Appeal to Popularity

The Appeal to Popularity has the following form:

1. Most people approve of X (have favorable emotions towards X).
2. Therefore X is true.

Appeals to popularity suggest that an idea must be true simply because it is widely held. This is a fallacy because popular opinion can be, and quite often is, mistaken.

Example:

(1)  Most people believe in a god or ‘higher power’.
Therefore:

(2) God, or at least a higher power, must exist.

This argument is an appeal to popularity because it suggests that God must exist based solely on the popularity of belief in God.

Appeal to Belief

Appeal to Belief is a fallacy that has this general pattern:

1. Most people believe that a claim, X, is true.
2. Therefore X is true.

The appeal to belief is an informal fallacy of relevance, where it is asserted that since a great number of people believe a proposition is true, it is true. This is an appeal to an inappropriate justification. If what everyone believes were actually true, then it would be true that the earth is flat, because at one time, most of the people believed it to be true. And then the earth became spherical, because most of the people believed it to be spherical. As you can see, even if it is the case that most people believe in the truth of a proposition, it doesn’t make it true. The number of people believing something to be true doesn’t bear on its truth.

Final Reflection

We have indeed pushed through quite a bit of literature, ancient Greek drama, 19^th century Russian fiction, and late 20^th century poetry—with a stop or two in the English Renaissance and Norway. I never thought, before this class, that I would be able to appreciate poetry like I do now. Poetry gave me a voice that I couldn't have spoken from otherwise. Reading poetry, thinking of its philosophical and emotional importance to human culture as a whole, as well as using it to share my beliefs to others and myself, is amazing. Poetry has redefined me, and given me more respect and love for life in general. It has also given me the opportunity to express myself using descriptive words. I have a better understanding of my thoughts and can express my thoughts more fluently.

I wasn’t a big fan of the short story we read, “Death of Ivan Illych,” because it was really depressing and I never felt like reading it because of that. And also it was really long and throughout the story you just sort of read the same thing over and over again how Ivan’s life was incomplete and terrible. When you read the story you can almost feel his pain, which really put me in a depressing mood, thus, the reason I didn’t like it.

For me, A Doll’s House, was a definitely a piece which moved me because through out the course we read poems like, A Yellow Wallpaper, A Rose for Emily, and Cinderella that portrayed women as silent statues. The leading females did what they were expected to do and were treated like children, rather then adults. I hold a semi feminist point of view so when I read the play, A Doll’s House, I almost felt proud of Nora for standing her ground and leaving her husband who also treated her like she was a nobody. In the end Nora had enough of being controlled by her husband that she decided to leave her family so she could rediscover herself because all her life she just did what was expected of her.

Reading these feminist themed poems and drama was important for me because I strongly feel for women that get treated bad by men just so they can prove a point. I’m glad people write about these important issues so everyone can be more aware of what’s going on around them.

Overall, I would have to say I really enjoyed this class and it was a wonderful experience that I will never forget. I learned a lot during this course and I now really do appreciate all the wonderful work I have read. Great class!

Oedipus

In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus is a classic tragic hero. According to Aristotle's definition, Oedipus is a tragic hero because he is a king whose life falls apart when he finds out his life story. There are a number of characteristics described by Aristotle that identify a tragic hero. For example, a tragic hero must cause his own downfall; his fate is not deserved, and his punishment exceeds the crime; he also must be of noble stature and have greatness. Oedipus is in love with his idealized self, but neither the grandiose nor the depressive Narcissus can really love himself . All of the above characteristics make Oedipus a tragic hero according to Aristotle's ideas about tragedy, and a narcissist.

The Tempest

The Tempest works in the realm of fantasy, magic, spirits, unlikely coincidences. I think it is a lighthearted, escapist work rather than a “serious” drama. This drama provides an arena for much interplay between illusion and reality.  Prospero, Duke of Milan, facilitates this interplay.  Prospero uses the study of magic to disillusion the other characters brought to the island by way of the tempest. At times it can seem like a serious drama since there is a lot of talk about revenge, but then we see that there is a lot of redemptions also in the play. In the end we see that there is a happy ending to the story.

A Doll's House

 In the play "A Doll House" the main character, Nora, is in a situation where she is caused to act, emotionally and physically, as a doll to please her husband. Nora has to be very sneaky and conniving in order to be perfect and talked down to by her husband. The themes from this story are the same as the themes from previous stories such as "A Rose For Emily", "Chrysanthemums", and "The Yellow Wallpaper", where we can see the  dominating role of men in society versus the weak role of women. The theme from “ A Doll House” is  a little different when compared to other short stories and poems because here Nora leaves her husband at the end rather than keep getting depressed and emotionally unstable.

Drama Translation

I personally believe we all understand something so much better if we visually see something rather then read it because that is boring sometimes hard to concentrate on. I also believe if your a part of an act in a play it's much more interesting because you get involved into the character and portray something much more efficient. The only down side of this can is one would assume it's an easy task to write a play but its much more then when a bunch of people come together and try to put their ideas on the table. You then have to sort out and deal with everyone's unique ideas and try to fit it into one single master piece.

Drafting...revising...small groups...

The process of drafting, revising, and working in small groups really helped me understand all the short stories, poems, and plays a lot better. Sharing thoughts with the rest of the group was also very helpful because they had some interesting ideas that I would have not thought all on my own. I really enjoyed these small group talks because you learn more when you can have one-on-one interaction with someone, where as discussions in larger groups like a class doesn't do much for kids that don't raise their hands and don't share their thoughts with everyone.

7th Blog

My view of poetry in general changed a lot through out my researches for my paper. Poetry expresses a person's opinion or it can set a mood. You can become suddenly depressed because of what was written or you the exact opposite could happen. I'm really beginning to appreciate poetry because it can literally change the focus on your "lens" on life, you can learn new words, new cultures, and sometimes it even offers a different interpretation of a situation that was seen otherwise. Poetry has such deep meaning in every line that if not understood correctly one can miss the entire meaning of something so powerful written.

6th Blog

The poem that i found the hardest to comprehend was "The Flea." Reading it the first time I didn't see what a fly has to do with one's sex life or being in love or even wanting to have sex. I thought this poem was confusing because the flea could symbolize multiple things depending on how the reader analyzes the poem. After reading the poem I believed it symbolized the faith that brings people together. "And this flea our two bloods mingled be," stood out to me when thinking this way. Although after reading the footnotes, I know the poem is about love and sex. But overall, i found this poem a little confusing. The poem that I found the easiest to understand was "Richard Cory." It's easy to follow and you get the point of the poem right away about a guy who everyone admires and looks up to but little do they know he's tired of his own life and kills himself.

Ivan Ilych

“Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible,” means that he lived a very simple, pleasant and happy life but yet by the end of chapter 2 he was so miserable. He was good at his work and had very little sympathy for people, he saw them only as a case and nothing else. Formality was more important to him than any kind of human feeling. Ivan explains he married because that was the right thing to do and that was also socially wanted. He admits that he did not love her and only married her because of the status. His home was was beginning to fall apart but he ignored it as always. He absorbs himself in official work, isolating   himself from the demands of a family. Ivan became obsessed with materialistic things and his focus was always on impressing society, not on the well being of his family. He is almost like a robot, doing things to impress his superiors and what is socially acceptable. By the end of chapter two it is evident that Ivan is beginning to close himself off from everything--perhaps even life itself. 

 

Critical Thinking lessons in the "CNN Leaves it There" video

In this video John Stewart mocks the CNN and most cable networks about never having the time to gives us real facts and when their guests come on and lie. From what I see and Stewart nails it, that CNN is always saying "We're out of time," and never getting to the truth. I thinks its hilarious when TDS clips together almost every anchor saying "We'll leave it there," and John Stewart firing back by saying, "There are 24 hours in a day, how much more time do you need?" This was a great segment, and he's absolutely right that they are on 24 hours a day. There is plenty of time to get the truth, just no interest in doing so. It's a shame. After watching this i believe that CNN has completely replaced actual news with filler in the form of "anybody" who's willing to show up and speak. 

The Yellow Wallpaper

The 1st-person narration point of view in "The Yellow Wallpaper," is a tough perspective when the narrator is slowly sinking into madness. The author's use of the first person to convey the story allows the readers to go along for the ride into madness and makes us feel a certain amount of sympathy for the narrator and her unfortunate situation. The constant use of "I" in the story puts the reader's right into the narrators head and allows us to feel what she feels too. It clues us to feel her uncertainty and hesitation at the beginning and determination towards the end. If we took everything she says at face value, we would believe that women really do get trapped in wallpaper. This is the best part of 1st-person narration, you'r never sure if the narrator's perceptions actually reflect what's going on. Because of this many topics are left to the interpretation of the reader and may not accurately depict what actually occurred or the emotions of the other characters.

A Rose for Emily

"A Rose for Emily," takes place over a long indeterminate period of time reaching back into the 19th century and coming into the mid 1920's. The narrator brings up several references to time but none helps the reader actually know or pinpoint when the event occurred. In fact the narrator, goes back and fourth through the events in Emily's life as if time in not important and beginning and ending the story with Emily's funeral. I think time is not important anyway in a culture that is forever grounded in the glories of the past. The narrator wants us to sympathize with Emily's character within the context of the past and not the present moment where Homer's skeleton is found in bed next to a pillow with Emily's iron gray hair on it. My sense of "time" while reading this was more subjective, that time can move forward but some memories can can still say alive and unhindered and really effect your present. Emily lives in the present world where life moves on, but she stays committed to the past.