Informal logic

Writing Assignment #1- option 1 Plato, a well-known 4th century philosopher, explored and dissected what a perfect society truly is. His findings were that a society either contains the concept of justiceness or it does not. This concept of justiceness is a way of keeping order and harmony within the society. In order to conceive such a society, Plato suggests that there must be a division of labor that maintains the economic functions. Plato proposes that each division has a virtue that…

Salter Analysis In James Salter’s essay, “Once upon a time, Literature. Now what?”, he explains how language and literature are essential components to society. He continues to highlight the importance of literature by stating how much knowledge can be shared through reading. In addition to this, Salter begins to highlight how changes in modern culture have negatively impacted literature. Similarly, he goes on to state that literature is becoming less and less popular especially to the masses.…

four key areas (i) argumentation (ii) logic, (iii) psychology and (iv) the nature of science. Firstly, argumentation, Ellerton suggests is the most powerful framework for learning as it is the process of intellectual engagement with an issue and that arguments have premises involving what we take to be true for a purpose of the argument and conclusions that are arrived at by inferring from the premises (2014a). Secondly, Ellerton continues by stating that logic is the fundamental to rationality…

In order to answer this question, keywords that have to be interpreted are “a network of ways of knowing.” A network of ways of knowing implies how certain ways of knowing relate or intertwine with each other. Therefore, the statement “in gaining knowledge, each area of knowledge uses a network of ways of knowing,” suggests how certain ways of knowing intertwine with each other when gaining knowledge, in any given area of knowledge. Which leads to the question: to what extent can a network of…

The evolutionary story suggests that our moral beliefs evolved organically to select for what would keep a community alive. That our morals do not approach an objective truth, but are merely adaptively fit. This lends to an argument that since we are not evolved to know the truth, our morals may be totally invalid, and so we cannot rationally believe them. This argument that we cannot trust our morals is flawed. The debunker claims that since evolution selects for fitness rather than moral truth…

The author of, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” does state a central point of the essay, but it’s not as clearly presented as I presume it could be. The central point in this essay is laid out in a group of paragraphs instead of a clear cut thesis sentence. The hypothesis appears to be that the internet may chip away at someone’s capacity for concentration and contemplation. As a result, the author follows that train of thought with a potential thesis sentence; which states something along the…

Rhetorical Situation: Merging Social Construction Theory and Aristotle’s Rhetoric While my official title is English teacher, I believe my role is to facilitate students maturing as communicators. A poster hanging in my room says “Facilitator’s Goal: Students will improve as readers, writers, speakers, viewers, listeners, critical thinkers, reflectors, self-learners.” The rhetorical situation is central to each of these communication opportunities, and whether students encounter the…

Bradley Hammer writes an argument focused on the question of what writing medium should be used nowadays to teach effectively composition classes. His aim is to prove that classes of composition should use the mediums available today, rather than maintaining the same old format that does not favor students’ expression. Hammer supports that with our world that is constantly evolving, it is imperative for composition classes to embrace the new ways of communication that technology brought to our…

In William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar” Mark Antony unleashes a powerful speech during Caesar’s funeral, aiming to persuade the people of Rome that Brutus was fallacious to kill Caesar and that they should avenge his death. In Antony’s oration, he argues his case against Brutus by using the rhetorical strategies of Ethos, Pathos and Logos to manipulate his audience to be on his side, rather than Brutus’s side. These three persuasion tools allow his audience to connect with him and he is…

Aristotle further lengthens his study of syllogism in On Interpretation to study modal logic. Modal logic is phrases that use possibly or necessarily. On Interpretation does bring up a problem about a fixed future. The problem is that what happened in the past either happened or it didn’t, therefor what happens in the future will either happen or it will not. So that brings up the idea of a fixed future. Aristotle rejects this idea of a fixed future and says that what is said about the future…