Hello Class!
On occasion I will post to my blog about the content of what we are covering for the week. This week we are reading Chapter 2 in the Epstein text, and Chapter 2 in the Small Group Communication text. I will discuss a bit about the Epstein text in this post.
Chapter 2 covers Vague Sentences, Drawing the Line Fallacy, Subjective and Objective Claims, Prescriptive Claims and Value Judgments and Definitions. Here is a brief summary of these ideas, with some links to further help explain the concepts.
Vague Sentences: Epstein describes vague sentences as, "A sentence is too vague if there are so many ways to understand it that we can't settle on one of those without the speaker making it clearer". Here is a link to the Mission Critical website from SJSU. In previous semesters of this course I have introduced the Mission Critical website towards the end of the semester. However, my students suggested introducing it much earlier - so here you go! This website will be invaluable to you as you study the components of Critical Thinking throughout this course. Click on the link provided to read more about 'vague and ambiguous' statements.
Drawing the line fallacy: This fallacy states, "It's bad reasoning to argue that if you can't make the difference precise, then there is no difference". Read more about the fallacy HERE, HERE and HERE.
Subjective and Objective Claims: Here are Epstein's definitions: A claim is subjective if whether it is true or false depends on what someone (or something or some group) thinks, believes, or feels. A subjective claim invokes personal standards. A claim is objective is it is not subjective. An objective claim invokes impersonal standards. You can read more about the difference between subjective and objective claims by clicking on this sentence.
Subjectivist Fallacy: Epstein explains the fallacy like this, "It's a mistake to argue that because there is a lot of disagreement about whether a claim is true, it's therefore subjective." This fallacy is obviously linked to subjective and objective claims. You can read more about the fallacy HERE.
Prescriptive Claims and Value Judgments: Descriptive and prescriptive claims are described by Epstein - "A claim is a descriptive claim if it says what is. A claim is prescriptive if it says what should be." See your book for examples, and a further description.
Definitions: A definition explains or stipulates how to use a word or phrase.
These are the basic concepts that we have covered this week in class so far. Please DO NOT replace reading your book with my posts on the basic ideas we will cover. The book gives further definitions and it also gives some wonderful examples to help you understand the concepts. I have linked a number of webpages to this post so you can further explore and understand the topics that we are covering.
Over the last year or so that I have been teaching this course online, I have found that the book does a good job of explaining the concepts and providing examples. However, some students need a bit more of an explanation of the ideas - thus the webpages I have linked to in this post. Please be sure to read the book, and use the links contained within this post to help you understand the ideas we are covering in the class. Shortly, we will be using these ideas in our course projects/papers.
Have a wonderful evening!
:)
The Blogging Prof signing off
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