Friday, April 30, 2010
April 25th - May 1st Questions
#1) I think the example in the reading on the website where they discussed the case of a bicyclist that caused an accident between two cars really helped me understand the concept of plausibility in causal arguments better. I like to watch a lot of courtroom drama shows like “Law & Order” so by picturing this example as something like you’d see on the show, it helped me understand it better. Most of the time, as they investigate the case, more evidence that shifts the guilt from one person to another is uncovered as the show goes on. This example kind of reminded me of that in that it makes you stop and reassess each claim on its own for credibility. However, since it is a tv show, I think they expect you to accept some pretty unlikely or unbelievable causal arguments sometimes in the name of entertainment, so it’s hard to be too much of a critical thinker and still enjoy the show.
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I seriously agree with you one this. The bike example really helped me understand about the true meaning about cause and effect. Your "Law and Order" example was cool too. The whole show pretty much is about cause an effect. Like why is that guy a suspect and why is that the guy that should get arrested compared to everyone else. Different shows have this same criteria, such as CSI, Monk, and even Family Guy. Family Guy meets this criteria because every episode shows the reason why someone is trying to proceed with the goal they are trying to reach. Overall you can probably say this with other shows on TV.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you. I felt the same way about the website. The example with the two cars and the bicycle really made it clear to me. It also reminded me of a show, which was CSI. In CSI, it always pointed out that you cannot claim something with out hard evidence. Almost every episode is about investigating how someone died. Most of the time it is a murder. The majority of the show is spent on trying to prove who did it. Causal claims are made and are proven with hard evidence. One funny thing is that I spent a few minutes trying to figure out why they were called casual claims. I then realized it was causal and not casual.
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