raising objections..again

One area of Epstein’s book that I feel can further my conversations would be raising objections. I thought this area was something that we face in everyday life. Whether it be customers we are dealing with, or someone that’s catering to us. We face ideas and thoughts that we object to all day long, simply because everyone has their own beliefs. I think raising objections is just a way for you to show how you feel about a situation or idea that someone has shown you. I think there often times wrong ways of raising objections and that it tends to scare people. If done properly you or the other person might be able to learn more about an idea that you may not have known before. It is almost one of those situations where you don’t want to judge a book by its cover, because maybe you havn’t done enough research on that book to know what it is your talking about.

favorites!

One of my favorite things during the class would probably be the group projects. I think personally for me I enjoyed them so much because of the people in my group. We had fun skype conversations and random emails going back and forth, but it allowed us to get to know each other quickly because of the projects that needed to be completed. Although I am sure we all had some snags, overall my group was amazing and there some people that I am sure I will keep in contact with!! One of my least favorites was having to rememeber to go online to do the posts. I think for me with my poor interent service and little time it was hard to do it every 12 hours. However I understand the point of the time constraint and being a little more organized in order to complete them. Other than that I had a blast in the class, the teacher was very thorough and helpful.

what i have learned.

This class has definitely taught me a lot about the way we communicate with people. There were chapters in Epstein's book that I never would have considered to be important until I read them and was able to understand what it was that Epstein was trying to tell us. One idea that I think shocked me and taught me a lot would be Chapter 10 the appealing to fear and just how well it can be used. I always knew about appealing to emotion, but I think the examples that had been used as well as the overall information that Epstein gives, threw me for a loop and made me realize just how powerful appealing to someone's emotions can be. All in all Epstein was able to teach us so much, some of it was very confusing but others made perfect sense and it makes you more aware of what you are saying and how you go about saying it.

cause and effect

Reading through the cause and effect website was actually interesting and I have to say a little confusing at a few different parts.  I had never heard of arguing causation. I found this term to be fairly interesting and realize we use this type of arguing a lot, but I never knew that was the name of the argument.  The example that was used on the website made it a little easier to understand what the author was trying to justify. However the one area that caused a little confusion was when they were talking about post hoc reasoning and reverse causation. The idea of reverse causation made sense because it was simply the other version of arguing causation. However the idea of post hoc reasoning I am still a little unsure of how or what you would use it for.  But overall the website was fairly helpful, partly because I am in a business law class and the example used was relatable.

Judging Analogies

One area that I found to be interesting and helpful in chapter 12 was the judging analogies. Epstein mentions that in order to use an analogy is must be clearly stated, otherwise often times one side of the analogy can be too vague to use. I agree with this and often times find it hard to understand why somebody would use a specific analogy when trying to make their point or in order to prove someone wrong. I liked the first example that Epstein used, talking about Magic Johnson and HIV. At first the statement is hard to understand or follow and I would have to guess at why they decided to compare the military to an NBA star. However once they begin to explain the basis of the argument it makes sense and shows how you can use analogies but often times need to show the premises in order to people to completely understand what it is you are trying to tell them.

appeal to emotion

So I must say this is probably one of my favorite chapters because Epstein is able to state what needs to be said and move on. No more searching through words to find out what it is he is hoping to get across to students who read his books. I do love the appealing to emotion chapter because it lays out all of the different way that people encounter and use others emotions. I have already discussed the appeal to fear as being one of my least favorite because of how people use the fear in someone in order to get their support; I think it is way too twisted. However one appeal that I find interesting would be the feel good argument. I think this is something as college students that we often times feel is necessary or well deserved way of handling situations. However we all know how those conversations would most likely play out, no so well. However the idea that we use the appeal to feel good about ourselves is at least a positive way of making people see another side to an argument.  Trust me if the world worked this way, we would all be dumb and crazy because we weaseled out of situations that eventually benefitted us.

appealing to fear

In Chapter 10, I was shocked at how short it was, however though it was short it had a lot of information that was interesting and hopefully it will be beneficial as well. One idea that I found to be interesting was appealing to fear. I thought it was first interesting that Epstein mentioned that this was a common way for politicians and advertisers to manipulate the public people. From the example they used in the book I think that it is absolutely true. However I think the unstated conclusion is the worst part about it, simply because they feel if they can scare the public, then the public in turn will learn to trust them. I think this is the worst way of appealing to people. By using a person’s fear in order to get them to do something to benefit others is horrible. I am a person that has a lot of fears and therefore if someone tried to use them against me, I think that is a low way of trying to get someone to vote for you or trust you.