PHL 105Y September 22, 2004

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PHL 105YSeptember 22, 2004

• For next Mondays class, read chapter 1 of
  Platos Republic
• Tutorials will begin this Friday, September 24.
  Make sure you are signed up to a tutorial
  matching this class (TUT0201 TUT02etc). Keep
  trying if they are full if you dont get it by
  Friday, pick a Friday tutorial at random, go to
  it, and tell me about your situation (email is
  fine in this context) and well get you into one.
  More information on tutorials in the next slide
• Announcements we need two class representatives
  -- an EPUS volunteer (full time students) and an
  APUS volunteer (part-time). As a volunteer for
  these important student groups you have to attend
  one meeting a year (maybe two) you get to speak
  up for your fellow students on issues like
  parking, class availability, and ..fill in your
  favourite issue here. You get a certificate
  for being a class rep, and if youre very
  creative, you could describe this post in some
  inflated way on your resume for your next summer
  job.

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Tutorials for PHL 105Y

• You will be given an assignment today to complete
  and take to tutorial on Friday. Written and oral
  participation in tutorials is worth 15 of your
  grade. Tutorial written assignments are due at
  the beginning of tutorial each week, LATE
  TUTORIAL ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AT ALL
  (UNLESS YOU HAVE A DOCUMENTED EXCUSE E.G.
  DOCTORS NOTE)
• Tutorials are all held in the beautiful North
  Building
• 130     PHL105Y5 YTUT0201   Fri 1100 1200 130
        PHL105Y5 YTUT0202   Fri 1200 1300 152    
    PHL105Y5 YTUT0203   Fri 1000 1100 152      
  PHL105Y5 YTUT0204   Fri 1400 1500 152      
  PHL105Y5 YTUT0205   Fri 1500 1600

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You dont have to write down everything you see
on the screen

• These powerpoint slides really are posted to the
  class website now.
• http//www.utm.utoronto.ca/jnagel/105.htm

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Westons rules for composing an essay

• (These are worth reading and following, but you
  wont be tested on them, or on the appendix about
  definitions. You will be tested on everything
  else in the Weston book.)

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A. Exploring the issue

• A1. Explore the arguments on all sides of the
  issue.
• A2. Question and defend each arguments premises.
• A3. Revise and rethink arguments as they emerge.

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B. Main points of the essay

• B1. Explain the question
• B2. Make a definite claim or proposal
• B3. Develop your arguments fully
• B4. Consider objections
• B5. Consider alternatives

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C. Writing

• C1. Follow your outline
• C2. Keep the introduction brief
• C3. Give your arguments one at a time
• C4. Clarify, clarify, clarify
• C5. Support objections with arguments
• C6 Dont claim more than you have shown

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Fallacies

• Yes, you need to memorize these names (but not
  necessarily in Latin the English names are
  equally acceptable)

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Westons list of fallacies

• 1. ad ignorantium (appeal to ignorance)
• Example there are no known studies proving that
  popsicles do not cause cancer. Therefore,
  popsicles cause cancer.
• 2. Ad misericordiam (appeal to pity)
• Example my client cannot be found guilty of this
  crime, because he is an only child, and his
  parents would be devastated if he were
  imprisoned.
• 3. Ad populum (appeal to popular sentiment)
• Example 5,000,000 Nelly fans cant be wrong.

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Westons list of fallacies

• 4. Affirming the consequent
• Example if he took that drug last night, he
  would have slept in this morning. He did sleep
  in this morning. Therefore he took that drug
  last night.
• 5. Begging the question (or circular argument)
• Example Can we believe that the Bible is true?
  Yes, because it says so in the Bible.
• 6. Complex question
• Example are you still plagiarizing from the web
  these days?

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Westons list of fallacies

• 7. Denying the antecedent
• Example If Wanda is in Sudbury, then she is in
  Ontario. Wanda is not in Sudbury. Therefore,
  Wanda is not in Ontario.
• 8. Equivocation
• Example The guilty should be punished in a court
  of law. We are all guilty of something. We
  should all be punished in a court of law.
• 9. False cause
• - Example If you look at the global statistics,
  those who wear wristwatches are more likely to
  die behind the wheel of a car than those who do
  not. Therefore, wearing a wristwatch is a
  contributing causal factor in traffic fatalities.

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Westons list of fallacies

• 10. False dilemma
• Example Either you belong to a fraternity or
  sorority, or you spend your college years without
  any good friends.
• 11. Loaded language
• Example ltalmost any political speech find your
  own examplesgt
• 12. Non sequitur (it does not follow)
• - A general term for the failure of a conclusion
  to follow from the premises. (Be more specific
  if you can.)

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Westons list of fallacies

• 13. The person who fallacy
• -Example I know a person who smokes heavily and
  is 88 years old.
• 14. Persuasive definition
• -Example by abortion I mean the heartless and
  vicious murdering of the most innocent creatures
  in the world
• 15. Poisoning the well
• -Example Im sure no one present here today
  would be so poorly informed as to believe that
  .

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Westons list of fallacies

• 16. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc (after this,
  therefore because of this)
• -Example The stock market has performed poorly
  since Clinton left office therefore, his
  departure caused stocks to fall.
• 17. Red Herring (ignoratio elenchi)
• - Example Did I cheat on my income taxes? I am
  a very busy person, with many responsibilities.
• 18. Straw man
• -the fallacy of characterizing opposing
  arguments in a way that makes them look
  ridiculously weak
• 19. Weasel word
• Example Alice says Women are gentler than
  men. Brenda says Margaret Thatcher is a
  woman. Alice replies Thatcher isnt really a
  woman psychologically, shes more male.

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Spotting fallacies

• If Jane is a philosophy major with a A average,
  she is capable of writing good essays. Jane is
  not a philosophy major with a A average.
  Therefore, Jane is incapable of writing good
  essays.
• If a baseball player bats over .350, that is
  good. Wayne bats .385, which is good. Good
  people dont beat their spouses. If Wayne is
  good, he isnt beating his wife. Wayne isnt
  beating his wife.
• My opponent has claimed that I will not be
  funding prescription drug benefits for seniors
  with incomes over 25,000 annually. But in fact,
  my plan will ensure that seniors who earn less
  than 10,000 are covered by the end of next year.

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What point is the author attempting to make?

• And what kind of an argument has he or she
  attempted to offer here?

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Sample Argument 3

• 3. How men, whose plentiful fortunes allow them
  leisure to improve their understandings, can
  satisfy themselves with a lazy ignorance, I
  cannot tell but methinks they have a low opinion
  of their souls, who lay out all their incomes in
  provisions for the body, and employ none of it to
  procure the means and helps of knowledge who
  take great care to appear always in a neat and
  splendid outside, and would think themselves
  miserable in coarse clothes, or a patched coat,
  and yet contentedly suffer their minds to appear
  abroad in a piebald livery of coarse patches and
  borrowed shreds, such as it has pleased chance,
  or their country tailor (I mean the common
  opinion of those they have conversed with) to
  clothe them in.
• --John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human
  Understanding 4.20.6

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Sample Argument 4

• 4. Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is
  young nor weary in the search thereof when he is
  grown old. For no age is too early or too late
  for the health of the soul. And to say that the
  season for studying philosophy has not yet come,
  or that it is past and gone, is like saying that
  the season for happiness is not yet or that it is
  now no more. Therefore, both old and young ought
  to seek wisdom, the former in order that, as age
  comes over him, he may be young in good things
  because of the grace of what has been, and the
  latter in order that, while he is young, he may
  at the same time be old, because he has no fear
  of the things which are to come.
• --Epicurus, letter to Menoeceus

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Grasping the underlying form of sample argument 4

• You are either young or old.
• If you are young, you ought to seek wisdom (so as
  not to fear the things which are to come).
• If you are old, you ought to seek wisdom (so as
  to enjoy the grace of what has been).
• You ought to seek wisdom.