Violating the Principle of Rational Discussion

On page 202, Epstein talks about how and why people sometimes violate rational discussion and fallacies. In this passage, Epstein describes some of the reasons why people would violate the rational discussion. One of the examples Epstein uses is the violations in advertising. He uses the facts of Kaplan scores of the LSAT to manipulate public appearance of competitors which in this case, is the Princeton Review. In the advertisement Kaplan is trying to convice people to enroll in their test preparation classes. Also in this advertisement, Kaplan uses slanters, key words that are used to mislead the public. In this case, words such as "undisputed" is implemented as one.
An example I have previously heard of a company violating others in Rational discussion is the feud between Mac, and PC. In Macintosh commercials, they would attack the flaws of the PC such as the vulnerability to virus and adware. This creates a major conflict between PC.

Whats Something Interresting?

Something that interesting that caught my attention was in chapter 3 of the Group Communication book. It talks about the steps to decision making. According to the book, there are eight steps to decision making. Identifying the problem, conducting research, establishing guidelines and criteria, generating alternatives, evaluating alternatives, selecting the best alternative, implementing the solution, evaluating the results. Decision making is a crucial part of everyday life. The first step is to identify the problem. What is the dilemma that one is facing. Then one must conduct research to try to find out what is the cause of this problem. Third, establishing guidelines and regulations to make sure the solution does not cause more problems instead of finding a solution. Fourth, is to create different probable solutions to fix the problem. Fifth is to put each alternative to action and see what works best. Afterwords once you have tried out all the possible alternatives, you must decide which is the best to implement. Then at the end of it all, see if your solution achieved the results one wants.

I found this article was very useful because it teaches me how to make everyday decisions with precision knowing i made the right choice.

Argument Structure

Exercise 3 1).Las Vegas has too many people.2) There is not enough Water in the desert to support more than a million people. 3) And the infrastructure of the city cant handle more than a million. 4) The streets are overcrowded, and the traffic is always congested; the schools are overcrowded, and the new ones cant build fast enough.5) We should stop migration to the city by tough zoning laws in the city and county.

Argument? Yes this is an argument.

Conclusion: I believe the conclusion is number 5 because it states the solution to the problem of overpopulation in Las Vegas. The other sentences only state the problem which is overpopulation.

Additional premises needed? To enforce the zoning laws, additional money must be put into budget.Also how would this law affect tourism to Las Vegas? This argument did not go over the economic or social point of view.

Identify any subargument? There is only the main argument which is number 5. The others merely state the problems that are existent in Las Vegas.

Good Argument? Yes this is an argument but it does not completely state how establishing zoning laws and migration laws would discourage people to come to Las Vegas.

I felt this exercise really helped me understand how arguments worked by breakin them down statement by statement. It also teaches you how to identify the conclusions and the premises which ease.

Something New?

Going through the communication book, I saw something that caught my eye. It wrote about "How to Become an Effective Leader? After reading this passage I have learned a few things. The first thing is to have high creditability among the group. This will make them sore likely to follow their instructions given. The group has to know that the leader can be depended upon to put the whole project together. Previous leadership experience increases ones creditability.

Another way to become a more effective leader is to encourage participation from every member of your group. To have everyone participating, this creates a more of a team effort feel and not have anyone left out. As a leader, one must encourage each member to try their best. Leaders may have different methods as to achieve this such as: awards, compliments, and good gestures.

Good Argument Good?

In chapter 3, Epstein declares that there are 3 tests to make sure the argument is good.

1) The beginning statement premises is plausible or makes sense.

2) The beginning statement premises is more plausible than the conclusion.

3) The argument is strong or valid.

Using these three guidelines I am going to create an example of a good argument.

"My biological father is half Japanese and half Chinese. My mom is full Chinese.
This makes me a quarter Japanese."

This is a good argument because it passes all three of Epstein's tests.
Believing that the person who stated this argument is not lying, the premises completely makes sense.
Second, the premises are more believable than the conclusion. Believing that the person did not lie about the racial background of his parents, this make it more believable than the conclusion statement about himself saying he is a quarter Japanese.
Third, this argument is strong because it makes sense through logic and biology. His father consist of half of himself and his mom consists of the other half. If his mother is full Chinese, that would make him at least half Chinese. Then putting his biological father into consideration which he is half Japanese and half Chinese, that would make this person 75% Chinese and 25% Japanese making him a quarter Japanese.

Valid Arguments vs. Strong Arguments

There is a big difference between a strong argument and a valid argument. Strong argument is an statement that is very believable but is not proven with undeniable facts. For example, "Smoking cigarettes causes an increased risk of lung cancer." This argument has been proven to be correct through various research studies and tests. It is almost impossible to prove otherwise. This is a valid example of a valid argument.

A strong argument is a statement that is hard to prove wrong, but it can be done. An example of this would be : "The New York Yankees won the World Series because of all the good player bought out by the Yankees franchise" This would be considered strong evidence because the New York Yankees did win the 2009 World Series, but it can not be proven the World Series were solely won by the players. Its counterargument would be that the championship was won by the coaches and staff, not the players.

Guide to Grouping Groups.

In society, it is very important to learn how to create a productive and efficient group. This skill can help a person be hired in the business world. In the book, it talks about how to create a effective and efficient group of people so that hard tasks can be completed. It emphasizes on how every group member has their own responsibility to complete their own assignments. this gives the group more of a sense of trust knowing everyone in the group is reliable. The end result is a successful group accomplishing big projects or assignments. Also members in every group must take on roles and positions to understand projects and assignments given.

this reminded me of the show "The Apprentice" where people get fired because of ineffectiveness of a member in the group. It is necessary to weed out the leeches in groups and perfect the flaws in order to create the best group of people to accomplish goals swiftly and efficiently.

Vague and Ambiguous Sentences

A vague sentence is described as a sentence that can be interpreted in only a couple ways. For example: "I saw Joe spitting food out." This is a vague sentence because it can be described in two ways. One way is that once "I" saw Joe, I spat my food out. The second way is "I" personally saw Joe spit his food out. Vague sentences lack detail so that it only expresses one idea. To fix this sentence, it would be "I saw Joe spitting his food out." Or "I was spitting food out when i saw Joe."

An ambiguous sentence is a that can be interpreted more than 2 ways. Most ambiguous sentences are used in inspirational quotes. An example would be the sentence "I am me." There are many ways of interpreting this sentence. This varies from personal point of view. In my point of view, this means only he or she can determine the destiny of their own lives.

Subjective and Objective Claims

Subjective claims are based more on matter of opinion than facts. Although ones claims maybe false, they might still attempt to persuade others to have the same point of view. For an example, Pepsi or Coke. Both these products are fairly similar and taste pretty distinctive. But many claim coke is better while others prefer Pepsi.Subjective claims usually do not have an answer, it is usually a matter of personal point of view or prefrence.Personally, I am a Coke fan, but that is only my opinion.

Objective claims are more based off facts and not off the matter of opinion. These claims can only be known as true or false. An example of this would be: Bill Gates is the CEO of Microsoft. This is proven true through facts and research. Objective claims can only be either right or wrong containing no personal influence. There is no objection form others because of the evidence proven.