Generalizing

 According to the book, generalizing basically means concluding a claim about a group from a claim about some part of it. I found this interesting because they way the book describes it, generalizing is something we do everyday and is how we "make sense of our world". In short, generalization are arguments, so they follow the same rules of whether or not an argument is strong, which is if it has a plausible premise. I liked the example the book used which was "28% of all smokers get cancer." This is a generalization based off findings by poll takers or scientists, and shows that it is something we always see in everyday life. Any time you watch the news, numbers and percentages are always used. These are generalizations! We use them pretty much everyday to help us make decisions. For example you could say: "It's raining really hard today, I should slow down when driving or I could lose control like last time or like many others who have sped in the rain!"

Likes\ DIslikes

One of my favorite things about the class was the weekly blog. I found that I often understood concepts more clearly after I read some of the other student entries on various topics. It was a good way for me to read about a topic from a different point of view other than my own. In many of my other classes, I don’t have this opportunity when I am confused about a topic and often times I find that the professor’s wording does not clear up my confusion. Similarly, one of my least favorite things was the blog post replies. Although 100 words is not a lot of words to write, I found replying to someone’s post, particularly if it was a short post, 100 words often seemed like too much. I found myself rewriting the replies or second guessing myself as to whether I was being too wordy.  

I don’t feel like this class could be improved in many ways, as it was an enjoyable class that I learned a lot in. However, possible room for improvement in one area would be that of the due dates. Saturday was often a difficult time to submit the papers and to complete the tests by mainly because my weekends as I work all weekend and also finish homework. Perhaps if the due dates were pushed forward to Sunday or to a day during the week, the due dates would not seem as awkward and would lift some stress for those who also have busy weekends.  

What I have learned

I have learned a lot from this class. I have learned many different concepts. Some that were hard and some that were not so hard. This class was way more easier than my other critical thinking class. One thing I will remember from this class was the appeals to emotion section. Appeal to emotion in an argument is just a premise that says roughly you should believe or do something because you feel a certain way. When I watch TV now I point out when a commercial is trying to make you feel a certain way. I have realized that a lot of commercials and advertisements make you appeal to pity. They always want you to feel bad about something. Another appeal to emotion that will stick with me is appeal to fear. People are always trying to make you scared so you could do something. Politicians and advertisers always appeal to fear because they want to manipulate you. They will sometimes use arguments that don't even link the fear to the conclusion. So in general they are bad arguments. I have also learned about many different fallacies. Some of them are still a little hard to understand and recognize

Discussion 3

There are many criteria’s for cause and effect are: The cause happened, so basically the claim we are describing is true. Next the effect happens and then cause precedes the effect. It is nearly impossible for the cause to happen to be true and  the effect does not happen which is false giving the normal condition. The cause makes a difference- if the cause had not happened been true, the effect would not have happened been true, and there is no common cause. Also this chapter talks about the cause makes a difference. Also the correlation alone is not enough. For there to be the cause and effect, it must be that if the cause had not occurred, then there would not be the effect. There are two mistakes in evaluating cause and effect are reversing cause and effect, and looking too hard for a cause.

Discussion 2

The Mission Critical website is useful for us to familiar us with the basic concepts of critical thinking.. As might be expected, however, approaches to teaching critical thinking are as varied as the disciplines in which qualifying courses are taught. At San Jose State, for example, there are critical thinking courses in the departments of Communication Studies, English, History, Linguistics and Language Development, Philosophy, and Psychology; in addition, the critical thinking requirement is among those satisfied by special lower-division courses in American Studies and Humanities.  This website is useful for studying these diverse courses. This website can help us understand deductive reasoning and fallacious appeals. This website will allow us to concentrate on the more theoretical, conceptual, and practical issues and techniques which constitute the most efficient use of class time. This website has variety of exercises, which can help us understand the critical concepts and enhance our communication skills

Discussion 1 Cause and Effect website

The Cause and effect website is an extremely helpful website that assisted me with the understanding of the inductive reasoning and the complex types of arguments and claims. The explanation starts with inductive claims that were in the hidden inside the arguments. The website talks about the claims seems to fit the pattern of an inductive argument, because none of them seems based on observation or experience. But, in fact, they do fit that pattern. The bicyclist's lawyer, for example, is actually arguing that:Normally the bicyclist would have continued in the bike lane, but in this instance he swerved into the lane of traffic.The only significant difference between "normally" and "in this case" is the presence of the illegally parked truck.Therefore, the truck caused the bicyclist to swerve. Another topic that was useful was is strength of a causal argument, which then, relies on three factors:how acceptable or demonstrable the implied comparison is (for example, do we think that there is a basic similarlity in most respects between the circumstances of this accident and those of the many other times bicycles and cars have traveled on this street safely;how likely the case for causation seems to be (for example, do we think that a bicycle swerving into an car's lane can cause an accident?how credible the "only significant difference" or "only significant commonality" claim is (for example, do we believe that the illegally parked truck is the only significant difference between this case and the many other times bicycles and cars went down that street without an accident?.

Discussion 3 week November 6-12

nalogical reasoning is a method of processing information that compares the similarities between new and understood concepts, then uses those similarities to gain understanding of the new concept. It is a form of inductive reasoning because it strives to provide understanding of what is likely to be true, rather than deductively proving something as fact. Analogical reasoning can be used by both children and adults as a way to learn new information or as part of a persuasive argument.

 I learned that the reasoning process begins by a person determining the target domain, or the new idea to be learned or explained. It is then compared to a general matching domain, or an idea that is already well-understood. The two domains must be similar enough to make a valid, substantial comparison. Specific qualities are chosen that belong to the matching domain, then related items are searched for in the target domain to tie the two domains together. For example, food’s effect on the human body can be an analogy to gasoline’s effect on a car because they are both responsible for making entities function correctly.