This week’s discussion will hopefully help you to better understand inductive causal arguments; how to identify them, and how to begin to assess them for strength, while also giving you something interesting to read and discuss. It will ask you to first read the article on loneliness in modern life. You will then pick out causal arguments being given for loneliness and arguments for what can be done about it. You will then assess the argument for strength and whether you think it is a good one, or whether you think there might be some causal confusions.
Here are step-by-step instructions on what to do:
1) Read: Chapter 8, pages 289-304 in the 5th edition of the textbook The Power of Critical Thinking, the section titled “Causal Arguments”. This will give you an understanding of causal arguments and the reasoning involved in them.
2) Read: The article, “The Loneliness Epidemic (Links to an external site.)” . This is where you will be looking for causal arguments and is the article you will be discussing.
3) Read: The article, “The Real Campus Scourge (Links to an external site.)“. This article will give you more to consider in how you think about and respond to part 3 of your initial post.
4) Write your initial post. In your post:
- Identify at least one causal argument given for the rise in loneliness.
- Discuss whether you agree or disagree with the reasoning that leads to the conclusion. Do you think there might be any causal confusions taking place in the argument (as discussed in Chapter 8)?
- Describe what you think might be other factors leading to loneliness that the author of the article does not mention. Do you think loneliness is as big of an issue in modern life as many are making it out to be? Why or why not?
0 comments