Argumentation

I. Argumentation
 * Wow Great Job. ** [[image:cat2.jpg.gif]]

When argumenting you defend and justify your thoughts and you also argue about different solutions to given problems. Your arguments might be favoring something or against something. People might justify their ideas by using facts or opinions. Your job is to distinguish among facts and opinions and to be able to use them properly.


 * II. Assignment:**

**a. Please visit the following web page and read all about argumenting**. Please answer the following questions in your wiki []

1. What is a "syllogism"? Think of an example and write it down.

The syllogism is an argument that depends on two propositions, which if these two propositions are true then from they, we have a deductive inference or conclusion with respect to the two premises.

Premise 1: All humans eat. Premise 2:  Cauchy was a human Conclusion: Cauchy ate.

2. Then click on the link "using logic" and write a list of all the important words (key words) used when writing an argumentative paper.

Logic Statements True Valid Based
 * Premise **
 * Conclusion **
 * Syllogism **
 * Induction **
 * Deduction **
 * Enthymeme **

3. Now click on "logical fallacies" and mention the types of logical fallacies that exist. Write an example of each one.


 * Slippery slope: Ex.:** If the government bans all because drugs can be harmful to humans, then the government will ban some medicine.


 * Hasty Generalization: Ex.:** Although I am beginning to see the subject, I can say that this area is very difficult.

**Post hoc ergo propter hoc: Ex.:** ** When ** I went out from my house was raining and I'm sick now, the rain made me sick.

**Genetic Fallacy: Ex.:** Your boyfriend is not a good boy because his family has been our enemy for years.

**Begging the Claim: Ex.:** That girl is a bad student, so she will not approve the subject.

**Circular Argument: Ex.:** ** He is a good student because he studies so much all the days and he gets good grades. **

**Either/or: Ex.:** ** You must either go out from my house or I will call the police and so you will be prisoner. **


 * Ad hominem: Ex.:** He should not be a good worker because he has a very bad appearance.

**Ad populum: Ex.:** If you were a good person then you will try to help your neighbor.

**Red Herring: Ex.:** The pollution gets worse every day with factories like ours, but found no other means to survive.

**Straw Man: Ex.:** If you think that I'm not a good worker then you hate me.

**Moral Equivalence: Ex.:** The security man is as bad as the lunatic of the film Massacre in Texas.

4. "Logic in Writing" is an essential link for you to use when writing your argumentative essay. Please keep it in mind and revise it when possible.

As I said before it is very important for you to determine if something is a fact or an opinion. Go to the following link and do the exercises. Please check your answers.
 * b. Fact or opinion**. Please do the following exercises

[]

Smoking is a nasty habit. __opinion__ Smoking is an unhealthy habit. __fact__ Daffodils are the prettiest of all the spring flowers. __opinion__ Summer is the best season of all. __opinion__ London is the best city to visit when touring in England. __opinion__ London is the capital city of England. __fact__ Mary is the best shot in the netball team. __opinion__ John scored the most goals this season. __fact__ Football is better than netball. __opinion__ Swimming is a good way to keep fit. __fact__ Click "Finished" to get your score Your score is 10/10

**c. Read the text "Special Relativity" in**: [] read it and extract the arguments the author gives, paste them in your wiki. Explain if the arguments are in favor or against the relativity of time theory.

The arguments that the author gives are: “I believe Einstein's fundamental error to be that he confuses the measurement of time with the passage of time. Einstein would say that relative motion and gravity both have the effect of slowing time. I prefer to regard [|time as an absolute]and say that relative motion and gravity slow time dependent processes.”

“I believe Einstein's theories of special relativity and general relativity to be wrong because they describe the universe as having a fourth dimension of time in addition to the three dimensions of length width and height.” We can see that the author in these two arguments is against this theory. “ Time does behave as a fourth dimension in the records of events recorded in Cartesian co-ordinates (x,y,z,t), and Einstein's equations consequently give consistent results, but that is not to say that he has described the way in which nature works.”

Here the argument is in favor of some results of his theory. “The question arises as to whether a magnetic field is a real entity, or an artefact of the relative movement of the observer who measures it. Relativity supporters will say that the latter is true. Others will disagree. Many I suspect hold both views from time to time depending on the context within which the subject comes to mind. As we follow the history of the subject, we find that the early experimenters took the view that magnetic fields were real and that they were located around the magnet or electric circuit generating them. Maxwell was the first to assume otherwise. His understanding of magnetic fields is that they are composed of a flux which is stationary in the aether. When he moves a magnet, the magnetic field decays behind it and is built up in front of it. This requires a movement of energy from the back to the front of the moving field described by the Poynting vector. This concept lives on in our explanation of the way in which radio waves convey energy, and in the theory of how energy is conveyed by the electricity main into every home. In relativity, the magnetic field is stationary in the reference frame of an observer who observes it because it is an artefact of their observation.” Here the author talks about who agree and who against of this theory. “There is thus a property of local absolute stationary-ness which I call "stasis" against which moving electric charges generate magnetic fields. The speed of light is constant relative to stasis. My prediction is that the surface of the earth moves through stasis with two significant components of velocity, one of about 16 metres per second in the direction of its path around the sun; the other, which varies with latitude, equal to half the surface velocity due to rotation, in a westerly direction.” In this paragraph the author disagrees and gives his arguments.