Tu Quoque fallacy

This month is also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival for the Chinese. Most people will like to have ghost movies or talk about ghost stories during this period of time. Just two days ago, when i was having supper at a mamak stall with my friends, one of my friend started the topic about ghost story. We talk about a plenty of stories that we had heard before and the story that shock me the most is this.

It happened in an hostel of a university. When the university starts a new year, there will be a lot of new students staying in that hostel. There were three friends, they knew each other since primary school so they move in to that hostel together. A room in that hostel can fit in four person that means they will be staying with another roommate that they don't know. His name is Jesper.

When they are unpacking their stuff, Jesper told them to keep the top of their cupboard occupied. Don't leave it with nothing on top of it. They felt curious and they ask him why they have to do that. After that, Jesper told three of them to sit down n he started to tell them the story that he heard from the past resident of their room.

A few years ago there was a student that stay in this room. Due to stress of the exam, he commit suicide in the wash room just a few steps from the room. He slashed this wrist and bleed to death. What the past residents or the room experience before is, one day, one of them is staying late playing computer games. When he is about to lie on the bed, he noticed that there is someone sitting on top of the cupboard... Swinging its legs and knock on the wooden surface of the cupboard. He was so scared and he pretend to sleep and just don't look at it.

Suddenly he felt that it get down from the cupboard, and walk to his roommate one by one. It said: " Ini dah tidur..." Which means this one sleep already. Then he was the last, this time what it said is different. It said: " Ini pura pura tidur!!! " Then it just lied down beside him in his bed and vanished after awhile... That's why Jesper told them to keep the top of the cupboard occupied so that can prevent it from coming back.

After listening to this, i felt scare and i said i decide to switch on the light to sleep for today. Then one of my friend said that why i am so timid. He also said that I am a guy, should be more brave. But actually he is more timid than me... He doesn't even dare to take the lift back to his apartment alone and he wanted me to accompany him go back to his apartment.

This relates to Tu Quoque fallacy which means you accuse another person of the same trait or characteristic that person has attributed to you.

Written by: Kor Qin Sheng

implicit premise & implicit conclusion

A few days ago when i was browsing through my facebook, i saw a cool computer game trailer posted by my friend so i go ahead to have a look.



Personally, I am a big fan of Need For Speed so i definitely will going to have one when it is available. After watching the trailer, I noticed that in that trailer at 1:59 , the producer of the game wrote "Race or Chase on 11.16.2010". In that moment, it triggers my mind and i know this is related with what i had learned in critical thinking class.

This is related to implicit premise and implicit conclusion.
Implicit premise means when the premise is not stated outright and the arguer "assumes" that you will know it.
Implicit conclusion means when the conclusion is not stated outright and the arguer "assumes" that you will know it.

In this case, for "Race or Chase on 11.16.2010",

Implicit premise
-They are trying to persuade gamers to buy the game so that they can play the role as a cop or as a street racer in the game.

Implicit conclusion
-The game will be available or it will be release on November 16, 2010

Written by, Kor Qin Sheng

D.. A.... I..... D problem solving model.

Problem Solving

Recently I had met with tons of problem in my society, my committee and I have meeting with a lot of date line. We are very worried that time, then we decided to hold a meeting to solve the problem we have meet.

Of course most of us know that we should sit down together and identify what problem we are facing now. It is known to us that many date line are approaching, many of us having assignment date line also, and what we are afraid the most is, the final exam are approaching and yet we still have a lot of preparation for our event which will be held after the semester break which is 2 weeks away from the final exam.

We then analyze the problem that we face, some of us found out that our planning are taking too much time, and we should put more effort, some of us argue that no it is not!, we should lessen our burden by reducing our event task, so that we can concentrate on our assignment and our final exam. After awhile we came into conclusion that we should be responsible for what we have done, although it seems very bad for those who want to do well in their exams but still they prefer responsibilities over self achievement.

Somehow, my leader tells us that we still have many alternatives to save us from this terrible situation, so we brainstorm for a list of alternative solutions. One of the solutions that we made is, we can study together as we know we have 24 hour per day, second is we must reduce our “relaxing” time and put more effort in our studies, besides that we must have more meeting often and carry out more workshop to complete what is left.

There are many solution that we bring out during our meeting, it is quite a relieve that we manage to get some solution to overcome our problem, finally before we dismiss; we choose what is the best to overcome our problem.

In this case, we used DAID problem solving model to solve our problem.

Written by Lim Hong Yuen

Simple, free yet creative

Free Writing

Somehow, most of the idea that came from just thinking isn’t as effective as free writing is. Most of the time that my group member had done much thinking possible to have idea to solve problems. Most of the time they use the same old method to solve the problem. Where is innovation I ask?

And then some of us from the Faculty of management had learn from the critical thinking class that we should practice more free writing to gain more creative idea. 

One day we have some free time after our meetings, we had nothing to do at all so we decided to do some free writing to see what kind of “freak of nature” we can write out.

For our surprise we didn’t manage to write so much at first, but through the lesson from critical thinking class, we learn to write “blank” until we get something into our head.

Yes! We did. We surprise our self once again with a lot of “blank” word and something we didn’t expect it to come out.

Free writing help us to be creative, somehow some of us that had a talent in drawing may perform artistic free writing as well.  

Written by Lim Hong Yuen

♥ A Happy Day ♥

This morning, I felt happy and warm. Why? That is because my little sweetheart gives me a call. Let’s me show you my little sweetheart. Dang~Dang!

 Oh ya that are my sweetheart and his name are Ivan. He told me that, he very miss me and asked me when I will going back to hometown again. He keeps on telling me that he wants to meet with me. That was a long time ago I din meet with him, I miss him too. In addition, he makes me think about his past.

 Last 3 year ago, I still remember that, the first time I meet with him, he was just a 3 month baby. Because his mother had to work, so his mother asked my mother help her take care about his son.  My mother love baby so much, and she named that little baby boy as Ivan. Start from that time, all of us calls him Ivan. Ivan was a cute boy and nice boy. He like to sleep in every single moment, if we doesn’t allow him to sleep, he will start crying and act emo. Haha xD A cute baby! When he was 1 year old, my mother start teach him to sing and pronouns some word, such as sing ABC song, teach him call “mummy” “daddy” and so on. Although my mother teaches he about how to pronouns “mummy” and “daddy” but he just know the pronunciation of my name. That why I love him so much. When he was in 4 year old, he went back to stay at his hometown Port Dickson. But, he still the same keep on calling us, keep on finding us all the time. Nowadays, I still can receive his call at least twice per week. Beside that, he calls my mother everyday, I think at least 3 times per days. Haha xD As I know, he really love to be with us so much.

I will like to play with him and enjoy the time with him, if I went back to my hometown. Before I go back to my hometown, I need to give him a call, and let him know that I will go back hometown. This is my promise to him.  At last, he will appear in my home sweet home too. Ivan already is a part of our family member. I love him so much.  

P/S: I used a method to support my premise, which is named ANECTODE. 

Written by, Shanice Sua Shui Sian

The role of questions in arguments

The story starts with my friend says : " What will you do this evening? I am going to watch The Expendable at Alamanda, don't you think you should relax sometime and go out? You are going to accompany me to watch that movie right?. Then i accompany my friend go watch the movie.After i reach home from the cinema, i found out that i spend most of my money to accompany my friend to go watch movie. But why every time i get persuade by my friend to go watch movie with him. I started to think using critical thinking skill, i found out that my friend uses most of the type of the question to persuade people we learnt from critical thinking classes.

WHAT WILL YOU DO THIS EVENING? - Interrogative Question

DON'T YOU THINK YOU SHOULD RELAX SOMETIME AND GO OUT? - Rhetorical Question

YOU ARE GOING TO ACCOMPANY ME TO WATCH THAT MOVIE RIGHT? - Leading Question

As a conclusion, i think my friend is a good critical thinker as he apply these question and successfully persuade me to accompany him to watch movie.

Written by: lee kep xian

The Basic Structure of Argument -understanding the process of "reconstruction"

Today when i surf the internet to purchases a flight ticket for my dad, i saw an advertisement of the airlines company. 
It  written " WORLD'S BEST CABIN STAFF,
                     More than just an airline code
                      MH is malaysian hospitality   "


In my opinion:
- The company is trying to tell us that they have the best cabin crew in the world, thats mean the services should be good.
 - The company is trying to tell us that the company apply the Malaysian's  hospitality by using the alphabet "MH" as  the airline code.

Then when i started to think using critical thinking skills, and i found out that the airlines company actually using implicit premises. An implicit premises is which the premise is not stated outright – and the arguer “assumes” that you will know it. As a conclusion, the airlines company is using implicit premises to persuade us to purchases their services.












Written by: lee kep xian

Assumption

The incident is start from a light cough. Last two weeks, my mother was ill, she coughs and started to get sick, and then i brought her to the nearest clinic to take medication. But after two days, i believed i was affected by my mother also. Because i also get sick after my mother got sick, i also have cough and flu. I assume that the virus is from my mother. But my mother told me that is not her virus, is because i don’t like to drink water that is why I got sick.

But somehow, when there’s one person in the house got sick, normally you will belive or assume that u are affected by the person who brings the virus when the person starts ill before you.

Eventually, from what i have learnt in the critical thinking textbook, it says that all support for premises can be traced back to a set of beliefs which the person making the argument considers to be self-evident, and therefore not in need of further support or analysis.

Posted by JESSY LAI SZE MEI

Evidence

This is my first post ever on a blog, i hope this will be an interesting start as im still learning on it. And of course i have to thanks lecturer for giving me this opportunity to write my assignment into a blog. ^^ haha

First of all, i would like to talk about the evidence. Evidence is where a premise can be made more acceptable when it is supported by various kinds of evidence: statistical studies, historical information, physical evidence, observations, or experiments, eyewitness accounts, and so on.

Here comes the incident which i want to share with everyone. Two months ago, i watched a film “super size me”. It is an Academy Award-nominated 2004 documentary film, directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker.

The video is about Spurlock (the main character) follows a 30-day time period subsists exclusively on McDonald's fast food and stops exercising regularly. The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effects on Spurlock's physical and psychological well-being and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit. During the filming, Spurlock dined at McDonald's restaurants three times per day, sampling every item on the chain's menu at least once. He consumed an average of 5,000 calories (the equivalent of 9.26 Big Macs) per day during the experiment.

Before starting the experiment, he is tested by three doctors - a general practitioner, a cardiologist and a gastroenterologist - who pronounce his general health to be outstanding. But after that 30 days, we can see very clearly that he gain his weight, besides that his doctors worn him to stop this experiment, because this experiment give an evidence that if you eat McD everyday, you will have serious problems affect you body.

From the evidence from the experiment that Spurlock has showed us, he is trying to worn everyone not to eat McD everyday, even if u really have to eat that everyday, you need to take regular exercise.

Posted by JESSY LAI SZE MEI.

Precising definition

I saw this picture when i searching some information for my assignment~

I think we cant find this board on Malaysia's roadside~

I wonder how good is it to have a board such this...

In this board stated that for elderly people...but in my mind what is consider as elderly person?

How old are them should be in order to catagorize as elderly person??

Suddenly i remember what i had presented before...

This is about precising definition... 

Precising definition is when the arguer attempts to further describe a "vague" word or phrase by adding examples or illustrations. It aim is to make the meaning of the term more precise for some purpose.

For example, as we can see from the board above, we might want to give elderly people cross the road first. But simply declared that elderly people can cross the road first will lead to many disputes since it is not clear how old one should be in order to be an elderly people. 

So one might be define " an elderly people" to mean "any person of age 65 and above".

So is it clear enough that we should let the person which is age of 65 and above to cross the road...

But we need to check their identity card only can determine whether they above age 65 or not...

Its waste of time!!! Going to campus now~~Bye...

Written by- Tee Zhi Qi

Deductive vs. Inductive argument

Yesterday night i went to Cyberia mamak to have my dinner with my friend. When i was enjoying my dinner, i saw a cat also enjoying it's meal. An argument suddenly appear in my mind.

      

     Inductive argument

All cats like to eat fish.

Simon likes to eat fish.

Simon is a cat.

               

Deductive argument

             All cats like to eat fish.

Simon is a cat.

           Simon likes to eat fish.

By definition, a deductive argument has been established if the premises are true, the conclusion,logically must also be true. A deductive argument is also known as a VALID argument. While inductive argument claim that if the premises are true, the conclusion is probably true. A inductive argument is also known as INVALID argument. As we can see from the above statement, for inductive argument, it is invalid because Simon can be a person's name. There doesn't has sufficient information state that Simon is a cat's name. For deductive argument, there is stated that Simon is a cat. So Simon likes to eat fish. From this argument, i was thinking that if i like to eat fish, then i will become a cat?? Luckily i dislike eat fish. I cant imagine if i become a cat because i dislike cat. STOP thinking about that. I don't want become a cat... Now is 8.42pm..It's time for me to have my dinner...Bye~


Written by : Tee Zhi Qi  

Isn't true or fake?

The weather is very hot right now. Although I’m very tired right now but I still can’t fall into my dream. Haiz. What can I do now? Do nothing. I start browse my mailbox and read my mail. I saw a mail at my mailbox. It was news about ask for donations to his/her medical treatment. Actually I saw this type of massage seen last 2 month. I was wondering isn’t true? Or fake? Few days ago, I saw this type of news in newspaper, most of the public claim that, that was fake news, and the public stated down the supporting premise to support their conclusion. Can someone tell me isn’t that is a true? Or fake?

Let’s me use the critical thinking skill to think about that. Haha xD

As I know, there are three choices we can make about whether to believe a claim, such as accept the claim as true, reject the claim as false, and suspend judgment. From the book, I know that we needn’t pretend to be all wise, nor force ourselves to make judgments. Sometimes it’s best to suspend judgment and evaluate the argument as well as can. If we find that it’s valid or strong, we can then worry about whether the premise is true. On the other hand, if we rejected a claim means to say that it is false. In conclusion, there are no absolute rules when to accept, when to reject, and when to suspend judgment about a claim. We need to base on our own experience to make a judgment on the claim. In my opinion, I think that news was a fake because there are too many doubts on it. 

The time already reached 3:45pm, I feel sleepy, I need a nap now! Bye! 

Written by -Shanice Sua Shui Sian