Fallacy Summary and Application Essay

According to Paul & Elder, “critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a vision of improving it.” Their argument for the need to utilize critical thinking is the fact that without focus, most of the thinking done by people is partial, many times uninformed, biased, distorted, and prejudiced. What is not easily recognized is the fact that the very fabric of life is

        As citizens, it is essential to be “Critical thinkers who seek to draw intelligent conclusions” (pg. 3) whether as jurists, voters, parents, students, teachers, workers, managers, attorney. It is important to be able to discern between opinion, propaganda, facts, truth, error, and purposeful deceit. We elect people to speak for us at many levels. We need to be able to comprehend what we are hearing and be willing to utilize all the skills of critical

For my journal entry I choose to read Online Higher Education’s Individualist Fallacy by Johann N. Neem. Johann Neem is a professor of history at Western Washington University and argues that there is a value in “Institutional culture” for the student that attends traditional classes on a college campus. According to Neem, institutional culture is important because learning is a social experience and depends on relationships since under the guidance of a professor a student will prosper, and be inspired by the energy in the classroom setting. Neem also states that professors are able to adapt easily to the needs of the students that are present in the classroom versus those who attend online. Neem, contends that distance learning undercuts institutional learning due to the fact that students are not fully engaged with their professors and can miss out

False cause, or post hoc ergo propter hoc, is an error in reasoning in which a speaker mistakenly assumes that because one event follows another, the first event is the cause of the second.

Generalizing from a sample size that is too small or biased, rather than looking at something more relevant with the situation.

This article focused on the constant debate concerning the conditions in which students develop the skill of thinking critically. Being able to use critical thinking requires knowledge of facts and concepts about the subject matter. I found this article interesting because I think it is important that students develop critical thinking skills. Most scholarly articles tend to have an abstract that summarizes the papers entirety. Due to this this article is considered scholarly.

I enjoyed your post and can relate to the use of logical fallacies that parents tend to use. I myself will use logically fallacies to try and persuade my children to do what I ask them to do. My mother also would tell me that if I went to bed with wet hair that I would get sick. As a child, I never questioned what my mother said it had to be true because she said it. As you grow you learn that there is no correlation between wet hair and a cold or flu. A virus is the only way someone can contract a cold or flu. As you stated there can be a chance that a person is becoming sick from a virus and goes to bed with wet hair and wakes up feeling sick. But there is no scientific evidence supporting wet and a cold. Another fallacy that is present in

Logical Fallacies are is an incorrect argument or a bad argument in Rhetoric which undermines an argument's logical soundness. A fallacy is the use of invalid reasoning in the construction of an argument. These arguments hurt the speaker’s credibility, and there are many different types of Fallacies but there are three main ones used in Fracknation.

When addressing the fallacies of the American government today, one should question whether it’s supposed, ideal principles are implemented justly. Theoretically, the people of the government and the government itself are to be held accountable for the installment of constitutional values. John Locke describes this political obligation as the social contract, in which those governed surrender their power in return for protection. In terms of democracy, however, the primary duty of the governed is to participate in popular sovereignty and the duty of the government is to fulfill the wishes of the people. Thomas Jefferson explains that democracy is “...a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly

I admired how you integrated examples, or experiences to support the definition of the outlined fallacies. Meanwhile, the perspectives for the outlined fallacies are very insightful. You brought out some interesting concepts regarding Attacking the person, and Red Herring. I believe your perspective concerning why people attack, and change a subject is accurate for some individuals. I also imagine that the bandwagon theory is common for children, however, this may be displayed by people age 50 and above, since they may want to avoid conflict, and or have lack of interest in a subject matter.

The main concepts presented in the article are the varying definitions of each author on the concept of critical thinking. The information the author uses are definitions which are the opinions of varied authors and are similar in foundation in that to apply critical thinking one must be able to identify a problem, pose a question(s), provide valid supporting evidence, and come to a conclusion. Although the author’s definitions do not identify a problem, questions, evidence, or conclusions, the relationship Petress (2004) shows is that the reader must apply this process themselves as it is not always given. The information used does appear to be relevant, significant, and valid. The references the author listed does provide enough information for me to come to this conclusion. Since this work is a literature review and not a case study, numerical data are not necessary to determine validity of the information.

Bassham, G., Irwin, W., Nardone, H., & Wallace, J. (2002). Critical Thinking. [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies Publishing. Retrieved August 25, 2004 from University of Phoenix, Resource, MGT/350–Critical Thinking: Strategies in Decision Making Web site: https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/resource/resource.asp

Being aware of and avoiding fallacies can considerably improve our lives. When there is a fallacy in an argument there is a failure in reasoning which makes the argument unsound. While I believe we must have all had an argument containing fallacies, I think it is important that we remember to think logically in order to have a valid and smart argument.

What is Critical Thinking? Is the process of conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and /or evaluating information gathered by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication, as a guide to belief and action (Scriven & Paul, n.d.). When one applies critical thinking more ideas are develop, fewer mistakes are made and better decisions are reached. When people instead of using critical thinking act on beliefs or without giving it a second thought, the end results are poor decisions and as a result have a disaster at hand. People don’t always use critical thinking, it is not uncommon to hear someone say such remarks after making the wrong decisions; “I just was not thinking”, “I did not think it was a big deal”,

In the book, “Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (Ninth Edition), by M. Neil Brown and Stuart M. Keeley”, the authors examine the benefits of critical thinking as it relates to the process of asking the right kinds of questions. What are the right kinds of questions? These authors maintain that critical thinking is a method used to improve the way we think by asking the questions that would enable you to reach a personal decision that would eventually give credit to both sides of the discussion. Critical thinking is in essence the analysis, synthesis and evaluation of one’s experience, as it relates to the worth of the discussion at hand. The authors define