Verbal Reasoning

1. Verbal Reasoning Weapons of Verbal Warfare

2. Inductive Reasoning • Inductive: Begins with evidence from experience, and seeks to develop a rule to explain and predict. • Example • So far, the level of vocabulary and education shown in these student letters seems to be appropriate for their age. • So we figure that advanced students’ letters should be highly articulate and well-written.)

3. Deductive Reasoning • Begins with given rules or assumptions and applies them to specific cases. • Syllogism - A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion; for example, All humans are mortal, the major premise, I am a human, the minor premise, therefore, I am mortal, the conclusion. • The basic form of the syllogism: • Major premise: Weather in the Winter is cold. • Minor premise: People where coats when the weather is cold. • Conclusion: People wear coats in the Winter.

4. Analogical/Metaphorical Reasoning • Based on similarities between two relationships. • A teacher is like a parent to the student, so he or she should be concerned about the whole student... • A reader is like a scientist: he has to develop a theory of what the author is trying to do and apply this theory to various works.) • "The tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots." • If King Richard had weeded and pruned his kingdom like a good gardener, he'd not have lost it.

5. REASONING PITFALLS

6. Logical Pitfalls A.Fallacy of the undistributed middle: Reversal of the last two steps in syllogistic reasoning: • All Communists wear the color red. • Senator Snort wears red often. • Therefore Senator Snort is a Communist.) B. Fallacy of the false alternative:Forcing choice from two alternatives when there may be more than two. • Either you’re with us tonight like a friend or you're a momma's boy.)

7. C. Non sequitur: A step in syllogistic reasoning that "does not follow" from the premises. • All great Generals are potential threats to the President. • Colin Powell is a great commander • Therefore, I better fire that guy. D. Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy: "After this, therefore because of this" • I finally sent flowers to my girlfriend and the next day I won the lottery. • I better send flowers more often.

8. Circular Reasoning: (aka "begging the question") Using the proposition as part of its own proof. • Miller says this is what you need to know to be a good debater. • He studied good debaters to find out what they know. • How does he know they are good debaters? • Because they know what's on Mr. Miller’s list.

9. F. Red herring: Irrelevant issue to mislead or avoid the issue. • Accused of being a poor student, Johnny points to bad teachers and his dislike of SOL testing. G. Straw man: An argument one's opponent did not make, but which is easier to attack. • A teacher who is seeks to discourage marriage of teenagers till after graduation is accused of being against early marriages. H. Hasty generalization: Jumping to conclusions from too few examples. • All politicians lie, look at President Nixon

10. Emotional Pitfalls

11. A. Ad hominem: "against the person" Attacking the person instead of the argument. • Why should we listen to the economic ideas of some womanizing, poor parent like... ) B. Demagoguery: over-emotionalizing, appealing to the baser passions. • Republicans want to put religion in all of our schools! Ban all religions other than Christianity! And, force everyone to become a Baptist! • Because of the war in Iraq everyone hates America!

12. C. Rationalizing: A kind of self deception about reasons: making up reasons to avoid the real ones. • Had to fire Anderson. Productivity was falling off a bit. The fact that he sent flowers to my girlfriend had nothing to do with it.) D. Wishful thinking: Self-deception about future events. • Maybe now that there are gun-control laws there will be no crimes committed with guns.

13. E. Scapegoating: Searching for an easy target to take blame for a complex problem. • The reason for so much crime is because of all the illegal immigration into the United States F. Passing the buck: Like scapegoating, but involves avoiding individual responsibility by passing it up or down the chain of command. • The teacher forgot to tell me what I needed to make up. • I got an F on the test because the teacher is an idiot.

14. RHETORICAL STRATEGIES/TYPES OF EVIDENCE

15. Reductio ad absurdum: Showing how an opponent's argument is a slippery slope leading to absurd conclusions. • Effective-often gets a laugh-but only if there is a slippery slope. • So you think the U.S. should intervene anywhere U.S. citizens are threatened? Really? Some guy is mugged in Paris, and you'll send in the U.S. army?

16. B. Empirical Evidence: Evidence from experience/ experiment. • Anecdotal: isolated examples. • Men aren't all pigs. One was very nice and polite to me. 2. Statistical/scientific: developed from systematic, controlled study. • In 1865 one of every ten freed adult slaves had some literacy. 3. Testimonial: Someone's say-so • Jewel says we should buy Crest toothpaste. 4. Authoritative statement: Someone presumed to be an authority says so. • The teacher of the year says SOL tests are flawed and hurt the learning process.