Argument by Analogy

Argument by Analogy was the reasoning I had a difficulty with learning. I think I was over thinking what it could mean so I was looking past the simple meaning behind it.If one were to argue by analogy one would claim that certain things share similar characteristics in common. When encountering an analogy, we must analyze whether the analogy is a good argument or not by using these guideline and questions. These are the steps/questions used to help as a guideline in evaluating analogies:

• Is this an argument? What is the conclusion? 
• What is the comparison? 
• What are the premises? (one or both sides of the comparison) 
• What are the similarities
• Can we state the similarities as premises and find a general principle that covers the two sides?
• Does the general principle really apply to both sides? Do the differences matter?
• Is the argument strong or valid? Is it good?

Different Types of Reasoning

Different types of reasoning allow us to have different kinds of effect on individuals with the way we reason. 

1.             Reasoning by analogy draws conclusions from comparing similar things when it is part of an argument. If one thing is one way with the other thing, the same should be for objects of a similar relationship. 


Example:    Premise #1: My friends all sing.

Premise#2: My sisters all sing.

Conclusion: Everyone I know are singers.

2.             Sign reasoning is similar to judging a book by its cover because it draws conclusions due to appearance or other indicators. 

           Example: Parent: You have to be home tonight to do the dishes.

Child: I can’t tonight I have work all day.

Parent: All right, just make sure it’s clean by lunch tomorrow. 

Child: Okay, I’ll do it in the morning.

3.             Causal reasoning uses cause and effect.


Example: Premise #1: I woke up late for school.

Premise#2: I did not have time to eat breakfast this morning.

Conclusion: I was hungry all morning after arriving late to school.

4.             Reasoning by criteria uses established criteria for future conclusions.


Example: Your big sister would want something meaningful and thoughtful. You should make her something.

5.             Reasoning by example uses other valid examples for arguments.

Example: Ron practices dancing everyday. If you want to dance as well as Ron you should practice more.

6.             Inductive reasoning uses past observations to make

conclusions or generalizations, with the probability that it is could be false. 


Example: Premise #1: Dance practice is on Tuesdays.

Premise#2: Today is Monday.

Conclusion: There is no dance practice tonight.

7.          Deductive reasoning is the opposite of inductive reasoning in that it uses generalizations for specific claims. 


Example: Premise #1: There are many attractions in

Disneyland.

Premise#2: The World of Color shows at night.

Conclusion: The Word of Color is one of the many attractions at Disneyland.

Appeal to Fear Exercise 3

When I think of the Appeal to Fear approach and how it is used through advertising, I automatically think about above the influence or anti-smoking commercials. I believe that these advertisements are very powerful and can grab the attention of any average teenager and have them reflect on their habits; I can say that every above the influence advertisement or anti-smoking commercial that I have ever seen has caused me to reflect on my habits, as well as, the habits of my friends. In these advertisements, teenagers are put into fear about ruining their lives, losing themselves, getting a hole in their throat, having damaged lungs, second-handedly hurting the people they love or even strangers around them, being a victim of all sorts of cancers, and of course dying of an early age.

In this particular ad I found (1st picture), a girl is passed out and drawn all over. This presents the conclusion of drug and alcohol abuse. This is a good argument because the premises and conclusion are true based on strong examples given. The next picture is a creative ad that demonstrates how smoking lessens the time you have alive.

Apple Polishing

Throughout chapter 10 in Epstein's book, we learned about the Appeal to Emotion and the different aspects that it is made up of.  One of the concepts that I thought was interesting was Apple Polishing, which is a particular way of using the Appeal to Vanity approach in arguments. Apple Polishing is a type of argument that makes someone feel good. It’s where a person uses flattery, and excessive compliments, in an attempt to win support for their side. In my opinion, apple-polishing is just kissing up. An example of this approach in action is when a good-looking advertiser is selling a new dietary fiber bar or snack to an overweight woman. The advertisement can brown-nose the buyer by telling them that they actually look slimmer and that their product will be beneficial to their amazing figure and will keep them in shape, when in reality the product probably has a lot of sugar and what not and would not help the buyer's diet. The overweight buyer will fall into the sweet talk and spend.

Appeal to Emotion:Pity

Epstein defines Appeal to Emotion as a premise that says you should believe or do something because you feel a certain way.  Breaking down emotional appeal into detail to understand it better, we learn that there are specific ways used to win people over with their emotions. Appeal to Pity caught my attention. When advertisers are trying to sell a product or trying to help a cause, they aim to melt the buyers heart and make them feel bad enough to support their cause or buy their product. We see a lot of this in TV Commercials. A well-known example of an advertisement using the approach of appealing to pity would be an ASPCA commercial. This commercial uses images of abused, hurt, and battered animals that are in desperate need of help. "Arms of an Angel" by Sarah McLachlan also plays as background music and enhances the emotional pity. Using this approach, animal lovers and pet owners can connect and be moved because of what they see; they have pity for these animals and no longer want to see domestic violence and decide to support the cause.

Precise and Vague Generalities

Epstien shows us that there are a lot of quantities between one and all in his example of Precise Generalities. Though we can scale an argument with a low percentage or high percentage of something, we still know nothing about the people or things involved to make certain that an argument is valid or not.

For example, 90% of the Akbayan (Filipino Org) went to CSU Fullerton to participate in Friendship Games. Robin is part of the club Filipino club; therefore Vanessa went to Friendship Games.

This is not valid. Though there’s a high percentage of people that participated in Friendship Games, we know nothing more about Vanessa and how active or interested she was in the club, etc.

In Vague Generalities, you can make generalities without using numbers with words like a lot, almost all, many, etc.

A lot of Akbayan members went to CSU Fullerton to participate in Friendship Games. Robin is part of Akbayan, Robin went to Friendship Games.

Replacing numbers with “a lot” allows us to make the assumption that not many people missed out on Friendship Games.

Lessons from the group assignments

The Critical thinking news and politics group assignment helped with our communication skills and understanding of the critical thinking material. Working together as a group challenges our social interactions with each other. Though it took trial and error to correct our lack of communication, through this experience, our group worked together to work around the circumstances that prevented us from meeting together and forced us to use other outlets of communication such as a facebook group to get share our ideas without one person being out of the loop. Also, the group projects called for one of us to take the initiative and keep track of everyone’s work and make sure that each individual meets a deadline for turning in stuff. Relating the material to real life situations helped me understand what we were learning better. Also, a team member must compile all the work together in one essay, format it, and revise anything that needs work on.