Thursday, November 8, 2012
Man Helps Dog Bite Victim
You'll know it when you see it, right? For next time, please find, share here, and explain one example for each of the following terms: consistent, inconsistent, valid, invalid, and ambiguous. Your examples should either be published or overheard (no fair setting the stage). If the latter you may use pseudonyms.
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Consistent:
ReplyDeleteYesterday my friend Victoria told me, “Thanks-giving is coming, and we can have a break from school.”
This statement is consistent because Thanks-giving is in one week, which means that after one week, we don’t have to be at school.
Inconsistent:
Maria said to me, “Thanks-giving break is coming, and we don’t have a break.”
This sentence is inconsistent because it is contradictory to itself. The first clause states that there will be a break, but the second clause sates that we don’t have a break. Although this person had her reason to say that, she didn’t state that in this sentence, which made it inconsistent. She can say that, “Thanks-giving break is coming, but we don’t have a break because we have work to do.”
Valid:
x and y are two even numbers.
Assume that x=2a and y=2b.
The twice of any even number or odd number is even.
x + y = 2a + 2b
x + y = 2(a+b)
a + b is either even or odd.
Again, the twice of any even number or odd number is even.
The sum of two even numbers x and y is even.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_proof
This demonstration is valid because each of the statement is true, and the conclusion is true, too.
Invalid:
Many Chinese tend to be good at math.
Many Chinese take high level math classes.
All Chinese are math geniuses.
Inspired by http://www.travelwireasia.com/2011/08/top-10-incorrect-chinese-stereotypes/
This argument is invalid because both of the premises are true, but the conclusion is spontaneously false. The absoluteness of the conclusion makes it wrong.
Ambiguous:
When they were asked to compare Norman Rockwell’s paintings to painter Robert Rauschenberg, the students entered into a prolonged discussion about the representation of reality in art.
A question from SAT Official Guide.
This sentence is ambiguous because it can mean both comparing Norman Rockwell’s paintings to Robert Rauschenberg’s paintings and comparing Norman Rockwell’s paintings to the person Robert Rauschenberg. The structure of the sentence supports the meaning of the first one, but people tend to understand it in the second way, which makes it ambiguous.
Consistent: In Biology class, we were talking about why twins, who had identical DNA, would begin to act differently and why one of them would develop a certain disease while the other would remain healthy. The explanation lies in epigenetics. Certain parts of a gene are "turned on" in one twin and turned off in another. This explanation is consistent because it is possible for the epigenetics theory and the difference in twins to exist at the same time.
ReplyDeleteInconsistent: In a van two days ago, a group of people saw a horse drawing a carriage. They claimed "Oh! Poor horse! We don't treat them like that at SBS." I thought that it was inconsistent that it would be fair to take horses out of their natural environment for one use but not another.
Valid:In debate practice two weeks ago, we were debating whether or not children should be spanked in school. A debater claimed that children should not be spanked because it would cause them to associate fear with learning. This is valid because it is possible for both the premise and the conclusion to be true at the same time.
Invalid: In my brother's first year of college, many people treated him coldly because they believed his Middle Eastern status made him a terrorist. That incident inspired me to write the argument from those persons' point of view. Some Middle Easterners are terrorists. My brother is a Middle Easterner. Therefore, he is a terrorist. This is an invalid because the premises are true but the conclusion is false.
Ambiguous: A heading on MSN "Lawrence reminds us why she’s so cool." This is lexical ambiguity. Cool can be understood as a degree of temperature or someone's degree of attractiveness.
Consistent: Everyone in this room is American. This is a consistent statement because I am the only one in this room and I am American.
ReplyDeleteInconsistent: In contrast to the above, Everybody on this hallway is American. This is inconsistent because no everybody on this hallway is American. If the word everybody were switched with Almost everybody, then this would be a true statements because some people are American and other people are not American.
Valid: All horses can fly. All things that can fly have pink eyes. Horses have pink eyes. This is a valid statement because the first two premises are false but their conclusion is true. Whether or not these premises are actually true does not matter because the premises in these phrases are true which create the true conclusion to the false premises.
Invalid: Some people like dogs. Some people hate cats. All people like dogs and hate cats. This is an invalid statement because the two premises are true statements. Some people do like dogs and other people do hate cats. However not all people who like dogs hate cats, and not all people who hate cats like dogs.
Ambiguity: Owners responsible for biting canines.
This can imply that canine owners are responsible for their canines biting other people or that owners are responsible for biting their canines.
Consistent: The only thing getting me by this week is the thought of break being only 4 days away –Megan Gardner. This is consistent because it was published today (Monday) morning when there are only four days until break: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday because many student do not have exams on Friday.
ReplyDeleteInconsistent: We have smart card accounts –Said at BlueKey training. We do not have smart card accounts they are really called “smart accounts” which is Stoneleigh-Burnham’s in-house debit system.
Valid: All people have equal rights (in the USA). Women have the same rights as men. Men and women are equal. –(My dad helped me) In the USA all citizens have equal rights. Women have the same rights that men have. So therefor the conclusion is that men and women are equals.
Invalid: The Southern states were all slave states. All Southerners were slave owners. –(My dad helped me) This is invalid because the Southern states were primarily were slavery was dominant, but not all Southerners had slaves of their own.
Ambiguous: Highs and lows of using marijuana –CNN.com. This heading for a news article is ambiguous because some people use it for the high that comes with smoking it, however this article was about the “good” and “bad” aspects of using marijuana.
***I had a lot of trouble figuring this all out because it was all very confusing.
Example of an inconsistent statement:
ReplyDeleteYesterday I was talking to my aunt about Christmas dinner. I said that we should have it at her house this year and that if we do the food better be good. She said “Jane, we’re Italian of course the food will be good”. Although this statement is true when it is applied to most of my family (that we make good food) it can be false when applied to other Italian families (highly debatable).
Example of a consistent statement:
Friday night I went with my niece to one of my mom’s friend’s house and my niece Mya knew that this woman had a pool. She asked if she could go swimming and I told her that the woman had already closed her pool for the year. She asked my why and I said because it’s too cold to have her pool open. She kept asking me why and I kept saying because. This argument ended when I looked up the current weather and it said that currently in the town it was 30 degrees Fahrenheit and that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
Example of an invalid argument:
Saturday morning I was watching a TV show with my little cousin. The show was explaining which animals were different colors, like ducks are yellow and cats and crows are black. They first showed a crow and then a cat and he asked “If crows are black then is that a crow?” and pointed to a cat. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen, but it was also an invalid argument. He was really saying that the only animals that are black are crows and that since the cat was black it was a crow.
Example of a valid argument:
The other day I was reading a game analysis of the Celtics game and one of the authors said that a good point guard is one that utilizes their team (assists them in scoring). Then he went on to say that Rondo was one of the best point guards in the league at the moment. This is a valid statement because as of right now Rondo is leading the NBA with 13.3 average assists per game.
Example of an ambiguous statement:
I was looking through articles on CNN and I found an article called “The Highs and Lows of using Marijuana”. This is ambiguous because if someone has smoked/used marijuana, you could say they are high.
Consistent: "The trophy case inside Emerson Hall will be just a bit more sparkly this year. Both Cross Country and Varsity Soccer teams have won the River Valley Athletic League Championships this year." This is consistent because it makes sense that after winning a competition someone or something would get a trophy.
ReplyDeleteInconsistent: Lola: "Ugh I did horribly, I got 100% on that test!" This is RIDICULOUSLY inconsistent. Sure, you can argue that people have different definitions of success, but let's not get carried away here. It is impossible for Lola to have done horribly AND to have gotten a 100. Come on, Lola.
Valid: My textbook just told me it has a cold. Colds should be taken care of. My textbook needs to go to the doctor. This is valid because the first two premises are false but based on them the conclusion is true.
Invalid: Some books are good books. Twilight is a book. Twilight must be a good book. This is invalid because both of the premises are false but the conclusion could not be farther from the truth.
Ambiguous: Professor of Greek thought dead at 59. this is an ambiguous headline because one could either take it to mean that a professor of Greek thought recently died at the age of 59, or that a professor of Greek is thought to be dead, but they are still not sure.