CLD 121 Journal Entry 5 - Ch. 3 CLRP
All arguments provide evidence for their conclusions, however deductive and inductive prove their own conclusions differently. Deductive tries to prove its conclusion using logical and straightforward evidence, whereas, inductive shows that its conclusion is reasonable through the premises. The importance of understanding whether an argument is inductive or deductive is clear, so that we can apply it to everyday life situations. This past week, we focused on the unfortunate Amish shooting. It was one of the three shootings that took place in the past week in the United States, and perhaps this particular one was a copy cat of the others. Our main objective was to read the same newspaper story and in groups come up with an interpretive thesis and outline. Many arguments were presented by the media, to understand why such an event occurred in this quiet, strict community. This happens whenever a story breaks, before all the facts have been accumulated, such as the killer's motive. The paper we had to work from, was immediately written after the story had happened. Arguments from authorities were made, predictive arguments were offered and analogies were assumed. It is important as media consumers and as aware critical thinking students, to see that some valid conclusions have false premises, and some valid premises have false conclusions. We worked with the information we had, and surprisingly many groups in the class had similar outlines. These outlines were based on the shootings but proposed that educators should implement security and safety measures within the schools to prepare for further emergencies. The reason the outlines were interpretive was a result of drawing from a broader spectrum of information available ,as opposed to basing the argument solely on the one case of the Amish shooting.
Chapter three provides many exercises to prove whether an argument is inductive or deductive and whether it's valid or not. There are five patterns of deductive reasoning and six patterns of inductive reasoning. Through recognizing the type of argument being presented we can follow the pattern of evidence being provided and see if they coincide. While reading the chapter I wondered if professors thought one argument was stronger than the other in a paper that a student would write and hand in. To me, it seems deductive is more rock solid but not as flexible and well suited to a science or math paper. Inductive seems mre appropriate for a social sciences course. I will find out which one is easier when I write the paper for this class later in November.
word count: 400
Chapter three provides many exercises to prove whether an argument is inductive or deductive and whether it's valid or not. There are five patterns of deductive reasoning and six patterns of inductive reasoning. Through recognizing the type of argument being presented we can follow the pattern of evidence being provided and see if they coincide. While reading the chapter I wondered if professors thought one argument was stronger than the other in a paper that a student would write and hand in. To me, it seems deductive is more rock solid but not as flexible and well suited to a science or math paper. Inductive seems mre appropriate for a social sciences course. I will find out which one is easier when I write the paper for this class later in November.
word count: 400