Annotations of chapter 3 pages 39-49
-What is the credibility of a contemporary philosopher in effective arguing?
-Kohn: an outspoken critic of grading students. He’s an expert in education. If he is an “expert” in education, I wonder if he became an expert by being in environments that he wasn’t judged on his work. How did his personal background influence how he feels
-The warrant is something the author assumes you already agree with. In this example he assumes that you agree that critical thinking is a valuable part of getting an education.
- it says that warrants in arguments are usually things that are mostly common sense type of stuff but is there really such thing as common sense? What is the standard
-page 41 The examples:
-1: warrant: It is important that students learn what they need to learn regardless of their own will
-2: warrant: Competition in the classroom is dangerous
-3: Good grades in college are more important than good grades in high school
Qualifier: A way of making your claim more refined so that it isn’t stated as universally true. This makes it less likely for audience to point out flaws if you have already mentioned them
“in most cases” “On the whole”
- What’s the balance between using a qaulifier and becoming too wordy and passive?
Let’s be Blunt: It’s time to end the Drug War
-He includes no qualifiers. He states it as it is universally true. He literally says, “should be drugs be legal? The answer is yes.” This does take away from his argument because he almost has a prideful voice and that makes it hard for audience to listen and consider
-Claim: Drugs, -specifically marijuana- should be legalized
-Reason: The demand for drugs doesn’t go away or decrease regardless of prices increasing
-evidience: “the more effective prohibition is at raising costs, the greater are the drug industry revenues,” – Cowen and Tabarrok
-Reason: Catching the “Big guys” won’t stop the war on drugs
-Evidence: Apple carried on after Steve Jobs died.
-Reason: we are trying to “win” the war on drugs and that is impossible
-Evidence: Albert Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
Warrant: It is more important that we have less violence and less conflict than ensuring drug rates don’t go up
-He makes a point that the war on drugs is ineffective because as the prices go up, people stay consistent because they are addicted. There is a fault in this because He is mainly arguing over marijuana and marijuana is not necessarily addictive.
Annotations of “Waking up and Taking Charge”
-Claim: Young adults need to be more active in fighting back things that effect them so much
-Reason: Students could make real effective changes
-Evidence: Students at William and Mary college helped pass a $900 million state bond issue and the coalition went statewide
Kara's Blog 