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Logical Fallacies and the Art of Debate

Logical Fallacies and the Art of Debate
Contents: Introduction This is a guide to using logical fallacies in debate. And when I say "using," I don't mean just pointing them out when opposing debaters commit them -- I mean deliberately committing them oneself, or finding ways to transform fallacious arguments into perfectly good ones. Debate is, fortunately or not, an exercise in persuasion, wit, and rhetoric, not just logic. Besides, let's be honest: debate is not just about finding truth, it's also about winning. So why learn logical fallacies at all? I can think of a couple of good reasons. Second, and maybe more importantly, pointing out a logical fallacy is a way of removing an argument from the debate rather than just weakening it. Logic as a form of rhetoric Unfortunately, the account I have just given is a bit idealized. It is therefore not enough simply to point out a logical fallacy and move on; there is an art to pointing out logical fallacies in your opposition's arguments. Committing your very own logical fallacies

Logical Fallacies: The Fallacy Files English Composition 1: Rational Appeal Logos, along with ethos and pathos, make up a means of persuasion called the three appeals — three ways of persuading an audience (Covino and Jolliffe 15). Logos translates as "word" or "reason," and in rhetoric, logos refers to different systems of reasoning, working together to persuade an audience. Logos, pathos, and ethos are different but complementary methods of persuasion. Ethos moves an audience by proving the credibility and trustworthiness of the rhetor, pathos seeks to change the attitudes and actions of the audience by playing to the emotions of the audience, and logos persuades through the powers of reasoning (Covino and Jolliffe 17). Developing Logos For the ancient Greeks, logos meant more than logic or reasoning alone: it meant "thought plus action" (Covino and Jolliffe 17), "thought" being the ideas themselves and "action" being the way in which those ideas are presented to the audience.

Cliche List — The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread Daryl Bem proved ESP is real. Which means science is broken. It seemed obvious, at first, that Jade Wu was getting punked. In the fall of 2009, the Cornell University undergraduate had come across a posting for a job in the lab of one of the world’s best-known social psychologists. A short while later, she found herself in a conference room, seated alongside several other undergraduate women. While most labs in the psych department were harshly lit with fluorescent ceiling bulbs, Bem’s was set up for tranquility. “Well, extrasensory perception, also called ESP, is when you can perceive things that are not immediately available in space or time,” Bem said. It occurred to Wu that the flyer might have been a trick. “I know this sounds kind of out there,” Wu remembers Bem saying, “but there is evidence for ESP, and I really believe it. As Bem went on, Wu began to feel more at ease. In truth, Bem had no formal funding for his semisecret research program. “Reading it made me physically unwell.” Daryl Bem has always had a knack for not fitting in.

Eliminating Wordiness | Undergraduate Writing Center In concise writing words pull their own weight. Each carries meaning essential to the content of the sentence. Try to identify which words add meaning to the sentence and which just take up space. As you revise your work, keep these enemies of concision in mind. 1. Weak words Some words are the written equivalent of “um.” Generally speaking writers can kind of rely on certain online indexes of journals to basically start their research. The words in boldface have little to do with the point of the sentence; they can go. 2. We’re used to seeing some words paired: each and every, true and accurate, full and complete. The end result was brighter in color than we had hoped, but we plan to repaint the wall in the future . This sentence only needs the italicized words, not the bold ones: The result was brighter than we had hoped, but we plan to repaint the wall. 3. If you can think of one word to replace several, use the word. Pared down, the sentence reads like this: 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

100 Questions That Help Students Think About Thinking | TeachThought 100 Questions That Help Students Think About Thinking by Terry Heick Last year I wrote a post on how to help students think for themselves. TeachThought reader Peter Duckett wrote me a few months later with these questions below that he added in order to facilitate their use in the classroom. I’ve added some myself, and am going to continue to add more after giving you a chance to do so. In the comments below, suggest a question for one of the categories below and I’ll add them to the list. Leave your twitter username and I’ll credit you next to the question. Let them watch their predictions play out What do you think will happen? Let them form theories, and immediately test and revise those theories based on observation What do you think? Give them the right collaboration with the right “mind” at the right time With whom could you work to figure this out? Allow them to read with choice–without guidelines or external pressure What would you like to play with? What parts do you see in this?

How to Make Sentences Clear and Concise How to Make Sentences Clear and Concise ( printable version here ) Richard Lanham, a professor of English at UCLA, invented an easy-to-use method for making your writing clearer and more concise. The Writing Center strongly advocates Lanham's "Paramedic Method" for your writing. 1a. Original : In this passage is an example of the use of the rule of justice in argumentation. 1b. Original : The point I wish to make is that fish sleep with their eyes open. 2. Original : Burning books is considered censorship by some people. 3. Original : The theory of relativity isn't demonstrated by this experiment. 4. My opinion is that.... Want more information? Back to ' Focusing/Connecting Ideas ' Writer's Web | Writing Center | Make an Appointment | Library Copyright 2010

Gender data gap: Women suffer needless pain in a world designed for men In the 1983 movie Yentl, the title character, played by Barbra Streisand, pretends to be a man to get the education she wants. She has to change the way she dresses, the timbre of her voice, and much more to get any respect. In medical lore, the term “Yentl syndrome” has come to describe what happens when women present to their doctors with symptoms that differ from men’s — they often get misdiagnosed, mistreated, or told the pain is all in their heads. This phenomenon can have lethal consequences. Many, many women have had this experience when they go to the doctor. I had it myself, years ago. In a new book, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, the British journalist and feminist activist Caroline Criado Perez argues that this is part of a larger problem: the “gender data gap.” All this gives rise to a powerful possibility: What if we can reduce suffering for half the population, simply by ceasing to design everything as if it’ll only be used by men? Sigal Samuel Wow.

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