Critical Thinking: Reconstructing Arguments Philosophy Discussion Help
Humanities
This chapter culminates “Part Two” (Ch. 2-4) of our Critical Thinking textbook, which is aimed at developing our “interpretive skills” (§1.4). The Coddling of the American Mind presented all sorts of psychological and social obstacles that impair our ability to develop this set of skills (e.g., cognitive distortions, the shift from intent to impact, the psychological pull of tribalism, and the rhetoric of common-enemy identity politics, etc.). So, this week, I thought it would be good to get some practice evaluating arguments in real life… Ask your friend or family-member to give a few reasons for a belief they endorse. In your discussion post, give a brief report of the argument they provide and then answer these questions: A) If diagramed, would the argument be a T-argument or V-argument or both? How do you think that affects the strength of the argument? B) If there are missing premises (there probably are), what do you think they are? How do you think bringing those missing premises to light affects the strength of the argument? C) With all this in mind, what do you think your friend or family-member could do to strengthen their belief? … I know this is a lot to ask in less than 150 words! Just do your best… I’m most interested in using the concepts from this chapter to answer question C.
