Class Notes (3/26/15)

People seem to trust those who really apply themselves to what they're talking about. They like when people introduce themselves and try to engage in the conversation. 

Ethos: The character of the person who's doing the speaking. The identity of the speaker. (Dressing, context in which they're introduced, their expertise)

Pathos: The emotion a speaker brings to the message. (Optimism, derogatory)

Logos: How well a speaker arranges their argument.


John F. Kenedy Speech: Right away you get ethos. They inroduce him as the president and he's wearing a suit and tie with a lot of media around him. Kenedy speaks really confidently and firmly. He only makes pauses every once in a while but throughout the whole speech he is very confident. It makes people want to trust and like him even more. "We choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard." 

The Red Herring

I chose this image to demonstrate The Red Herring fallacy which is the fallacy of distraction. The murderer distracts the officer by telling him something totally of topic and then kills him. It shows how the fallacy works and I thought it went well with our previous class discussions on law enforcement.

Fallacies

Ad Hominem fallacy: responding to an argument attacking a person’s character rather than the content of their argument.

Circular Reasoning: Someone argues the point they’re trying to make by supporting it with other reasons that are supported by their original point.

Ad Nauseum: Making the argument by repetition; saying the same thing over and over again.

Appeal to Tradition: “We do this because that’s how we’ve always done it.”

Appeal to Ignorance: Arguing that something is true just because it hasn’t been proven false.

Appeal to Numbers: Citing statistics to prove an argument

Appeal to Popularity: “All the cool kids are doing it.”

Cum Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: “with this because of this” – just because two things happen together doesn’t mean they’re related or one causes the other.  (e.g., just because a student attends RHS doesn’t mean she has two legs)

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: just because something happens after something else doesn’t mean the first thing causes the second.

Appeal to Authority: the fallacy of asserting an idea as correct just because a person/entity in power says it is.

Red herring- The fallacy of distraction which brings up a new topic to divert the original discussion.

Slippery Slope- Assuming that you have to give the whole show if you give one person the point. 

Straw Man- Putting words into someone's mouth to make their argument seem worst then it really is.

Naturalistic Fallacy- Using nature as a reason to go from fact to value.

You Too- The idea that two wrongs make a right.

Begging the Question- (the same as Circular Reasoning) 

Non Sequitur- Something that doesn't go in sequence. An illogical leap to an unrelated idea.