Discussion Questions – week 5

1) What roles do various critical thinking components play in defining a problem?

“Problem solving is applying critical thinking to achieve the goals and personal harmony that are important in our personal and professional lives. Some of these problems can be solved primarily through thinking and some through thinking ending in action”(UOP, 2007). Chapter 12 “Problem solving tells us an individual can not solve a problem unless they know what the problem is. “Defining the problem carefully means being as precise and as specific as possible” (UOP, 2007). Clearly defined problems can allow and accurate solution to be implemented. Incomplete details can cause or lead to confusion. For example, “My car doesn’t start, or better, My car doesn’t start in the morning,” or better yet, My car doesn’t start on wet mornings… more specific definition enables us to identify the possible causes of the malfunctioning, and it shortens our path
to the solution of the problem.” (UOP, 2007)

“Problems concerning human relations are often intricate and difficult to define” (UOP, 2007). Critical thinking in action will guide an individual to carefully analyze the situation and potential resolutions. There should ne on rush to make a conclusion. Finally, “The components of any problem are the persons and objects involved in the problem, as well as the problem goal itself” (UOP, 2007), If a problem is not accurately defined then no acceptable solution can be found.


References
University of Phoenix PHL 251 week five reading chapter 12



2) What are some critical thinking tools and techniques?

“Problem solving is applying critical thinking to achieve the goals and personal harmony that are important in our personal and professional lives. Some of these problems can be solved primarily through thinking and some through thinking ending in action” (UOP, 2007).

Problems are attacked in five steps:
1. Define the problem;
2. Remove barriers
3. Information gathering
4. Brainstorming
5. Creative thinking (UOP, 2007)

The UOP reading teach us that solutions are found through preliminary evaluation, trial and error, evaluating pros and cons. Additional techniques are working backwards, through the problem and implementing practical problem-solving tips; and monitor selected resolutions.

“Thinking creatively we must strive to transcend our usual ways of seeing.
We should not limit ourselves to seeing what we are supposed to see or thinking about things as we were taught to think about them. We must learn to see and think without assumptions, stereotypes, or expectations” (UOP, 2007).

Finally creative thinking provided problem-solving tips:
Change deadlines,
Compromise
Check the facts
Empathize,
Take time to think
Anticipate problems
See the problem as a challenge then implement and monitor the solution.

Critical Thinking tools teach us to, “see things not for what they are or for what they were meant to be, but for what we can imagine them to be” (UOP, 2007).


References
University of Phoenix PHL 251 week five reading chapter 12

Discussion Questions – week 4

1. What determines if an argument is fallacious?

A fallacy is, “erroneous reasoning that has the appearance of soundness” (Britannica, 2007). Fallacious arguments do not, “provide sufficiently good grounds for its conclusion, they employ unwarranted, unaccepted, unproven or incorrect premises and ignores or overlooks relevant information” (Home, 2007)

Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn the authors of How To think About Weird Things said an argument is fallacious if it contains the following: unacceptable premises, irrelevant premises, or insufficient premises. Premises are unacceptable if they are at least as dubious as the claim they are supposed to support. In a good argument, you see, the premises provide a firm basis for accepting the conclusion. If the premises are shaky, the argument is inconclusive. Premises are irrelevant if they have no bearing on the truth of the conclusion. In a good argument, the conclusion follows from the premises. If the premises are logically unrelated to the conclusion, they provide no reason to accept it. Premises are insufficient if they do not establish the conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt. In a good argument, the premises eliminate reasonable grounds for doubt. If they fail to do this, they don't justify the conclusion.

So when someone gives you an argument, you should ask yourself: Are the premises acceptable? Are they relevant? Are they sufficient? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then the argument is not logically compelling (Positiveatheism, 2007)


Reference

Http://britannica.com/eb.article-9033643/fallacy

http://home.austin.rr.com/tdotson/

http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/fallacy.htm



2. Why and how are fallacies used intentionally?


Why are fallacies used? Fallacies are used intentionally to persuade their audience. “Sometimes they are used intentionally by authors to manipulate their readers Readers and writers should be careful to avoid logical fallacies because they seriously compromise the integrity of an argument.” (Santarosa, 2007). Politicians provided intentional fallacies to their constituents when mock poll are used to support their cause.

How are fallacies used? Fallacies are used intentionally, Intentional fallacies can be called logical fallacies, and they can be used intentionally as a form of propaganda to manipulate opinion. “A person may agree with someone on one topic and disagree with the same person on another topic. The user of propaganda may try to lump the two people or a group of people together that disagree with them, suggesting a conspiracy, when it may only be people agreeing on a certain topic” (Illuminati-new, 2007).

The University of Phoenix PHL-251 week four EER readings provided a master list of fallacies:

1. Ad hominem or ATTACKING THE PERSON.
2. Ad ignorantium or APPEAL TO IGNORANCE
3. Ad verecundiam or APPEAL TO AUTHORITY.
4. AFFIRMING THE CONSEQUENT
5. AMPHIBOLY
6. APPEAL TO EMOTION.
7. ARGUMENT FROM ANALOGY or FALSE ANALOGY
8. BEGGING THE QUESTION.
9. SLIPPERY SLOPE.
10. COMMON BELIEF (Sometimes called the “bandwagon” fallacy or ‘appeal to popularity
11. PAST BELIEF.
12. CONTRARY TO FACT HYPOTHESIS.
13. DENYING THE ANTECEDENT.
14. DIVISION.
15. COMPOSITION.
16. FALSE DILEMMA (often called the either/or fallacy or false dichotomy).
17. EQUIVOCATION.
18. HASTY GENERALIZATION.
19. POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC.
20. INCONSISTENCY.
21. NON SEQUITUR
22. QUESTIONABLE CAUSE.
23. RED HERRING
24. SLANTING
25. STRAW MAN.
26. TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT.
27. FAR-FETCHED HYPOTHESIS

References

http://www.illuminati-news.com/detect-mindcontrol.htm

http://www.santarosa.edu/~relowitz/Logical%20Fallacies.htm

https://mycampus.phoenix.edu/secure/resource/resource.asp

Discussion Questions – week 3

Discussion Questions – week 3

1) What are natural orders? What are human-made orders?

“Much of the order within our mind seems to be learned from the natural order of the universe” (UOP, 2007). Natural orders are comprised of four orders: topical, analogical, chronological, and causal.

“In the universe most things have their “natural” place, or topical order. Water flows to its lowest level, lead sinks down” (UOP, 2007). Topical Orders are basically follow the natural order of nature and well designed man made objects.

“All around us we see similarities” (UOP, 2007). Analogical orders allow to draw similarities references between objects “found both in the world and in our mind… for example we see similarities between a ball and a planet, a flower and a tree” (UOP, 2007).

Chronological orders “takes place through time; we see things changing in sequence and we call this order of time chronological, “Chronological order are step or changes done in a pre determined sequential order. For example when a builder is building a home the foundation is always poured prior to raising support beams.

Causal orders are actions or reaction where, “experience has taught us that all changes have reasons; when we find the reasons we call them causes, and the changes they produce, effects. We call this order causal” (UOP, 2007)

Human Made Order or Mental orders come largely from human structures,” (mental orders can be arbitrary, such as an alphabetical seating arrangement, or they can be logical, as when we decide to store our valuables in different places according to their worth” (mental orders can be arbitrary, such as an alphabetical seating arrangement, or they can be logical, as when we decide to store our valuables in different places according to their worth (UOP, 2007).

Reference

University of Phoenix PHL 251 week three reading



2) What are some ethical considerations in persuasion?

What is persuasion? According to on line dictionary persuasion has many definitions a few are:

1. The act of persuading or seeking to persuade.
2. The power of persuading; persuasive force.
3. The state or fact of being persuaded or convinced.
4. A deep conviction or belief.
5. A form or system of belief. (Dictionary, 2007)

The University of Phoenix PHL-251 chapter 13 readings states, “If we try to persuade people to do something solely for our advantage, we are using them. That is manipulation. If we try to get them to do something that is believe for their, society’s good, is manipulation or persuasion” (UOP, 2007).

When attempting to persuade and individual or group the persuader must thinks why they are persuading, who is benefiting by the persuasion and is the persuader being an honest person of integrity.

I am concerned with doctors which use persuasion to influence patients to undergo unwarranted expensive procedures. Dentists, chiropractors, and plastic surgeons often breach ethical standards. Some dentists tell patient they need porcelain fillings to replay the old medal one when noting is wrong with the old fillings. Some chiropractors recommended unneeded lengthy treatment when not needed and finally some plastic surgeons seduce patients with the promise of the surgical fountain of youth at an enormous price. All of the examples show the persuader unnecessary benefitting from the individuals they were supposed to be serving and in these cases the persuaders have not considered their un-ethical actions.

Reference

University of Phoenix PHL 251 chapter thirteen reading

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=persuasion

Discussion Questions – week 2

Discussion Questions – week 2

1) How do other emotions influence our thinking?

The Cambridge online dictionary defines emotion as, “a strong feeling such as love or anger, or strong feelings in general” (Cambridge, 2007). An individual emotions or lack of emotions will have and effect on their thinking process. An old stereotype cliché states “Hell has no fury like a woman scorn”. This statement has been used to prove how emotions can overcome a person to commit evil deeds. The statement can also be used to show how anger may have the power to render an individual totally emotionless and have not a care in the world for their actions.

The University of Phoenix PHL 251 week two reading states, “Our upbringing shapes our fears, which keep us from facing thoughts. It shapes our self-concept, which moves us to defend our thoughts, it shapes our emotions, which can distort our thinking to an exceptional degree” (UOP, 2007). This statement from UOP does provide support that certain emotions can be learned behavior. For example a child taught to hate other individuals because of there skin color may have feelings of anxiety or hatred towards a person on another skin color sitting beside them solely based on a learned trait.

I was taught as a child; a person can control how they feel however, we all can control how we react to our feelings or emotions. This is what separates humans from animals.,

Reference:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=25386&dict=CALD
University of Phoenix PHL 251 week two reading


2) How have emotional influences affected recent decisions at work?

Recently I acquired an outsourced employee located in India from another team in my organization. The individual had become accustom to not working a full day work or paying attention to details. I had to retrain this employee to become detailed oriented and understand the benefits of teem work.

Four weeks ago provided step by step details to this employee on how we were to proceed with a weekend out of normal busies hours. This is an activity I needed to train the new employee to handle on their own.

The new employee attempted to pass off their responsibilities in direct violation of my instructions. My emotions almost overwhelmed me we my directives were not followed I wasted the individual immediately terminated. However after thinking the whole situation through I understood this person really did not understand the new position they were in and they did not volunteer to join my team; accept the new p[position or be fired.

After detail thought with out emotion I had the individual transferred to another team where they are now excelling and I have a new hire better fit to fill my position.

Had I acted purely off of emotions the organization could have lost a potential valuable trained employee. We all thing first then act!

Discussion Questions – Week 1 Daniel Spivey

1) How do our senses influence our perception process?

Most people do have five senses, sight, smell, tough, taste, & hearing, “Many scientists say we actually have nine senses - sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, pain, balance, thirst, and hunger” (Library, 2007). Our senses are a key method of how we perceive things. Two people can see the same thing and have two separate unique explanations of what they just saw. The old quote the glass is half full (They have hope) is a great example. Depending on persons beliefs and emotional status the cup maybe half empty and their hope is fading. We all don’t always see or fee the same things. My life experiences have taught me that people with happy, out-going personalities tend to view life with a much brighter view.

I try not to give credence to old folk’s tails and I am not trying to offend anyone however as married man I have experienced a change in my wife perception process during a monthly menstrual cycle. I have learned that not only do our senses have an effect on our perceptions; ones physical condition or lack of physical condition will all pay a roll on one perceptions. We all have meet the person what see’s everyone talking about them; when in fact one one is paying them any attention.
.
References
University of Phoenix PHL 251 week one Reading

2) How does perception influence the thinking process?

How we perceive people and the world around us plays a major role in our thinking process. One who perceives they are under attack will try to defend them-selves and this can lead to physical or verbal confrontation. This perception can be unfounded and just a perception and not a truth. There by if what we perceives and effect how we think and act we all should apply critical thing to our perception process to assure we are thinking and acting on factual perceptions

Our thinking can be altered by perceptual blocks. There are perceptual blocks that influence a person’s views. Some personal barriers that inhibit thinking are religion, rationalizations, and emotional influences such as anger, stress, passion, and depression. As I have previously stated in many cases we are a reflection of our own feelings The UOP reading states, “we do not always think about and perceive things as they are, for that would often mean looking at ourselves in an unpleasant light. Consequently, most people tend to see what they need to see and what they want to see “(UOP, 2007). Self-serving biases and stereotype can influence ones thinking process. A child who is taught to hate others based on the color of their skin have-been exposed to negative influences and predjustices which may cloud their perception and thinking process.


References
University of Phoenix PHL 251 week one Reading