Week 6 Notes

Directions: Since you will read a lot of ideals and pieces this week, we are using a
summary note-taking strategy. This strategy is best for a lot of content. Remember that
a summary contains the MAIN ideas and points. It is short and condensed.

Day 1:
Summarize what you learned about logical fallacies. Logical fallacies are any kind of
error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid. It can involve distorting or
manipulating facts, drawing false conclusions, or distracting you from the real issue at
hand.

Some fallacies are more popular than others. Although I’d like for you to be aware of
them all, I’ll list out eight for you to pay specific attention to and to summarize. Pick one
or two more that interests you.

1. Argumentum Ad Hominem – “Argument to the man”. Attacking or praising the

people who make an argument rather than discussing the argument itself.
2. Argumentum Ad Populum – “Argument to the people”. Using an appeal to
popular assent, often by arousing the feelings and enthusiasm of the multitude
rather than building an argument.
3. Appeal to Improper Authority – An appeal to an improper authority, such as a
famous person or a source that may not be reliable.
4. Hasty Generalization – “Jumping to conclusions”. Mistaken use of inductive
reasoning when there are too few samples to prove a point.
5. Circular Reasoning – A subtype of begging the question. Often the authors word
the two statements sufficiently differently to obscure the fact that the same
proposition occurs as both a premise and a conclusion.
6. Straw Man – This fallacy is a type of red herring in which a writer creates an
oversimplified, easy-to-refute argument, places it in the mouth of his opponent,
and then tries to “win” the debate by knocking down that empty or trivial
argument.
7. Slippery Slope – Is a non sequitur in which the speaker argues that, once the first
step is undertaken, a second or third step will inevitably follow.
8. Either/Or Fallacy – This occurs when a writer builds an argument upon the
assumption that there are only two choices or possible outcomes when there are
actually several.
9. Faulty analogy – Relying only on comparisons to prove a point rather than
arguing deductively and inductively.
 10. Equivocation – Using a word in a different way than the author used it in the
original premise or changing definition halfway through a discussion.
Can you think of your own examples you’ve experienced or are aware of that fall into
one of these categories? Please give one or two examples. One example I can think of
is I was arguing with someone about something and instead of using logic or proof to
back up their statement, they started attacking me, by insulting me, trying to offend me,
and using things that had nothing to do with the subject. This was an example of
argumentum ad Hominem

Summarize our goal in learning about fallacies. Learn about fallacies in literature, so we
can avoid them in our own works, especially in our critical literary essay, and observe
then when they happen in literature or everyday life.

Summarize “Self-Reliance” by Emerson. Self-reliance talks about advocating for

individualism and encourages readers to trust themselves and follow their own instincts
and their intuition rather than cling to the will of others or blindly follow what they do.
Emerson uses historical figures to show us how they come from originality and their
own innovation, instead of conformity.

Summarize “Nature” by Emerson. Nature talks about the relationship between nature
and mankind, stating that if we approach nature with a poetical sense and pure spirit,
we will find the wonders of nature revealed to us.

Day 2:
Summarize what you learned about Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is an idea
that comes through intuition and imagination and not through logic or senses. It is where
people can trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right and not following
the will of others. It is a form of idealism, a philosophical romanticism reaching America
a generation or two after it developed in Europe .They value nature and individual
freedom.

Summarize what you learned about Emerson. Emerson is a poet who was a leader in
the transcendentalism movement. He believed that each individual must make their own
decisions about God, the human race, and the world. he refused to acknowledge any
authority beyond himself.

Summarize what you learned about Thoreau. Thoreau was also a well know advocate
of transcendentalism, where he believed in the inherent goodness of people and nature,
making a point of self-reliance. He valued strong individualism, rejected the conventions
of society, and his philosophical idealism distanced him from others.
Day 3:
Interact with Worldview Journal. No separate notes here.

Day 4:
Summarize the excerpt from Walden: “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”. In “where I
lived and what I lived for”, is about Thoreau’s experience living alone in the woods in a
hut which he built himself. He wanted to experiment with living close to nature and away
from society he wished to live simple, without any modern conveniences, because he
desired to be free, to study nature, to find his own spirit in peace, to read, and to write.
He believed in simplicity, and that in order to experience spiritual truth, one must spend
one’s day as deliberately as nature.

Summarize the excerpt from "Everyday Life as a Learning Experience" by Sarah A.

Chrisman. In “everyday life as an experience”, Sarah talks about her and her husband’s
experience with living alongside history and the past. She lives surrounded by artifacts
from the past and has converted from a modern life to a more Victorian lifestyle. She
talks about how they don’t use any modern appliances and how they use things like an
ice box, a wood-burning stove, and oil lamps. Sarah’s idea is that living with artifacts
from the past can teach us about history, make us more aware of past cultures, and
keep us connected to it.

Day 5:
None needed.