I'm the Special-est

Now that we're discussing psychological impediments, I can bring up one of my favorite topics: I'M-SPECIAL-ism. Psychological research has repeatedly shown that most Americans overestimate their own abilities. This is one of the biggest hurdles to proper reasoning: the natural tendency to think that we're smarter--or more powerful, or prettier, or whatever--than we really are.

One of my favorite blogs is Overcoming Bias. Their mission statement is sublimely anti-I'M-SPECIAL-ist:

"How can we better believe what is true? While it is of course useful to seek and study relevant information, our minds are full of natural tendencies to bias our beliefs via overconfidence, wishful thinking, and so on. Worse, our minds seem to have a natural tendency to convince us that we are aware of and have adequately corrected for such biases, when we have done no such thing."

This may sound insulting, but one of the goals of this class is getting us to recognize that we're not as smart as we think we are. All of us. You. Me. That guy. You again.

So in the upcoming weeks, at least, I hope you'll join me in my campaign to end I'M-SPECIAL-ism.

Pimply Stress

This mini-article on acne and anxiety raises a combo platter of questions relevant to what we're going over in class.

1) Reverse causation: Does acne cause stress, or does stress cause acne?
2) Questionable statistics: Do you trust the stat that students were 23 percent more likely to experience breakouts around the time of a test? Is it a good study? A reliable source? An undemanding stat?
3) Questionable use of statistics: If the above statistic is true, is it reasonable to conclude that anxiety causes acne? Or is there another plausible explanation?

What say you?

Recommendations

So what were those bands you told me to check out in class? Let me know in the comments.

Here are a few I mentioned:
Feist
Joanna Newsom
Pedro the Lion
T.a.T.u. (horrible guilty pleasure)

Most of my favorite music is full of gentle:

(The Microphones - I Felt Your Shape)

Possible Paper Articles

gladwell.com | Bad Stereotyping
race & gender = insufficient info

Blackburn Defends Philosophy
it beats being employed

Singer: How Much Should We Give?
just try to think up a more important topic

The Dark Art of Interrogation
Bowden sez torture is necessary

Can Foreign Aid Work?
didn't expect Kristof to bring up Darfur

NYT Editorial: The White House's Real Agenda
sunday editorials mean Big Picture time

Against Free Speech
but it's free, so it must be good

Is Wal-Mart Good for the Working Class?
Furman: walmart helps poor consumers more than it hurts poor workers. Ehrenreich: I call bs

What pro-lifers miss in the stem-cell debate
love embryos? then hate fertility clinics

Is Worrying About the Ethics of Your Diet Elitist?
since you asked, no

Abstinence campaign hits dead end on HPV

WSJ: White House vs. NYT on bank surveillance
on Keller's "leap of faith" (see below)

Keller's Letter on NYT's Banking Records Report

Is Selling Organs Repugnant?
freakonomicists for a free-market for organs

Should I Become a Professional Philosopher?
hell 2 da naw

Fallacies, Fallacies, Everywhere

My best friend the inter-net has some nice examples of the fallacy of equivocation. Here are two good ones:

All jackasses have long ears.

Karl is a jackass.

Therefore, Karl has long ears.

Margarine is better than nothing.

Nothing is better than butter.

Therefore margarine is better than butter.

Also, here's one of the best mashups out there:

(December 4th, from DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album)
And finally, speaking of non sequiturs, here's a cute cat picture:

Wait, we weren't just speaking of non sequit--Oh. I see what you did there.

Clever.

Homework #2

Homework #2 is due at the beginning of class on Friday, October 19th. It is worth 2% of your overall grade. Here are the assigned problems to do from the textbook:

pages 86-88: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Git to gittin!

(Click on the comic to enlarge)

Paper #1

Due Date: Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

Worth: 5% of final grade

Length/Format: Papers must be typed, and must be between 300-600 words long. Provide a word count on the first page of the paper. (Most programs like Microsoft Word & WordPerfect have automatic word counts.)

Assignment:

1) Pick an article from a newspaper, magazine, or journal in which an author presents an argument for a particular position. I’ll be putting up some links to potential articles at the course blog. You are also free to choose any article on any topic you want, but you must show Sean your article by Friday, October 19th for approval. The main requirement is that the article presents an argument. One place to look for such articles is the Opinion page of a newspaper. Here’s a short list of some other good sources:

• The New Yorker
• Slate
• New York Review of Books
• London Review of Books
• Times Literary Supplement
• Boston Review
• Atlantic Monthly
• The New Republic
• The Weekly Standard
• The Nation
• Reason
• Dissent
• First Things
• Mother Jones
• National Journal
• The New Criterion

(for even more sources, check out the left-hand column of Arts & Letters Daily)

2) In the essay, first explain the article’s argument in your own words. What is the position that the author is arguing for? What are the reasons the author offers as evidence for her or his conclusion? What type of argument does the author provide? In other words, provide a detailed synopsis of the argument.

3) In the essay, then evaluate the article’s argument. Overall, is this a good or a bad argument? Why or why not? Check each premise: is each premise true? Or is it false? Questionable? (Do research if you have to in order to determine whether the author’s claims are true.) Then check the structure of the argument. Do the premises provide enough rational support for the conclusion? If you are criticizing the article’s argument, be sure to consider potential responses that the author might offer, and explain why these responses don’t work. If you are defending the article’s argument, be sure to consider and respond to possible objections.

4) Attach a copy of the article to your paper when you hand it in.

Begging the Dinosaur

Here is a comic and a video about the fallacy of of begging the question. The first is one of Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics on the fallacy. (Click on the comic to enlarge it)

And here's the video for Mims's logically delicious song "This is Why I'm Hot":

An Expert for Every Cause

Here's that article on the 9/11 conspiracy physicist that we talked about in class:
When Experts Disagree: 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
Below is a quote of the relevant section on the lone-wolf semi-expert (physicist) versus the overwhelming consensus of more relevant experts (structural engineers):

While there are a handful of Web sites that seek to debunk the claims of Mr. Jones and others in the movement, most mainstream scientists, in fact, have not seen fit to engage them.

"There's nothing to debunk," says Zdenek P. Bazant, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University and the author of the first peer-reviewed paper on the World Trade Center collapses.

"It's a non-issue," says Sivaraj Shyam-Sunder, a lead investigator for the National Institute of Standards and Technology's study of the collapses.

Ross B. Corotis, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a member of the editorial board at the journal Structural Safety, says that most engineers are pretty settled on what happened at the World Trade Center. "There's not really disagreement as to what happened for 99 percent of the details," he says.

Also, here's an interesting article on instances when we shouldn't trust an expert's opinion.

The Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science

Just for Chris

The Wussy/Bad-Ass Criterion for Philosophical Views

Band Names, Part Deux

For some strange reason, we received a bunch of band name suggestions yesterday. I say we start voting for the ones we like. Here they are, along with my two cents on each one:

• Logical By Design (suggested by Jim) sounds like a company that does stuff I don't understand. "Logical By Design is an innovative information technology company dedicated to providing custom management solutions in an ever-changing business climate."
• Daffyductive (suggested by Jim) is pretty weak. I was disappointed with that pun as soon as I wrote it.
• Rojikku Rokkuzu (suggested by Abi) has a poetic ring to it. Maybe we'll play Japanese synth pop?
• Unsound Logic (suggested by Abi) is almost contradictory. I like the idea of a contradiction as a band name.
• The Narcoleptic Water Buffalo (suggested by Sue) would be a cool name for a Buffalo Springfield tribute band.

Go to the comments to vote for your favorite or suggest your own band names.

The Source of Satan's Fingers

Some of you did some quality googling to discover that "Satan's Fingers" and "The Hospital Bombers" are band names referenced in a Mountain Goats song called "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton." Here's the song:

BONUS! Here is a video of the Mountain Goats performing the song in Philly two weeks ago:


I was so totally at this concert. Attentive listeners will notice that he changes the name of one of the bands in this video.

Maybe It'll Taste Good This Year

Here's a video of Lewis Black describing his failure to reason inductively every year around Halloween:



Candy Corn.

Cat Statements

What kind of statements are these?

Let us know in the comments.

Philosophy as a 3-Year-Old

Here's comedian Louis CK's take on the broad, fundamental questions kids ask (the routine starts with 4:05 left in the video).

The Best of the Homework

Here are some of my favorite arguments you came up with on the homework.

From Abi:

(P1) If dinosaurs rampage, people scream.
(P2) Dinosaurs rampage.
(C) People scream.

Were you looking at the syllabus when you thought up this one?

From Dan:

(P1) All American presidents are men.
(P2) All men are stupid.
(C) All American presidents are stupid.

Take that, sexist American hegemony!

From Allison:

(P1) Pigs are either awesome or horrible.
(P2) Pigs are not awesome.
(C) Pigs are horrible.

I'd like to challenge the second premise. My evidence: Spider Pig.

From Jared:

(P1) The sky is blue.
(P2) The grass is green.
(C) Jared loves french toast and red bull.

French toast and red bull: part of a balanced breakfast.

From Cassondra:

(P1) Gold is a natural resource.
(P2) Gold is found in Africa.
(C) All Africans have lots of gold.

Isn't it fun using intentionally bad arguments to make good political points?

From Ian:

(P1) Some red objects weigh over 50 pounds.
(P2) A cherry jolly rancher is red.
(C) A cherry jolly rancher weighs over 50 pounds.

Actually, I'd be up for the challenge of a 50-pound jolly rancher.

Satan's Fingers? The Hospital Bombers?

OK, before we start rocking all night, perhaps we should come up with a name for our logic band. What's a good name for us? Abi & the Naughty Structures?

Hmmm... hopefully, you can come up with better names than that. Post some names in the comments to this post.

(Extra love to anyone who knows what the title of this post refers to.)

Homework #1

In case you didn't get a copy of it in class, here's Homework #1. It's due at the beginning of class on Friday, September 21st.

DIRECTIONS: Provide original examples of the following types of arguments (in premise/conclusion form), if possible. If it is not possible, explain why.

1. A valid deductive argument with one false premise.

2. An invalid deductive argument with all true premises.

3. An unsound deductive argument that is valid.

4. A sound deductive argument that is invalid.


MULTIPLE CHOICE: Circle the correct response. Only one answer choice is correct.

5. If a deductive argument is unsound, then:
a) its conclusion must be false.
b) its conclusion must be true.
c) its conclusion could be true or false.

6. If a deductive argument is unsound, then:
a) it must be valid.
b) it must be invalid.
c) it could be valid or invalid.

7. If a deductive argument is unsound, then:
a) at least one premise must be false.
b) all the premises must be false.
c) all the premises must be true.
d) not enough info to determine.

8. If a deductive argument’s conclusion is true:
a) then the argument must be valid.
b) then the argument must be invalid.
c) then the argument could be valid or invalid.

9. If a deductive argument is sound, then:
a) its conclusion must be true.
b) its conclusion must be false.
c) its conclusion could be true or false.

10. If a deductive argument is sound, then:
a) it must be valid.
b) it must be invalid.
c) it could be valid or invalid.

11. If a deductive argument is sound, then:
a) at least one premise must be false.
b) all the premises must be false.
c) all the premises must be true.
d) not enough info to determine.

12. If a deductive argument’s conclusion is false:
a) then the argument must be valid.
b) then the argument must be invalid.
c) then the argument could be valid or invalid.

See? Told You

Milli Vanilli | Girl You Know It's True

Email Subscriptions

So why does this course have a blog? Well, why is anything anything?

A blog (short for “web log”) is a website that works like a journal – users write posts that are sorted by date based on when they were written. You can find important course information (like assignments, due dates, reading schedules, etc.) on the blog. I’ll also be updating the blog throughout the semester, posting interesting items related to the stuff we’re currently discussing in class. I used a blog for this course last semester, and it seemed helpful. Hopefully it can benefit our course, too.

Since I’ll be updating the blog a lot throughout the semester, you should check it frequently. There are, however, some convenient ways to do this without simply going to the blog each day. The best way to do this is by getting an email subscription, so any new blog post I write automatically gets emailed to you. (You can also subscribe to the rss feed, if you know what that means.) To get an email subscription:

1. Go to http://ccclogic07.blogspot.com.

2. At the main page, enter your email address at the top of the right column (under “EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION: Enter your Email”) and click the "Subscribe me!" button.

3. This will take you to a new page. Follow the directions under #2, where it says “To help stop spam, please type the text here that you see in the image below. Visually impaired or blind users should contact support by email.” Once you type the text, click the "Subscribe me!" button again.

4. You'll then get an email regarding the blog subscription. (Check your spam folder if you haven’t received an email after a day.) You have to confirm your registration. Do so by clicking on the "Click here to activate your account" link in the email you receive.

5. This will bring you to a page that says "Your subscription is confirmed!" Now you're subscribed.

If you are unsure whether you've subscribed, ask me (609-980-8367; slandis@camdencc.edu). I can check who's subscribed and who hasn't.