- Published: September 17, 2022
- Updated: September 17, 2022
- University / College: University of Chicago
- Level: Masters
- Language: English
- Downloads: 7
Logic and Reasoning This ment is a news blooper from an October 1990 newspaper report in Netherlands out of 25 means 4% of the citizens are literate. 25% is the wrong figure. Such news bloopers are an example of how we use mathematics in our everyday lives. Such bloopers often go undetected, as on first reading, I was unable to figure out the mistake. Most of us also suffer from mathematics phobia which keeps us from re-calculating the figures on our own (Ojose 89).
2. This is called fallacious appeal to the past or appeal to tradition in which people are made to believe that anything that belongs to the past or has occurred in the past for long is better (Govier 175). Reasoning involved is: XYZ is old, so XYZ is better. The logic is that- how can the age of something relate to its efficiency? For example, fallacious appeal to tradition makes us believe that witches cause diseases and microorganisms do not, because witches myth is a belief that has been there since ages.
3. This fallacy is called hasty generalization. Was Smith not hastening in believing what he saw only once? Also called fallacy of insufficient statistics or hasty induction, this fallacy takes place when a person, Smith here, jumps to conclusion by looking at insufficient evidence or small sample of a large population (Sellnow 392). Reasoning involved is: if observed X% of all As are Bs, still all As cannot be Bs, or if two of all squirrels are white, still all squirrels cannot be white. Logic here is that a conclusion cannot be drawn from merely observing a small sample taken from population.
4. Paraphrase: Under the new targets, the United States and Russia guarantee that both of them will deploy 525 to 700 fewer strategic nuclear warheads by 2016 when presently, by 2012, they are 2200 each.
Works Cited
Govier, Trudy. A Practical Study of Argument. USA: Cengage Learning, 2009.
Ojose, Bobby. “ Mathematics Literacy: Are We Able To Put The Mathematics We Learn Into Everyday Use?” Journal of Mathematics Education 4. 1(2011): 89-100.
Sellnow, Deanna D. “ Hasty Generalization.” Confident Public Speaking. USA: Cengage Learning, 2004.
