, do a lot of things I don’t want I should be able to drive this car.” This ad used apple polishing very well convincing the viewer in a unique and fun way to get this car because they deserve it.

address to the ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RyPamyWotM

Appeal to Emotion

Emotions are major factors in an argument. Our emotions affect the way we argument by affecting our points of view and choices in our word we use in the argument. Appeal to Emotion in an argument is the concept of appealing to ones emotions such as anger, sadness, happiness, vanity, ignorance, and even flattery. You can appeal to these emotions to make your point or improve your argument. An example of a argument that involves a appeal to a emotion like sympathy would be “I wanted to recycle every bottle I saw after watching the movie Ocean and seeing all the pollution that the animals in the sea have to deal with.” An example of an organization appealing to emotions would be when an organization uses sympathy to bring attention to there cause such as M.A.D.D or the American Red Cross they appeal to the emotion of sympathy to bring attention to there cause and prove their arguments. Emotions can be a powerful tool to use in a argument, by using emotions you can show your audience your views and how you feel about those views.

Assignments

I really enjoyed both the first and second assignments. My group members made it so it was easy to come together and make the assignment that was well written. I actually enjoyed the second assignment a little more because we did it on an actual organization and had the opportunity to look at it and see the claims they made. We did our paper on the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD. The organization was founded by two mothers that use the concept of dysphemism to emphasis the problem of drunk driving. The organization also uses emotional claims to help bring attention to their cause such as the two founders daughter being either killed of severely injured because of drunk drivers. The stories as well as the statistics help give credit to their mission statement as well as give the organization a reason to continue in their fight against drunk driving. Overall I enjoy writing this paper and ready for the next one.

Vague Generalities

Vague generalities are when we discuss a part or even all of a group without specifying the precise number (Epstein). An example of this would be when you say all Camaros are fast, almost all Camaros are fast, and a few Camaros are fast. Words like all we can figure out, if we have enough detail to go on. But words like few maybe to vague to be put into an argument. They may not be generalized enough to be said in your argument because we cannot tell if just a few Camaros are fast is a valid statement of not. These words make it so the argument is too vague and unbelievable so it is not valid. You can usually make these arguments stronger by specifying the statement so the audience can understand it this will make your premise better and your argument stronger. Vague statements can weaken your argument and make it more difficult to understand, but if you specify then you can make your argument stronger as a whole.