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