Clarifying Ideas and Concepts (Ch. 4)

1. Clarifying Ideas and Concepts (Ch. 4)

2. Language and Thought • Color Tiles: What is orange? What is teal? • Chairman or chairperson? • Doctors are male, nurses are female • The gender of God? He? She? • What is a dependent? (p. 69)

3. Ambiguity and Vagueness • “I lost hope.” • “I am selling Ts now.” • The meaning of the word “day”: • Vinny’s confession

5. Ambiguous Signs • http://www.gray-area.org/Research/Ambig/#SIGNS • http://www.gray-area.org/Research/Ambig/

6. Resolving Ambiguity • Contextualize • Clarify Intent • Negotiate • Qualify • Stipulate • Exercises on p. 77 and 84

7. Meaning of the Bill of Rights • http://billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/bill-of-rights/ • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights#First_Amendment

8. Arguments have: • Reasons • Claims / Conclusions • Conclusion words vs. reason words (p. 89) • Unspoken reasons and assumptions (p. 92) • Objections or Counterarguments • Flow of Reasoning

9. Truthiness & Wikiality • http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/24039/october-17-2005/the-word---truthiness?redirect=true • http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/06words.htm • http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/72347/july-31-2006/the-word---wikiality?videoId=72347 • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/05/AR2006080500114.html

10. Mapping Arguments (p. 100) • Mapping claims and reasons (pp. 88-89, 100) • Rectangles = Conclusions • Circles = Reasons • Clouds = Unstated assumptions • Wide arrow = Objections and Counterarguments • Dotted line arrows = Progression of argument

11. Mike Huckabee vs. Jon Stewart, p. 94 • http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-june-18-2009/mike-huckabee • Map the arguments each made using the mapping techniques discussed in chapter five.

12. The El Train Argument (p. 93) • From the 1957 film Twelve Angry Men • Map the El Train argument at 39:30 to 43:00