Post 3

I was very intrigued by the use of fear in our communication with others. Fear is a great driving factor in what decision a person can make. Fear can cause rational people to make irrational choices, which of course never leads to anything good. If a person wanted the masses to do something that they knew was wrong, that person just needs to instill fear. Look at World War II as an example, Hitler created fear amongst his people that Jews were trying to take over and were inferior people. Therefore, the Jews should be eliminated. Sociologists have attempted to study how normal people could do what they did. And that answer is easy, they were gripped by fear. Have we learned our lesson? No, take a more modern example, the war in Iraq. George Bush used fear to justify his invasion of Iraq. He used fear by telling the American public that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when in reality, Bush needed an excuse to topple Sadamn Hussein. So will we ever learn from history? Probably not, but we need to be aware when we are making decisions because of fear.

Post 2

What was your favorite thing about the class? What was your least favorite thing about the class? How can this class be improved?

My favorite part of this class was the group work. I enjoyed doing all the projects and working with people in my groups. The projects were challenging and at times an ordeal because of trying to work out the times with people. As fun as it was working with people, I truly would have liked to change up the groups so that way I could have met more people. That was definitely the challeng of this class, not meeting people. As I stated in my previous blog, having an online class is something I will never do again. What could have been done to make this class better is a mandatory class where everyone meets together. At least changing groups could have been fun because working with other people could have developed more friends.

Post 1

What did I learn from this class?

I learned all about the different ways that we can communicate through non verbal means. Communication is so much more than just speech and what we say. I learned that fear is the greatest motivating factor of people because fear grips people and leads them to do things that they would never do.

On a non-academia level, I learned never to take another online class. At first, I thought an online class might be fun, not going to class and not meeting people. But taking an online class is actually a lot of work. It was not fun having an online class because I never got to meet any of the people in my class except the group I was assigned. I would have enjoyed the class more if we could have switched groups so we could meet more people. Taking an online class is something I could never do again because I get lazy and this class made my laziness come out even more.

Post 3

Chapter 15 was all about cause and effects. A cause is the reason for things happening. An effect is the result of the cause and the two go hand in hand. So much of our lives are about cause and effect. One concept I found interesting was the normal conditions. Normal conditions "are the obvious and plausible unstated claims that are needed to establish that the relationship between purported cause and purported effect is valid or strong." Another concept that was interesting is the "post hoc ergo proper hoc" meaning after this, therefore, because of this. Much of argument has to do with this saying. The book used a good example in explaining how we use this saying in our everyday arguments. Overall, the chapter was helpful for learning about how cause and effect is used in our everyday life. Chapter 15 used good examples and had great ways of explaining everything.

Post 2

What was useful about this website?

This website was not very useful. First, there was too much information for such a subject that does not seem to be of much importance. Also, the makeup of the website is kind of funky. It seems to be almost just another wikipedia style of information. Why can not there be an educational website that is not so boring. Wow, it was hard to get through all the excersises. The excersies are just testing our knowledge of things we should know. The most helpful statement was "Many people distinguish between two basic kinds of argument: inductive and deductive. Induction is usually described as moving from the specific to the general, while deduction begins with the general and ends with the specific; arguments based on experience or observation are best expressed inductively, while arguments based on laws, rules, or other widely accepted principles are best expressed deductively. Consider the following example:

Adham: I've noticed previously that every time I kick a ball up, it comes back down, so I guess this next time when I kick it up, it will come back down, too.

Post 1

What was useful from the cause and effect website?

Of course, the website was helpful. Anytime, we can get away from using the book, I learn. From the book, I barely learn anything so a website is useful in trying to educate. I liked the example of the bicyclist and his/her scenario. The website also not only used just cause and effect concepts, but used concepts from previous chapters, which is always helpful. Then, it had some very useful information about arguments. "These causal arguments, then, follow the form of an inductive argument with one important exception: whereas an inductive argument carries as part of its second premise the implication that there is otherwise no significant difference, these causal arguments carry the implication that there is only one significant difference: for the bicyclist, the truck; for the first driver, the bicycle; for the second driver, the first car. " This was by far the best part of the website. It had the most useful information.

Post 3

This chapter was about the different types of reasoning using analogy. I did not see the necessity of this chapter when compared to the last. This cheaper did not seem much different. Reasoning is not something we are born with, it is a learned behavior just like language. It is just whether we choose to exercise our ability to reason to the fullest. When we really truly begin to use reasoning and logic, we are all smart people. But, it just many people do not use reasoning. Many people make decisions on the fly/use their first instinct. I disagree that this is a good way to make decisions. Reasoning is important to being able to see the consequences of a certain action. However, using reasoning, I see that sometimes our plans can backfire. We sometimes may make the wrong decision because of our over thinking. Over thinking can lead to more problems but not thinking is also a problem.