Friday, February 8, 2008

Towards Week Three's Critique (All)

For Week Three (February 11- 15, 2008), two new texts have been incorporated into the week. As such, here are the readings and the corresponding matters to consider, "Towards Week Three's Critique" (all classes):


  1. Negate the text on the syllabus and read the text under, “Fallacies” (The Nizkor Project, 1991-2008) http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ (accessed February 7, 2008). Have a clear idea on what "fallacies" are all about, as defined by the text.
  2. After reading said text, know the following fallacies, and be able to demonstrate representative examples (in the real world) of the following fallacies, at the abovementioned website: Ad Hominem; Appeal to Authority; Begging the Question; Burden of Proof; Confusing Cause and Effect; False Dilemma; Genetic Fallacy; Poisoning the Well; Red Herring; Slippery Slope; Special Pleading; Straw Man; and Two Wrongs Make a Right.
  3. And read George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s chapter, “Introduction: Who Are We?” in Philosophy in the Flesh (New York Times, 1999) http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lakoff-philosophy.html (accessed February 7, 2008), to get a better idea on the strengths and weaknesses of classical philosophical conceptions of "reason." Note, the text is rich with new and technical language. Do not despair. Read the text such that it can be incorporated into your "Critiques," to the degree that it gives an account on how people reason (via emotion, ideology, values, context, etc.), as portrayed by the empirical evidence gathered by cognitive scientists.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, for class on Wednesday, we should have a mock-test written by our group that will test the "real world" examples of
1. Ad Hominem
2. Appeal to Authority
3. Begging the Question
4. Burden of Proof
5. Confusing Cause and Effect
6. False Dilemma
7. Genetic Fallacy
8. Poisoning the Well
9. Red Herring
10. Slippery Slope
11. Special Pleading
12. Straw Man
and
13. Two Wrongs Make a Right

Just making sure... I know there was a lot of confusion in class. Please let me know if my assumption is correct.


Also, on a personal note, since this seems to be the best way for me to contact you outside of your office hours, you commented in the notes for our (Gem Lewis, Gary Greenfield and Chuck Richardson) Learning Contract that our time to meet was not concrete enough because we set a tentative date should we NEED to meet that week.

When I (Gem) spoke with you before we drafted our Learning Contract, you said that it was up to us to decide whether we needed to set a concrete date to meet weekly, or if we could just keep in contact via email primarily, and we chose the latter.

Please let me know what we should do, and hopefully we can speak about this after class on Wednesday, or continue our contact on the blog.

I apologize for having not had the time to speak with you during your office hours, but I have a very hectic schedule during the week, and I do not want to slow down the process within our group because of that.

I am personally not used to having to constantly work in groups in for a class, and don't want the other students in my group to feel as though we cannot get our work done because of my schedule, and I do not want my group members to feel responsible for me, and vice versa. With our Learning Contract, we outlined this problem and were hoping that this would be the best way to handle that.

I appreciate your work on the blog to keep in contact with the students. It has already been a great help.

Thank you,
Gem Lewis
Galewis0001@aol.com

A. Taylor, Ph.D. said...

Thanks for your considered response, a few options come to mind off hand: (1)we have to find a time to visit after class and/or my office hours (your group can meet as you choose, though, I need to know the one time that you all found where you all can meet in person); (2) definitely check out my blog from time to time as discussed in class (if you go back through it, you all had the option to do the "fallacy" project individually or in a group);(3)assuming that we have class on Wed (or Fri)have a real test on fallacies ready to hand out to another group, with at least five copies (also turn in your real world examples piece), covering all of them; and (4) be sure to take notes, ask questions in class, and reach out to peers when you are uncertain about a given matter.

att