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The Unnatural Argument
People often claim that certain things are wrong or that certain actions should not be done because doing so would be “unnatural.” This argument is sometimes used in conjunction with the “playing God”...
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Appeal to Rules
People often take the view that one must sometimes ignore the consequences of an action and simply assess the morality of the action itself. It is generally accepted that some things are simply...
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Appeal to Rights
Many people, especially those in Western style democracies, believe in rights. It is often accepted that people have rights that protect them and even entitle them to certain things. It is generally...
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Mixing Norms
People commonly make inferences from one normative area to another. Normative areas are, roughly put, areas involving matters of value. Law, religion, aesthetics, morality, and etiquette are normative...
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Definition of Argument
I’ve noticed that my entry on Argument by Definition gets numerous hits-mostly likely because people are searching for a definition of “argument.”As such, I’ve added this entry. I also created another...
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Is Obama’s Secret of Success Being a Black Male?
Geraldine Ferraro was previously best known as the first female VP candidate. Now she is gaining international notoriety for her comments about Barrack Obama. Her comments were as follows: “If Obama...
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Partial Truths
In my Critical Inquiry class I teach a section on applying critical thinking skills to the news. One of the things I warm my students about is being aware of partial truths. That is, when a story...
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Fox News & Consistency
During the Clinton administration, the folks at Fox News were generally rather critical of executive privilege. During George W. Bush’s years in office, the folks at Fox were staunch supporters of...
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Fallacy
As a philosophy professor, I have waged a never-ending and largely pointless battle against people using “fallacy” when they mean “factual error.” For example, someone might say “people often think...
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Begs the Question
Being a philosophy professor, I find it vaguely annoying when people write or say things like “Referendum begs the question of our future in EU” or “Rolex ad on Newsweek site begs the question how big...
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