DISCUSSION FALLACY
1) I talked to a Nursing student from Golden West College yesterday; he is smart and generous. I think all nursing students from that school must be smart and generous.
- This is one example of Hasty Generalization because I conclude, “all nursing students from that school must be smart and generous” of a population base on one sample “he is smart and generous.” In other words, this conclusion is supported by insufficient evidence.
2) I’m not a good student
I’m a woman
Therefore, all women are bad students.
- This syllogism commits the fallacy of composition. Both premises are true about me, but the conclusion is false. Because a logically valid syllogism must have true premises and a conclusion. Therefore, this is an unsound syllogism as the conclusion is flawed. I’m a woman and a student; it does not mean all women students are bad. This is flawed because it makes no sense to say all women students are bad.
3) The real-world example which included Ethos-Logos-Pathos that I experienced a few days ago when my counselor and I have had a conversation about my schedule. I asked her what I should do to prepare for Nursing school. She replied,
“Nursing programs at community college are competitive. Your GPA must be at least 3.8 to be eligible to apply for a Nursing Program. I recommend you to take only one biology course per semester, so you can get good grades in biology classes. Thousands of my students did that, and most of them were successful in nursing schools. You should ask a Nursing school adviser what the prerequisites for the program are? You will understand why getting good grades in Biology courses is important. If you think you cannot achieve the goal, you should consider changing your career!”.
Ethos: To emphasized her educational experience, she introduced, “Thousands of my students did that, and most of them were successful in the Nursing field.”. The credibility is where ethos applied.
Logos: Logos can be seen in the instance where the counselor provided me with the figure of the minimum GPA required to be admitted in a nursing program, that is, not less than 3.8.
Pathos: Pathos is evident in these statements, “You will understand why getting good grades in Biology courses is important. If you think you cannot achieve the goal, you should consider changing your career!” This appealed to my emotions as she made it appear that if I do not pass my biology courses I would have to forego my dream career which would be saddening.
DISCUSSION A ROGERIAN ARGUMENT
- Last Tuesday, I had a disagreement with my grandmother last week about her dieting choices. She’s sixty-five years old, but she loves to eat white rice, pork fat, and sweet dessert very much. So, I asked her to start eating healthy food, but she disagreed with my suggestion.
- a. My grandma takes a health test every six months, and this time, the results indicated high cholesterol and high blood sugar, and the doctor advised her to consider her diet. After the test, I strongly felt the need to monitor what she ate based on Doctor’s advice, but she was against changing her choices. Consequently, we had a Rogerian argument about my grandma’s diet.
- To understand her reasoning behind this, I asked: “So, you are going to continue eating white rice and pork fat ignoring the Doctor’s advice?” She said that being 65 years old, she had approximately ten years more to live, and it did not make sense to change her diet. She also said: “I want to enjoy my life in the remaining years.” Unfortunately, enjoying life for her meant eating traditional Vietnamese food rich in sugar and fats.
- “I understand it is hard to oppose your logic as every person is entitled to living their last moments in life on their terms. And I cannot tell what it feels like to be 65 years old,” I told her.
- “But I understand why eating a healthy diet is important to the elderly. Do you remember what caused the death of your best friend?” I asked.
“Diabetes”, she answered in a low voice. I continued to say,” The type of food you eat can affect your health and expose you to the risk of contracting certain diseases. Therefore, if you felt the pain of losing someone you love then I just want you to know nothing can prepare us for losing you, ‘Twenty years’ is better than ‘Ten years.’
” I know what I’m doing. I’m doing okay.” She replied.
- I told her my opinion that she can replace certain foods with their substitutes that had less sugar and fat. For example, she could replace white rice with brown rice and pork fat with butter. By doing this, she would still get to eat her traditional Vietnamese food, but with less risk of high cholesterol and sugar levels. She would be healthy, and I would stop pestering her about what she eats. In as much as she listened to me, the grievance remained the same. She switched from white to brown rice; that was a good sign from her. However, last Sunday, I woke up in the middle of the night, I found her eating a large bowl of banana strawberry ice-cream.