Week 4 ; Ch.7 #1

In chapter 7, it states that an inductive argument is an argument that states something is probably true or false, but not strongly supported. The book says that inductive arguments usually use the phrases, probably, most likely, chances are that, it is reasonable to suppose that, we can expect that, and it seems probable that. A recent example of an inductive argument that I used in the past week was when I was at work. I work at the Jamba Juice in the Student Union, and I was working the cash register one day. A customer was really indecisive on what smoothie they wanted, so I asked them if they would rather have something fruity or something creamy. They replied that they wanted something fruity, so I asked them what their favorite fruits were to try and help narrow down their wide variety of selections. They said that two of their top favorite fruits were strawberries and peaches. From this, I asked them if they wanted something sour or sweet. They said they wanted to try something sour, so I told them that they would probably like the Strawberry Surf Rider or Caribbean Passion because both drinks are sour/tart, and they have both of the fruits that they wanted. The customer finally ordered and decided to get a Caribbean Passion. This example is both a deductive and inductive argument because I used the process of elimination to narrow down the choices, but I also left them to decide which drink they wanted out of two different ones because they would probably like both according to the information they told me.

Week 3 ; Ch.8 #3

In chapter 8 of Think, it tells you the three different types of deductive arguments. The first type is argument by elimination, where different possibilities of a situation are eliminated until there is only one conclusion that remains. The second type is argument based on mathematics, which means that the conclusion has to be calculated from a mathematical or geometrical situation. The last type is argument from definition, which is where the conclusion is true based on fact or a certain definition for a term. An example of the first type would be like Sherlock Holmes, trying to find out where the missing racehorse was by using logic to eliminate the other possible places the horse could've been. For the second type, an example of this would be trying to measure how much space you have in your room by taking several math steps. An example of the last type of deductive argument from the book is, "Paulo is a father. All fathers are men. Therefore, Paulo is a man" (Boss, 244). This is true because by definition, a father is a male parent. I personally like argument by elimination because I like to rule things out when trying to solve something, and you have to really use your logic to think about certain situations and the possibilities.

Week 3 ; Ch.8 #2

In Christianity, teachings tell that you should never take a life. Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth also state that you shouldn't return hate for hate or evil for evil. So...doesn't the death penalty contradict this? Christianity teaches people that they're all God's children, so why would a person want to put their "brother" or "sister" to death? Of course besides these reasonings, a person could always say that the person in the death penalty deserves to be in there because of the poor actions they made. Just think about it, if you're Christian and have those beliefs, then one of your family members gets murdered, would you just forgive the suspect or would you want justice served to them? It's a hard decision to make because it's a person's life that could possibly be taken away because they took the life of another. I am Christian, so it's also a pretty difficult situation for me to decide, but I guess it all depends on the situation.

Week 3 ; Ch.8 #1

When Sherlock Holmes tells Watson that when it comes to art of reasoning, may people rely on opinion and unsupported assumptions, I think he means that when people try to figure things out, they are usually biased with their decisions. For example, when I was in my junior year of high school, my friends and I were at a party. My friend left her phone to charge in a room that nobody was supposed to go into, and when she came back into the room, her phone was gone. She immediately thought it was the girl that she didn't like because everyone knew one another  at the party. My friend went up to the girl saying, "Where's my phone? I know you took it." without any proof at all. Today, many people assume things and never really take the time to figure things out fairly. When you make an assumption, you should always have proof to back it up, otherwise you could blame innocent people. When innocent people are blamed, that's usually when conflicts start to happen because nobody likes to be blamed for other people's mistakes.

Week 2 ; Ch.6 #3

In chapter 6 in Think by Judith Boss, it states that an issue is an "ill-defined complex of problems involving controversy or uncertainty". Arguments usually tend to help us analyze issues and which side of the issue is the more reasonable one. When you identify an issue, you need to think clearly and have good communication skills. An example of this would be if a person's best friend started ignoring them because they had a friend that they had more in common with. The rejected friend would probably feel uncomfortable being around the other two friends, and would no longer want to hang out with them. If the rejected friend went up to the best friend to talk about it, the best friend would most likely get defensive and tell her that she wasn't ignoring her on purpose, and that she has just been busy. This would cause an argument and possibly end a friendship. In order to make the situation fair, both parties should be open-minded and understand what the other person feels, so they could work out the tension. 

Week 2 ; Ch.6 #2

There have been multiple times when I've stood my ground despite losing a friend. I'm the type of person where if you do something that isn't fair or right, I will call you out on it and not have a problem with it. It's not that I'm a mean person, but I just don't beat around the bush or try to "sugar coat" things when there's a problem at stake. A recent example of this was when my roommate's sister came to San Jose to visit her, but she didn't want to put her own plans aside to spend time with her sister. Instead, she left her sister at our house and went to a soccer game with one of our other roommates. I thought this was messed up because her sister drove two hours to be with her sister, but my roommate didn't care. So, when my roommate got home from the soccer game, she came to my room and I told her that it wasn't right for her to ditch her sister like that because I spent more time with her than she actually did. My roommate didn't think she did anything wrong, so she just walked out of my room.The reason why she went to the soccer game in the first place was because the guy she liked was playing. I told her that it wasn't going to be the last soccer game he'd play, and that she should never put a guy before her family. She was in denial at first, but she eventually realized that I was right, and she apologized to me.

Week 2 ; Ch.6 #1

 Same-sex couples/marriages have been a dilemma in the United States for a while now. President Barak Obama is all about equal rights, but when it comes to same-sex marriages, he doesn't approve of them. Why should gay and lesbian couples be treated differently than anyone else because after all, they're humans too. Since Obama doesn't agree with same-sex marriages, he isn't consistent in his beliefs of equal rights and opportunities for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation. He agrees with same-sex couples to an extent because he probably doesn't want to lose any of his supporters that also disapprove of this. In response to Nava and Dawidoff, Obama would most likely say that his stance isn't a denial of the basic rights of same-sex couples because he still supports them on a civil union level. He doesn't totally deny them, but if he were to support civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, I think he should support them completely on a federal level as well.