Slippery Slope And Appeal To Emotion example essay topic

The word thinking can describe any number of mental activities. Much of our natural thinking, when left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed, and prejudiced. Yet the quality of our lives depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Critical thinking is that mode of thinking! V about any given subject that improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of its very structures and by imposing intellectual standards upon them.

However, thinking involves consideration of the full range of possibilities to a problem, including emotional, cognitive, intellectual and psychological factors. Thus, critical thinking belongs to the category of higher-level thinking skills. Critical thinking is analytical and logical. It evaluates ideas and identifies reasonable ones. Critical thinking is clear, precise, accurate, relevant, consistent, and fair.

In short, critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking that entails effective communication and abilities. While thinking in general is a natural activity of human beings, excellence in thinking must be cultivated and practiced. When looking at emotion versus logic, for virtually all of us, there are topics about which we! SS just cannot be rational!" . Think, for example, of religion and politics. In these instances a commitment to a certain belief against another belief may keep us from weighing objectively the evidence for each side of the issue.

We call for help or reason poorly because our emotions make it hard for us to reason rationally about them. Some people are unable to accept any significant criticism of a proposed economic system, regardless of the merit of the criticism. In this case, their emotions stand in the way of a fair and rational evaluation of the proposal. Clearly, not all emotions should be avoided as blocks to clear thinking and insight. There is nothing wrong with out enthusiasm for our political and moral views. Emotions can become dangerous, however, when we allow them to cloud evidence, to suggest unwarranted concepts that prevent us from solving issues.

The most common cases in which our emotions affect our ability to argue logically are prejudice and defensiveness. Prejudice and defensiveness does not foster open-minded, critical thinking. Let us next look at some of the fallacies that hinder critical thinking. There are hundreds of fallacious patterns, and each fallacy is given a name that in some way describes the error. The names often are derived from roots of logical study. Let us identify what we consider to be the five most common fallacies: non sequitur (!

SS does not follow!" ), ad hominem (! SS relating to the person, not to the argument!" ), post hoc ergo propter hoc (! SS after this therefore because of this!" ), slippery slope, and appeal to emotion. Non sequitur (irrelevant reason). In this fallacy, the premises have no direct relationship to the conclusion. Example: A waterfall in the background and foreground has nothing to do with an automobile's performance.

Ad nomine m. This fallacy is committed when a person's characteristics are irrelevantly attacked in order to discredit the arguer rather than his or her argument. John's objections to capital punishment carry no weight since he is a convicted felon. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. A form of hasty generalization in which it is inferred because one event followed another; it is necessarily caused by the event.

They quit using the Iowa tests last year in my kids! | school, and this year my son received three Ds. I knew that was going to cause problems. Slippery slope (black-and-white fallacy). A line of reasoning in which there is no gray area or middle ground. It argues for (or against) the first step because after the first step, you will inevitably follow through to the last (which is usually quite horrible! K).

Example: We cannot allow students any voice in decision-making because it would not be long before they are in total control. Appeal to emotion. In this fallacy, the arguer uses emotional appeals rather than logical reasons to persuade the listener or reader. Example: Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, the defendant comes from a poor background. He was badly mistreated and if found guilty, there will be no one to care for his wife and three young children.

Surely, so long as there is any mercy and justice left in the world, you cannot return any verdict but! SS not guilty!" . When you understand a fallacy, it is difficult to commit that error of reasoning without realizing what you are doing. It will also give you power in arguments with! S Stalkers!" who commit fallacies but disguise them well. Responding to fallacies is easy.

Simply insist the arguer give you adequate support for his argument; further, factual justification. Remember, the burden of proof is on the arguer.