Lesson Five

1. Lesson Five Love is a Fallacy ---- by Max Shulman

2. Objectives of Teaching • To comprehend the whole text • To lean and master the vocabulary and expressions • To learn to paraphrase the difficult sentences • To understand the structure of the text • To appreciate the style and rhetoric of the passage.

3. Aims • To have a basic knowledge of the terms in logic. • To appreciate the humor in the story. • To analyze the structure of the story • To appreciate the language

4. Teaching Contents • Special terms in logic • Detailed study of the text • Organizational pattern • The chief attraction of the story • Language features • Exercises

5. Time allocation • Terms in logic (15 min.) • Detailed study of the text (110 min.) • Structure analysis (15 min.) • Language appreciation (15 min.) • Exercise (25 min.)

6. Lesson Five • I. Special terms in logic • argument--a statement which is offered as an evidence or a proof. • It consists of two major elements • 1. conclusion • 2. premises -- a previous statement serving as a basis for an argument. • Conclusion is to be drawn from premises.

7. Special terms in logic • fallacy -- false reasoning, as in an argument • a weakness and lack of logic or good sense in an argument or piece of reasoning

8. fallacy • Usually, an argument is correct (deductively valid) if the premises can provide enough conclusive evidence for the conclusion. Otherwise the argument is wrong. It is said to be fallacious.

9. Special terms in logic • Three kinds of fallacy: • 1. material fallacy -- in its material content through a misstatement of the facts. • 2. verbal fallacy -- in its wording through an incorrect use of terms. • 3. formal fallacy-in its structure through the use of an improper process of inference.

10. False Analogy • "High school should not require a freshman writing course . Harvard doesn't require a freshman writing course, and the students get along fine without it". • --- The analogy is false because the two items don't have strong enough similarities to predict that what happens in one will happen in the other.

11. Dicta Simpliciter • "Everyone wants to get married someday." • --- The example starts a logical train of thought with an assumption that is false. Not "everyone" wants to get married.

12. Evading the issue • There are a number of handy fallacies that people press into service to side step a problem while appearing to pursue the point. (文不对题)

13. 1）Distraction • "Suds ' n ' Puds is a great restaurant : you can see how shining clean the kitchens are ". • --- The example is called distraction because the reader's attention is drawn to the cleanliness of the kitchen instead of to the excellence of the food, which is usually the determiner of a great restaurant.

14. 2）Ad hominem • "against the person". "poisoning the well" • " Ms Bauer is a terrible English teacher. She always wears blue jeans" • --- Instead of point out faults in teaching technique, it calls attention to things about a teacher as a person that are unrelated to her teaching performance.

15. 3）Ad misericordian (an appeal to pity) • "Look at this fourteen-year-old child who's run away from home to hide her shame-- pregnant, unwashed, friendless. penniless, at the mercy of our social service agencies. Can you till claim that sex should be taught in the classroom?"

16. 3）Ad misericordian (an appeal to pity) • --- In this shifty approach to argumentation, the writer gives tear jerking descriptions of the cruel opponents' victims in order to arouse sympathy from the reader.

17. Hasty Generalization • "Mr Wang's handwriting is terrible. Mr. Hu's handwriting is also terrible and you know how terrible men's handwriting is ." • --- It applies a special case to general rule. That fact that certain person's handwriting is bad doesn't imply that all men‘s handwriting is bad.

18. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc – • “After this, therefore because of this" • "The last five times that I've worn my white pants, something depressing has happened. I'm not going to wear those pants again!" • -- This fallacy assumes that if event Y happened after event X, then X must be the cause of Y.

19. Circular Reasoning • or Begging the question: • "Juan is an impressive speaker because he always touches his listeners deeply."

20. Circular Reasoning • --- This problem occurs when the writer tries to support a claim by restating it in different words. You can tell this example is circular by considering this “Why is Juan an impressive speaker?” “Because he touches his listeners deeply.?” “Why are Juan's listeners touched so deeply?” “Because he is an impressive speaker.” • impressive = touching someone deeply

21. Appeal to the Wrong Authority • "My political science teacher says that the new math is impossible for children to learn“.

22. Appeal to the Wrong Authority • --- If the student believes that political science teacher's low opinion of new math strongly supports an argument against new math, the student is wrong. The political science teacher is an authority, but in a different field.

23. Non Sequitur -- "it doesn't follow" • "Students who take earth science instead of physics are lazy. Susie took earth science instead of physics. Susie should be kicked out of school" • --- If the first statement is correct, then you could conclude that Susie is lazy. But there's nothing in that line of reasoning that says lazy students should be kicked out of school. The conclusion doesn't follow.

24. II. Detailed study of the text: • title -- humorous/ well chosen • 1. When "fallacy" is taken in its ordinary sense, the title means: • There is a deceptive or delusive quality about love. • Love has delusive qualities

25. Detailed study of the text: • 2. When "fallacy" is having logical sense, it means : • Love cannot be deduced from a set of given premises. • Love can not follow the given rules. • Love is an error, a deception and an emotion that does not follow the principles of logic.

26. Charles Lamb (1775-1834) • English essayist and critic who is now best known for his "Essays of Elia" (1823,1833). He collaborated with his sister Mary in adapting Shakespeare's plays into stories for children. • "Tales from Shakespeare" • "Specimens of English Dramatic Poets"

27. unfetter-- set free • let sth go freely / be completely out of control • limp -- drooping, lacking firmness • flaccid -- soft, flabby • spongy -- soft, porous, full of holes, not firm • specific characteristics of his writing (essay). He is joking , not serious

28. Thomas Carlyle ( 1795-188) • English author, Scottish writer • He influenced social thinking about he new industrial working class through his essay "Chartism" and his book “The Present and the Past”. He is best known for his epic history of “The French Revolution” 1837 and his lectures “On Heroes and Hero-Workshop” 1841

29. Thomas Carlyle ( 1795-188) • He produced Sartor Resartus 1833-34, the book in which he first developed his characteristic style and thought. This book is a veiled Sardonic (scornful 挖苦的) attack upon the shams and pretences of society, upon hollow rank, hollow officialism, hollow custom, out of which life and usefulness have departed.

30. Thomas Carlyle ( 1795-188) • Carlyle developed a peculiar style of his own which was called --- "Carlyese" "Carlylism" • Style -- a compound of • biblical phrases • colloquialisms • Teutonic （条顿的，日尔曼的）twists • his own coinings arranged in unexpected sequences.

31. John Ruskin -- (1819-1900) • English critic and social theorist • a writer on art and architecture • In his later writings he attacked social and economic problems • Modern Painters • The Stones of Venice • The Seven Lamps of Architecture • Time and Tide

32. John Ruskin -- (1819-1900) • Positive program for social reforms: • Sesame and Lilies （芝麻和百合） • The Crown of Wild Olive • The King of the Golden River

33. Implication: • My writing is even more informal. I can do better than them. He says this only with his tongue in cheek.

34. What is his purpose of writing this essay? • He compared logic to a living thing ( a human being). Logic is not at all a dry learned branch of learning. It is like a living human being, full of beauty, passion and painful emotional shocks.

35. trauma – • a term in psychiatry meaning a painful emotional experience.

36. Author’s note • 1) His own idea about his own essay. • From his point of view, his essay is sth limp, spongy. It is very informal. • 2) His own idea about the purpose of that essay. • It is not a dry branch of learning , but like a human being.

37. Para 4 • Introduction of the narrator --- a law student • Notice the way he introduced himself • "boasting"

38. keen – • (of the mind) active, sensitive, sharp (syn. nimble, quick, adroit prompt, sharp smart swift)敏捷的，敏锐的 • ~ sight 敏锐的视力 • ~ intelligence 敏捷的智力

39. calculating -- • coldly panning and thinking about future actions and esp. whether they will be good or bad for oneself.

40. perspicacious --- • fml. quick to judge and understand 敏于判断与了解， 敏捷 • having or showing keen judgment and understanding

41. acute, astute • acute-- (senses, sensation, intellect) • 五官，感受，智力 • able to notice small differences • Dogs have an acute sense of smell. • astute -- shrewd , quick at seeing how to gain an advantage • clever and able to see quickly sth, that is to one's advantage.精明的，狡黠的

42. comparison • His brain – • 1. dynamo -- powerful • 2. a chemist's scales--- precise, accurate • 3. scalpel -- penetrating

43. Para.5 • introduction of the first antagonist – Petey Burch • He downgrades his roommate. • nothing upstairs -- (Am. slang) empty-headed

44. unstable • unstable • -- easily moved, upset or changed • emotional • -- having feelings which are strong or easily moved

45. impressionable • -- easy to be influenced, often with the result that one's feeling and ideas change easily and esp. that one is ready to admire other people.

46. fad • -- a style etc that interests many people for a short time, passing fashion.

47. negation • --- the lack or opposite of sth. positive,The opposite or absence of something regarded as actual, positive, or affirmative. • Reason • --- the ability to think, draw conclusions • Fads / passing fashions, in my opinion, show a complete lack of reason.

48. to be swept up in • -- to be carried away by follow enthusiastically

49. idiocy • -- great foolishness or stupidity

50. pound -- to hit hard • to deliver heavy, repeated blows