I'm presenting here an argument from a quiz that I took (and just got back) |
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"Thinking is a lot like swimming"..? The simile is then justified in the next two sentences. |
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That's what I underlined as well. |
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Last edited by Invader; 09-15-2009 at 11:10 PM.
I'd say you are correct. |
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Like the majority philosophy teachers, your philosophy teacher is a fucking idiot. |
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HERE HERE! |
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Last edited by PhilosopherStoned; 09-15-2009 at 11:50 PM.
Previously PhilosopherStoned
What's the name of the fallacy, though? Do you know? |
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Last edited by Invader; 09-16-2009 at 12:14 AM.
I'm not sure. I got my 'critical thinking' from math so I never took a class that covers that the 'liberal arts' names. I'd just call it a bad argument. For our examples, I'd call it an invalid premise. It's a valid premise in his case but only because what comes after it is true. It's circular. I can break any one of the three statements and at least one of the others break as well. |
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Last edited by PhilosopherStoned; 09-16-2009 at 12:26 AM.
Previously PhilosopherStoned
Sounds like he is nitpicking to me. Honestly though, it sounds more like an English question, than a critical reasoning question. |
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The point of the exercise was to determine what the intended conclusion was, |
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The whole premise seems to encompass the ideology that thinking is a lot like swimming. Further in the paragraph they go on with examples and comparison, yet all circled around the main idea. So I would have to say the premise is the conclusion... just from my common sense. If the last sentence was correct (conclusion), it would run something like "Therefore, it's easy in thinking to float..." rather than "Similarly...". Similarly implies further clarification through comparison, rather than a "concluding" idea or message. Yet "As you may know" is a precursor for introducing your conclusion, not to sound ironic. For example "As you may know now "x" and "y" now we can posit "z" from inference. |
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The solution seems ambiguous at best. |
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The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve. ~ Buddha
That changes the exercise completely. That possibility didn't even occur to me and if you mentioned it in your OP, I no doubt would have subconciously ignored it. Why do we care about bad arguments? |
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Previously PhilosopherStoned
There Are Three Conclusionz Z. O. M. G!!!!!!! |
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"La bellezza del paessa di Galilei!"
With no drawn-out logical process ( not to say that I didn't think about it at all, but I didn't go through a process ), I got the same answer. Keep in mind, I don't know a lot of the college-level reasoning or terms, but this is my less educated answer: |
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I believe the reason that "it's easy in thinking to float |
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Last edited by Sandform; 12-08-2009 at 04:32 AM.
"thinking is a lot like swimming" is the conclusion. As others have pointed out, the rest is justification and explanation, and therefore cannot be the conclusion. |
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How can there be a conclusion if there is no line of reasoning? The only thing he does is make an anology. Thinking is like swiming. Swimming is like this, similary, thinking is like this. Conclusion? Thinking is like swimming... wait, wasn't that the statement we started with? This guy is giving a description of how thinking is like swimming, if you give a description of the mechanics of something you can't possibly expect there to be a conclusion. There is no conclusion to a description. |
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"Reject common sense to make the impossible possible." -Kamina
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