PHIL/PSYC 2100 - Critical Thinking

Journal Entries

Entry Assignment
1

Find a small argument from real life (something with about 2 to 5 claims involved; a one or two paragraph letter to the editor might do nicely). Highlight the premises, conclusion(s), premise indicators, and conclusion indicators. Provide an argument diagram, making sure to paraphrase, add, or remove statements where appropriate in order to illuminate the structure of the argument. You do not have to evaluate the argument.
2 Same as 1, but now for a larger argument (something with about 5 to 10 claims involved; a larger letter to the editor or small newspaper editorial might work).
3 Find two cases of rhetorical persuasion (put each on a separate page) from real life. Indicate the type of rhetorical device that is used.
4 Find two emotional appeals (put each on a separate page) from real life where the emotion is not relevant to the issue. Indicate the type of emotional appeal that is made.
5 Find two ad hominems (put each on a separate page) from real life. Make sure these are two different ones (i.e. don't submit two abusive ones, or 2 inconsistency ones).
6 Find two other fallacies (put each on a separate page) from real life. By 'other fallacies' think: false dilemma (including perfectionist or line-drawing fallacy), appeal to ignorance, straw man, red herring, or circular reasoning
7 Find two examples of statistical reasoning, and analyze: What is the argument being made (i.e. what claim is being made on the basis of what data)? What is the nature of the sample? Is it representative with regard to the claim being made? Is it biased? What is the sample size? Is it statistically significant? How was the data collected and may that have introduced some kind of bias? Any statistical fallacies or other problems with the argument (e.g. biased interpretation of the data; biased representation of the data)?
8 Find two examples of causal reasoning, and analyze: What is the causal claim being made, and what is the evidence provided? Was the evidence collected through a controlled experiment? Could we be dealing with reverse causation, common cause, or simply coincidence? If some kind of generalization is taking place, is the sample representative and large enough?
9 Describe a 'bizarre' experience that you have had: something you saw or heard that (maybe not to you, but at least to some people) might suggest the existence of ghosts, angels, etc, or some sequence of events that didn't seem like a coincidence but that (again, maybe not to you, but to some) suggests some kind of 'psychic' ability or paranormal phenomenon. After you have done that, analyze your experience based on what you learned about perception, memory, judgment, scientific reasoning, the 'supernatural', etc.: Was your experience a good reason to believe that something 'supernatural' was going on, or do you think it can be explained by natural means? If you believe that your experience is indicative of something that science has not yet figured out, how could you set up a scientific experiment to test your hypothesis? Or, if you don't think it is testable, do you think it makes sense to still believe that hypothesis? Why?