Chapter 13 Graphs

In chapter 13 we read about mislead claims with numbers. Now an important part of that reading was based on viewing graphs and how they can be misleading. It is important to note that many graphs hide concealed claims, are misleading, or wrong. It is vital to use graphs with a baseline of zero in order to get an accurate view of what information you are reading, less you be mislead with a graph distorting the information with a different baseline. It is also good to compare your personal experiences with the information shown on the graph in order to get a more accurate viewpoint. It is important to note that graphs can create misleading comparison by how the measuring points on the axes are spaced. Finally the mean, median, and mode are vital for reasoning with numbers as they give you a scientific reference in which to view the information presented.

Social Organizations Paper

I thought the second assignment we did was very helpful to me. It was a difficult assignment as we all had to communicate online. However this helped me in learning how to effectively communicate with group members throughout the assignment. We did revisions to the paper, critiques... etc. I also liked how we got to chose a paper based on something we felt strongly about, and how we got to bring an important issue to the forefront. Also going back and using specific terms that we learned out of the book was refreshing in the sense that we reviewed everything we learned in class and helping me prepare for future tests. Now I feel that I have a stronger grasp on the book as we went through and applied these definitions towards the real world. So in all it was a good assignment in helping me work together with people who are in another city or out of the country as I probably will take further online classes and would need this knowledge to communicate with future group members.

Misleading Claims with Numbers

In chapter 13 we read about misleading claims with numbers. Now this is described as vague, meaningless, or mistaken comparison. The book uses the example a town getting more violent because there were 12% more murders this year. What this number doesn't take into account is the fact that the town and tourist population may be growing which accounts for more murders. It could mean that murders are going down per 100,000 people even though it has gone up the past year. For example there could be 20 murders in a town of a million in comparison to 6 murders in a town of 25,000.


For a real life example I am going to talk about discounts you find in the mall. Some of them say 50% off clearance sale. Now they mislead you because when you go and look at the items, only a small fraction is 50% off. Usually these are bad clothes too that no one wants.

Reasoning by Analogy

In chapter 12 we read about reasoning by analogy. Reasoning by analogy happens when you are drawing a comparison in an argument. That is one side of the comparison drawing a conclusion, thus making the other side of the comparison have the same conclusion. An example used in the book is as follows: Rats are like humans. So if rats get cancer from DDT, so will humans. This shows how one side of the argument concludes the same about the other side.
Now in real life we hear this kind of reasoning all the time. An example is Joe is a human and has to eat and drink to survive. Bill is a human. Bill has to eat and drink to survive. Now this shows how one side of the argument (Joe is a human and has to eat and drink to survive) concludes the other part of the argument (Bill has to eat and drink to survive because he is a human).

Page 195 Excercise 4

For the excises on page 195 I chose number 4 which is to make up an appeal to some emotion for the next time a traffic officer stops you. I chose the emotion of empathy and pity. I would say “I am so sorry officer I was in a hurry because I am late for work. If I’m late for work I’ll be fired. So could you please let me off with a warning this one time”. So in this sentence I am trying to evoke pity and maybe some empathy from the officer. The sentence “If I’m late for work I’ll be fired” is a common thing for people to empathize with as they’ve probably been late for work before and they know the boss won’t be pleased. Also the officer may pity you because you basically state your livelihood is on the line if you are late this one time.

Appeal To Emotion

In chapter 10 we see that appealing to emotion is described as a premise in argument that compels you to believe or do, just because you feel a certain way. I hear these kinds of arguments all the time in the news or in person. The book uses the example of politicians using fear to manipulate and control people. The example is a hypothetical video of a gun being pointed at the viewer stating that unless you vote for Cobb all sorts of crimes will happen in your neighborhood. They use a list of crimes to instill fear into the viewer. For a real life example my mom tells me "you should drive slower or you will certainly get in a car crash". Now I usually drive at the speed limit. She is implying that if I do not go slower than the speed limit I will get in a car crash, playing on my fears of getting into one, thus making me drive slower on the road.

Valid General Claims

To check the validity of a claim one uses a direct way of reasoning with all or arguing backwards with all. The direct way of reasoning (valid reasoning) is as follows: All S are P, a is S, so a is P, All S are P + a is S, therefore a is P. Now an example of this is given as: All dogs bark, everything that barks is a mammal, So all dogs are mammals. We would draw a diagram to see if this is valid. the "dogs" would be inside the "things that bark" category and "the things that bark" would be inside the "mammals" category. So everything overlaps showing that all premises are true, therefore the conclusion must be true.

Now for a real life example I will talk about my cell phone. All cell phones need to be charged. All things that need to be charged is electronic. So my cell phone is electronic. This is a direct way of reasoning that is valid.

Aristotelian Logic

Aristotelian logic refers to the method Aristotle developed in determining whether a claim was valid, this logic was based on an inspection of its form. His example of this logic was as follows: All S are P ---- No S is (are) P. Some S is (are) P. Some S is (are) not P. Now looking at an example from the book we see that this logic is used as follows: No police officers are thieves. Some thieves are sent to prison. So no police officers are sent to prison. We see that this is a method for informal reasoning.
Now I will use an example from my life to show how this informal reasoning. So my family had a small get together. I can say that: no one drank alcohol at the get together. Sometimes alcohol makes you behave differently. So no one acted or behaved differently at the family get together. So using this example you can see the informal way of reasoning.

General Claims Contradictories

So in order to "reason using general claims we must assert something in a general way about all or a party of a collection." One example used in the book is "All teachers give fair exams. Professor Zzzyzzx gives fair exams. So professor Zzzyzzx is a good teacher." However this is not valid. The premise may be true, the Professor gives good exams, but he could be a bad teacher who gives fair exams. Now you want to look at all, every single one, or some, which is at least one. To get the contradictory of this you would flip all to some, or some to all in your claim/contradictory.

For example in my life I heard a claim from my parents regarding my college classes here at at De Anza. They stated that no courses at De Anza transfer over for my major at San Jose State. We have already checked and they don't offer anything in the articulation program. The contradictory is that some courses transfer over from De Anza to San Jose State because they were reading a out of date articulation program. The claim is no courses transfer over, with the contradictory being some courses transfer over.

Refuting an Argument

For chapter 7 I choose “refuting an argument” as my topic. Now there are three direct ways of refuting an argument. First you have to show that at least one of the premises is dubious. Next you have to show that the argument isn’t valid or strong. Finally you have to show that the conclusion is false.

For this I am choosing a scenario that recently occurred in my life. A few days ago someone’s condo was broken into and an ipod was taken. So they called me into the office and showed me a video tape of a person who looked like my roommate going into someone’s condo. Keep in mind I recently lost my condo key card. So they figured since a key card was missing from our condo (to cover up the crime…they figure), the theft occurred in our building, and the guy looked like my roommate, it must have been him. Now I refuted this by saying that the keycard was lost at a concert making it literally impossible for a random stranger an hour away to know where we live and break into the condo (it’s an unmarked card). Also I stated that while the person looked like my roommate he was at least 40 pounds larger and had longer hair. These two make the premise very dubious and not valid or strong. Also there conclusion was false because after a day or so they found out that the person who had the ipod had a friend in the same condo e-mail him and tell him he was taking it, he didn’t read it, and thought the worst. These statements by me clearly refute the argument given to us by the owners of the condo.

Conditional claim and contradictory of a conditional

A conditional claim is broken up into two parts, a conditional (ie. if or then, the antecedent) and a promise (the consequent). The book states that "a claim is conditional if it can be rewritten as an "if....then....."claim that must have the same truth-value.

One example of a conditional claim that I heard recently was from my father. He said "If you graduate this Summer, I will buy you a new T.V." The antecedent of this statement is "graduate this Summer". The consequent of this statement is "I will buy you a new T.V".

Another example of a conditional claim I used was when I was talking with my friend. I told him "I'll go to the hockey game with you, if you pay your own way". The antecedent of this statement is "pay your own way". The consequent of this statement is "I'll go to the hockey game with you".

Compound Claims

A compound claim is a claim that is made up of other claims, but in itself is just one one claim. In the text they use the example of "either a democrat will win the election or a republican will win". The major claim is someone will win the presidential election. Te compound is either the democrat or the republican will win. I for example here these type of claims all the time, talking with people or in the media, you can see that these type of claims can be found anywhere in society.

Now a compound claim that I heard recently was when my mom was talking about how she wants to buy a new couch. She said she saw the most beautiful couch in the store the other day and wants to buy one but isn't sure which color she will pick. The compound claim is that she is going to buy a couch either a black couch or a white couch. We can break this sentence down into two parts. First the major claim is she wants to buy a new couch. The other part is that she will either pick a black couch or a white couch. As we see this is a claim composed of other claims, but in itself is just one claim.