- One (1) “Original Post” addressing one of the three question choices. Minimum of 250 words. Due Sunday at 11:59PM ET. Your Original Post must answer the question fully in all its parts and address possible objections to your reasoning. You must also connect your Original Post to the course by having at least one full sentence quote and citation from one of the Required Readings of the week. The quote should be word for word and contained inside quotation marks and then followed by an inline citation. Once you quote something or even reword something you did not originally write then you need to have it in a reference section at the end of the post (again in MLA format). Please refer to the following resources for help on MLA citation.
- MLA Citation: http://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/mla_tutorial.cfm
- MLA Citation Examples: http://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/mla_examples.cfm
DISCUSSION QUESTION CHOICE #1: Analyzing Published Arguments: Find an Op-Ed or opinion piece, political or otherwise, from a reputable online news outlet (not a blog, or discussion forum post) published in the last week and analyze its inductive and deductive reasoning and arguments. Identify premises and conclusions. Identify enthymemes. Identify strong/weak inductive or sound/valid deductive reasoning. Also, post any questions you might have on the self-assessment ungraded quiz questions.
DISCUSSION QUESTION CHOICE #2: Deductive and Inductive Reasoning in Everyday Life. Describe arguments and decisions that you have made, or regularly make in your everyday life (outside of work) that employ deductive and inductive reasoning. Write these arguments out so the premises and conclusions are clear. Discuss the strength and weakness of your inductive reasoning and the soundness and validity of your deductive reasoning. Also, post any questions you might have on the self-assessment ungraded quiz questions.
DISCUSSION QUESTION CHOICE #3: Deductive and Inductive Reasoning at Work. Describe arguments and decisions that you have made, or regularly make, at work that employ deductive and inductive reasoning. Write these arguments out so the premises and conclusions are clear. Discuss the strength and weakness of your inductive reasoning and the soundness and validity of your deductive reasoning. Also, post any questions you might have on the self-assessment ungraded quiz questions.
Supplemental Online Readings
(1) Groarke, Leo, “Informal Logic.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Plato.stanford.edu (2017)
An expansive article on the subject of arguments and informal logic in philosophy.
A basic overview of inductive and deductive arguments and their assessment.
(3) Hansen, Hans, “Fallacies.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Plato.stanford.edu (2020).
A thorough discussion of fallacies in informal logic.
Supplemental Online Audio/Video
(1) “How to Argue – Philosophical Reasoning: Crash Course Philosophy #2.” YouTube, uploaded by CrashCourse, Feb 16, 2016. [9:42] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKEhdsnKKHs&t=5s&ab_channel=CrashCourse
A good introduction to the basic principles of philosophical argumentation
