Ambiguous Sentences

In chapter two of the book, "Critical Thinking" by Richard L. Epstein, he discusses the issues of ambiguous sentences in an argument. As Epstein defines, an ambiguous sentence is a sentence that can be understood in two or a very few dubious ways. During our first couple weeks in class, as I came across the section reading about ambiguous sentences, It was easy to understand, but I remember I was having a difficult time stating an example of an ambiguous sentence. The week we were assigned to read chapter two, one of the blogs were to write about a vague or ambiguous sentence, I read the examples of ambiguous sentence over and over, but couldn't come up with an example so decided to blog about vague sentences instead, which was the other choice for that post. I did some web research and came across some very detailed examples that made it very easy to understand. The website provided various examples of ambiguous sentences and provided explanation, here is the link for the website, Ambiguous sentences.

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Major Course Assignments

Our assignment, Critical Thinking in News and Politics and Critical Thinking and Social Organization both helped me learn how to locate, organize and interpret articles. Completing the assignment Critical Thinking in News and Politics helped me learn how to analyze an article. I broke down each paragraph by making side notes of how I interpreted the article and continued from there. I also learned how to understand and state the major claim. I was able to state its premises and determine whether the argument was strong, valid, weak or bad. With Critical Thinking and Social Organization, I learned how to state what type of reasoning the organization used and identify how the organization used concealed claims. Both Critical Thinking in News and Politics and Critical Thinking and Social Organizations improved my skills in communication. Working in a group was very useful and was very effective when everyone contributed ideas and effort.


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General Claims

In the book, "Critical thinking" by Richard L. Epstein, he discusses general claims in an argument. As Epstein defines, a general claim is a claim that emphasizes something in a general way about all or a part of a collection. There may be times where an argument seems valid but it is not even if the premises seem to be true. In general claims, there are uses of all, some, no and only. Epstein also discusses the use of contradictory in an argument. Contradictory is a claim that has the opposite truth value. Examples of these claims may be,


Example of general claim
Jessica is single. Jessica has a son. So Jessica is widowed.

The premises are true, but the argument is not valid. The argument sounds good, but is bad. Jessica is single and she may have a son, but Jessica may just be divorced or separated from her Husband.


Example of contradictory
Claim                                                                 Contradictory
 All Asians are bad drivers.                             Some Asian drivers are not bad drivers.

The example has the opposite truth value which makes it a contradictory.

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Conditionals

I found a couple things interesting in chapter 6. I thought the sections explaining conditionals were interesting. Conditionals in an argument may be a useful tool. In the book "Critical Thinking" by Richard L. Epstein, he discusses the matter of conditionals of an argument. As Epstein defines, a claim is conditional if the claim can be written over using the words "if...then..." The claim requires that it has the same truth-value to it. The antecedent in a rewritten claim "If A, then B" is A, and B is the consequent. Antecedent meaning prior and Consequent meaning following as a result of. Epstein explains that a contradictory of a conditional is, If A, then B has contradictory A but not B. An example may be...

If Ivan drives, Jay get to pick the music.

Conditional: Yes
Antecedent: Ivan drives
Consequent: Jay pick the music
Contradictory: Ivan drives, but Jay does not get to pick the music.

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Chapter 7: Counter-arguments

I found many parts of Chapter 7, Counter-arguments, that I thought was interesting. I learned various things in chapter 7 that were significant and may be used in arguments. In the book "Critical Thinking" by Richard L. Epstein, he discusses counter-arguments. When students cannot evaluate an argument, they tend to raise the objective in an argument. As Epstein states, raising arguments is a method to show that an argument is bad or weak. Raising objectives creates a argument to beg a question and demonstrates that a premise is unstated and uncertain. Epstein also discusses situations of refuting an argument. There are two ways to refute an argument. An argument can be refuted directly or indirectly. There are three direct ways of refuting an argument. The steps consist of illustrating at least one premise is dubious, demonstrating that the argument is not valid or strong and to prove that the conclusion is false.


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Chapter 6: Compound Claims

I found many parts of chapter 6 interesting and useful. In the book, "Critical Thinking" by Richard L. Epstein, he explains compound claims. There are alternatives when looking at compound claims. Compound claims are claims that are composed of more than one claim, but the claim is viewed as just one. The claim is usually followed by the word "or". Epstein provides various examples of compound claims and explains ways we can reason with them. Another section that grabbed my interest was the alternatives. Epstein discusses the alternatives of a claim. As Epstein states, an alternative claim is parts of an "or" claim. Here are an example of each claim.

Example of compound claim:
Tomatoes are either a fruit or a vegetable.
Each is one claim, but is made up of two. Tomatoes are fruits. Tomatoes are vegetables.


Example of alternative claim:
You're either lying or telling the truth.
This provides two alternative.

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