Types of Fallacies Essay Example

Types of Fallacies Essay FALLACIES OF RELEVANCE 1. Appeal to Force If you suppose that terrorizing your opponent is giving him a reason for believing that you are correct, then you are using a scare tactic and reasoning fallaciously. Example: David: My father owns the department store that gives your newspaper fifteen percent of all its advertising revenue, so I’m sure you won’t want to publish any story of my arrest for spray painting the college. Newspaper editor: Yes, David, I see your point. The story really isn’t newsworthy. David has given the editor a financial reason not to publish, but he has not given a relevant reason why the story is not newsworthy. David’s tactics are scaring the editor, but it’s the editor who commits the scare tactic fallacy, not David. David has merely used a scare tactic. This fallacy’s name emphasizes the cause of the fallacy rather than the error itself. 2. Appeal to Pity You commit the fallacy of appeal to emotions when someone’s appeal to you to accept their claim is accepted merely because the appeal arouses your feelings of anger, fear, grief, love, outrage, pity, pride, sexuality, sympathy, relief, and so forth. We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Example of appeal to relief from grief: [The speaker knows he is talking to an aggrieved person whose house is worth much more than $100,000. ] You had a great job and didn’t deserve to lose it. I wish I could help somehow. I do have one idea. Now your family needs financial security even more. You need cash. I can help you. Here is a check for $100,000. Just sign this standard sales agreement, and we can skip the realtors and all the headaches they would create at this critical time in your life. There is nothing wrong with using emotions when you argue, but it’s a mistake to use emotions as the key premises or as tools to downplay relevant information. Regarding the fallacy of  appeal to pity, it is proper to pity people who have had misfortunes, but if as the person’s history instructor you accept Max’s claim that he earned an A on the history quiz because he broke his wrist while playing in your college’s last basketball game, then you’ve committed the fallacy of  appeal to pity. *Appeal to Snobbery 3. Ad Hominem You commit this fallacy if you make an irrelevant attack on the arguer and suggest that this attack undermines the argument itself. It is a form of the  Genetic Fallacy. Example: What she says about Johannes Kepler’s astronomy of the 1600? s must be just so much garbage. Do you realize she’s only fourteen years old? This attack may undermine the arguer’s credibility as a scientific authority, but it does not undermine her reasoning. That reasoning should stand or fall on the scientific evidence, not on the arguer’s age or anything else about her personally. If the fallacious reasoner points out irrelevant circumstances that the reasoner is in, the fallacy is a circumstantial ad hominem. Tu Quoque  and  Two Wrongs Make a Right  are other types of the ad hominem fallacy. The major difficulty with labeling a piece of reasoning as an ad hominem fallacy is deciding whether the personal attack is relevant. For example, attacks on a person for their actually immoral sexual conduct are irrelevant to the quality of their mathematical reasoning, but they are relevant to arguments promoting the person for a leadership position in the church. Unfortunately, many attacks are not so easy to classify, such as an attack pointing out that the candidate for church leadership, while in the tenth grade, intentionally tripped a fellow student and broke his collar bone. *Ad Hominem Circumstantial Guilt by association is a version of the  ad hominem  fallacy in which a person is said to be guilty of error because of the group he or she associates with. The fallacy occurs when we unfairly try to change the issue to be about the speaker’s circumstances rather than about the speaker’s actual argument. Also called â€Å"Ad Hominem, Circumstantial. Example: Secretary of State Dean Acheson is too soft on communism, as you can see by his inviting so many fuzzy-headed liberals to his White House cocktail parties. Has any evidence been presented here that Acheson’s actions are inappropriate in regards to communism? This sort of reasoning is an example of McCarthyism, the technique of smearing liberal Democrats that was so effectively used by the late Senator Joe McCarthy in the early 1950s. In fact, Acheson was strongly anti-communist and the architect of President Truman’s firm policy of containing Soviet power. 4. Appeal to the People If you suggest too strongly that someone’s claim or argument is correct simply because it’s what most everyone believes, then you’ve committed the fallacy of appeal to the people. Similarly, if you suggest too strongly that someone’s claim or argument is mistaken simply because it’s not what most everyone believes, then you’ve also committed the fallacy. Agreement with popular opinion is not necessarily a reliable sign of truth, and deviation from popular opinion is not necessarily a reliable sign of error, but if you assume it is and do so with enthusiasm, then you’re guilty of committing this fallacy. It is essentially the same as the fallacies of ad numerum, appeal to the gallery, appeal to the masses, argument from popularity, argumentum ad populum, common practice, mob appeal, past practice, peer pressure, traditional wisdom. The â€Å"too strongly† mentioned above is important in the description of the fallacy because what most everyone believes is, for that reason, somewhat likely to be true, all things considered. However, the fallacy occurs when this degree of support is overestimated. Example: You should turn to channel 6. It’s the most watched channel this year. This is fallacious because of its implicitly accepting the questionable premise that the most watched channel this year is, for that reason alone, the best channel for you. If you stress the idea of appealing to a  new  idea of the gallery, masses, mob, peers, people, and so forth, then it is a bandwagon fallacy. *Bandwagon If you suggest that someone’s claim is correct simply because it’s what most everyone is coming to believe, then you’re committing the bandwagon fallacy. Get up here with us on the wagon where the band is playing, and go where we go, and don’t think too much about the reasons. The Latin term for this fallacy of appeal to novelty is Argumentum ad Novitatem. Example: [Advertisement] More and more people are buying sports utility vehicles. Isn’t it time you bought one, too? [You commit the fallacy if you buy the vehicle solely because of this advertisement. ] Like its close cousin, the fallacy of appeal to the people, the bandwagon fallacy needs to be carefully distinguished from properly defending a claim by pointing out that many people have studied the claim and have come to a reasoned conclusion that it is correct. What most everyone believes is likely to be true, all things considered, and if one defends a claim on those grounds, this is not a fallacious inference. What is fallacious is to be swept up by the excitement of a new idea or new fad and to unquestionably give it too high a degree of your belief solely on the grounds of its new popularity, perhaps thinking simply that ‘new is better. ’ The key ingredient that is missing from a bandwagon fallacy is knowledge that an item is popular because of its high quality. Appeal to Past People (â€Å"You too†) 5. Accident We often arrive at a generalization but don’t or can’t list all the exceptions. When we reason with the generalization as if it has no exceptions, we commit the fallacy of accident. This fallacy is sometimes called the â€Å"fallacy of sweeping generalization. † Example: People should keep their promises, right? I loaned Dwayne my knife, and he said he’d return it. Now he is refusi ng to give it back, but I need it right now to slash up my neighbors who disrespected me. People should keep their promises, but there are exceptions to this generaliztion as in this case of the psychopath who wants Dwayne to keep his promise to return the knife. 6. Straw Man You commit the straw man fallacy whenever you attribute an easily refuted position to your opponent, one that the opponent wouldn’t endorse, and then proceed to attack the easily refuted position (the straw man) believing you have undermined the opponent’s actual position. If the misrepresentation is on purpose, then the straw man fallacy is caused by lying. Example (a debate before the city council): Opponent: Because of the killing and suffering of Indians that followed Columbus’s discovery of America, the City of Berkeley should declare that Columbus Day will no longer be observed in our city. Speaker: This is ridiculous, fellow members of the city council. It’s not true that everybody who ever came to America from another country somehow oppressed the Indians. I say we should continue to observe Columbus Day, and vote down this resolution that will make the City of Berkeley the laughing stock of the nation. The speaker has twisted what his opponent said; the opponent never said, nor even indirectly suggested, that everybody who ever came to America from another country somehow oppressed the Indians. The critical thinker will respond to the fallacy by saying, â€Å"Let’s get back to the original issue of whether we have a good reason to discontinue observing Columbus Day. † 7. Missing the Point The conclusion that is drawn is irrelevant to the premises; it misses the point. Example: In court, Thompson testifies that the defendant is a honorable person, who wouldn’t harm a flea. The defense attorney commits the fallacy by rising to say that Thompson’s testimony shows once again that his client was not near the murder scene. The testimony of Thompson may be relevant to a request for leniency, but it is irrelevant to any claim about the defendant not being near the murder scene. 8. Red Herring A red herring is a smelly fish that would distract even a bloodhound. It is also a digression that leads the reasoner off the track of considering only relevant information. Example: Will the new tax in Senate Bill 47 unfairly hurt business? One of the provisions of the bill is that the tax is higher for large employers (fifty or more employees) as opposed to small employers (six to forty-nine employees). To decide on the fairness of the bill, we must first determine whether employees who work for large employers have better working conditions than employees who work for small employers. Bringing up the issue of working conditions is the red herring. FALLACIES OF PRESUMPTION 9. Begging the Question A form of  circular reasoning  in which a conclusion is derived from premises that presuppose the conclusion. Normally, the point of good reasoning is to start out at one place and end up somewhere new, namely having reached the goal of increasing the degree of reasonable belief in the conclusion. The point is to make progress, but in cases of begging the question there is no progress. Example: â€Å"Women have rights,† said the Bullfighters Association president. â€Å"But women shouldn’t fight bulls because a bullfighter is and should be a man. † The president is saying basically that women shouldn’t fight bulls because women shouldn’t fight bulls. This reasoning isn’t making any progress. Insofar as the conclusion of a deductively valid argument is â€Å"contained† in the premises from which it is deduced, this containing might seem to be a case of presupposing, and thus any deductively valid argument might seem to be begging the question. It is still an open question among logicians as to why some deductively valid arguments are considered to be begging the question and others are not. Some logicians suggest that, in informal reasoning with a deductively valid argument, if the conclusion is psychologically new insofar as the premises are concerned, then the argument isn’t an example of the fallacy. Other logicians suggest that we need to look instead to surrounding circumstances, not to the psychology of the reasoner, in order to assess the quality of the argument. For example, we need to look to the reasons that the reasoner used to accept the premises. Was the premise justified on the basis of accepting the conclusion? A third group of logicians say that, in deciding whether the fallacy is committed, we need more. We must determine whether any premise that is key to deducing the conclusion is adopted rather blindly or instead is a reasonable assumption made by someone accepting their burden of proof. The premise would here be termed reasonable if the arguer could defend it independently of accepting the conclusion that is at issue. 10. Complex Question You commit this fallacy when you frame a question so that some controversial presupposition is made by the wording of the question. Example: [Reporters question] Mr. President: Are you going to continue your policy of wasting taxpayer’s money on missile defense? The question unfairly presumes the controversial claim that the policy really is a waste of money. The fallacy of complex question is a form of begging the question. 11. False Dichotomy A reasoner who unfairly presents too few choices and then implies that a choice must be made among this short menu of choices commits the false dilemma fallacy, as does the person who accepts this faulty reasoning. Example: I want to go to Scotland from London. I overheard McTaggart say there are two roads to Scotland from London: the high road and the low road. I expect the high road would be too risky because it’s through the hills and that means dangerous curves. But it’s raining now, so both roads are probably slippery. I don’t like either choice, but I guess I should take the low road and be safer. This would be fine reasoning is you were limited to only two roads, but you’ve falsely gotten yourself into a dilemma with such reasoning. There are many other ways to get to Scotland. Don’t limit yourself to these two choices. You can take other roads, or go by boat or train or airplane. The fallacy is called the â€Å"False Dichotomy Fallacy† when the unfair menu contains only two choices. Think of the unpleasant choice between the two as being a charging bull. By demanding other choices beyond those on the unfairly limited menu, you thereby â€Å"go between the horns† of the dilemma, and are not gored. 12. Suppressed Evidence Intentionally failing to use information suspected of being relevant and significant is committing the fallacy of suppressed evidence. This fallacy usually occurs when the information counts against one’s own conclusion. Perhaps the arguer is not mentioning that experts have recently objected to one of his premises. The fallacy is a kind of fallacy of  Selective Attention. Example: Buying the Cray Mac 11 computer for our company was the right thing to do. It meets our company’s needs; it runs the programs we want it to run; it will be delivered quickly; and it costs much less than what we had budgeted. This appears to be a good argument, but you’d change your assessment of the argument if you learned the speaker has intentionally suppressed the relevant evidence that the company’s Cray Mac 11 was purchased from his brother-in-law at a 30 percent higher price than it could have been purchased elsewhere, and if you learned that a recent unbiased analysis of ten comparable computers placed the Cray Mac 11 near the bottom of the list. FALLACIES OF WEAK INDUCTION 13. Appeal to Ignorance The fallacy of appeal to ignorance comes in two forms: (1) Not knowing that a certain statement is true is taken to be a proof that it is false. 2) Not knowing that a statement is false is taken to be a proof that it is true. The fallacy occurs in cases where absence of evidence is not good enough evidence of absence. The fallacy uses an unjustified attempt to shift the burden of proof. The fallacy is also called â€Å"Argument from Ignorance. † Example: Nobody has ever proved to me there’s a God, so I know there is no God. This kind of reasoning is generally fallacious. It would be proper reasoning only if the proof attempts were quite thorough, and it were the case that if God did exist, then there would be a discoverable proof of this. Another common example of the fallacy involves ignorance of a future event: People have been complaining about the danger of Xs ever since they were invented, but there’s never been any big problem with them, so there’s nothing to worry about. 14. Appeal to Unqualified Authority You appeal to authority if you back up your reasoning by saying that it is supported by what some authority says on the subject. Most reasoning of this kind is not fallacious, and much of our knowledge properly comes from listening to authorities. However, appealing to authority as a reason to believe something  is  fallacious whenever the authority appealed to is not really an authority in this particular subject, when the authority cannot be trusted to tell the truth, when authorities disagree on this subject (except for the occasional lone wolf), when the reasoner misquotes the authority, and so forth. Although spotting a fallacious appeal to authority often requires some background knowledge about the subject or the authority, in brief it can be said that it is fallacious to accept the words of a supposed authority when we should be suspicious of the authority’s words. Example: The moon is covered with dust because the president of our neighborhood association said so. This is a fallacious appeal to authority because, although the president is an authority on many neighborhood matters, you are given no reason to believe the president is an authority on the composition of the moon. It would be better to appeal to some astronomer or geologist. A TV commercial that gives you a testimonial from a famous film star who wears a Wilson watch and that suggests you, too, should wear that brand of watch is committing a fallacious appeal to authority. The film star is an authority on how to act, not on which watch is best for you. 15. Hasty Generalization A hasty generalization is a fallacy of  jumping to conclusions  in which the conclusion is a generalization. See also  Biased Statistics. Example: I’ve met two people in Nicaragua so far, and they were both nice to me. So, all people I will meet in Nicaragua will be nice to me. In any hasty generalization the key error is to overestimate the strength of an argument that is based on too small a sample for the implied confidence level or error margin. In this argument about Nicaragua, using the word â€Å"all† in the conclusion implies zero error margin. With zero error margin you’d need to sample every single person in Nicaragua, not just two people. 16. False Cause Improperly concluding that one thing is a cause of another. The Fallacy of Non Causa Pro Causa is another name for this fallacy. Its four principal kinds are the  Post Hoc Fallacy, the Fallacy of  Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc,  the  Regression  Fallacy, and the Fallacy of  Reversing Causation. Example: My psychic adviser says to expect bad things when Mars is aligned with Jupiter. Tomorrow Mars will be aligned with Jupiter. So, if a dog were to bite me tomorrow, it would be because of the alignment of Mars with Jupiter. 17. Slippery Slope Suppose someone claims that a first step (in a chain of causes and effects, or a chain of reasoning) will probably lead to a second step that in turn will probably lead to another step and so on until a final step ends in trouble. If the likelihood of the trouble occurring is exaggerated, the slippery slope fallacy is committed. Example: Mom: Those look like bags under your eyes. Are you getting enough sleep? Jeff: I had a test and stayed up late studying. Mom: You didn’t take any drugs, did you? Jeff: Just caffeine in my coffee, like I always do. Mom: Jeff! You know what happens when people take drugs! Pretty soon the caffeine won’t be strong enough. Then you will take something stronger, maybe someone’s diet pill. Then, something even stronger. Eventually, you will be doing cocaine. Then you will be a crack addict! So, don’t drink that coffee. The form of a slippery slope fallacy looks like this: A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D. †¦ Z leads to HELL. We don’t want to go to HELL. So, don’t take that first step A. 18. Weak Analogy The problem is that the items in the analogy are too dissimilar. When reasoning by analogy, the fallacy occurs when the analogy is irrelevant or very weak or when there is a more relevant disanalogy. See also  Faulty Comparison. Example: The book  Investing for Dummies  really helped me understand my finances better. The bookChess for Dummies  was written by the same author, was published by the same press, and costs about the same amount. So, this chess book would probably help me understand my finances, too. FALLACIES OF AMBIGUITY 19. Accent The accent fallacy is a fallacy of ambiguity due to the different ways a word is emphasized or accented. Example: A member of Congress is asked by a reporter if she is in favor of the President’s new missile defense system, and she responds, â€Å"I’m in favor of a missile defense system that effectively defends America. † With an emphasis on the word â€Å"favor,† her response is likely to  favor  the President’s missile defense system. With an emphasis, instead, on the words â€Å"effectively defends,† her remark is likely to be  againstthe President’s missile defense system. And by using neither emphasis, she can later claim that her response was on either side of the issue. Aristotle’s version of the fallacy of accent allowed only a shift in which syllable is accented within a word. 20. Amphiboly This is an error due to taking a grammatically ambiguous phrase in two different ways during the reasoning. Example: In a cartoon, two elephants are driving their car down the road in India. They say, â€Å"We’d better not get out here,† as they pass a sign saying: ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR Upon one interpretation of the grammar, the pronoun â€Å"YOUR† refers to the elephants in the car, but on another it refers to those humans who are driving cars in the vicinity. Unlike  equivocation, which is due to multiple meanings of a phrase, amphiboly is due to syntactic ambiguity, ambiguity caused by multiple ways of understanding the grammar of the phrase. 21. Equivocation Equivocation is the illegitimate switching of the meaning of a term during the reasoning. Example: Brad is a nobody, but since nobody is perfect, Brad must be perfect, too. The term â€Å"nobody† changes its meaning without warning in the passage. So does the term â€Å"political jokes† in this joke: I don’t approve of political jokes. I’ve seen too many of them get elected. FALLACIES OF GRAMMATICAL ANALOGY 22. Composition The composition fallacy occurs when someone mistakenly assumes that a characteristic of some or all the individuals in a group is also a characteristic of the group itself, the group â€Å"composed† of those members. It is the converse of the  division  fallacy. Example: Each human cell is very lightweight, so a human being composed of cells is also very lightweight. 23. Division Merely because a group as a whole has a characteristic, it often doesn’t follow that individuals in the group have that characteristic. If you suppose that it does follow, when it doesn’t, you commit the fallacy of division. It is the converse of the  composition  fallacy. Example: Joshua’s soccer team is the best in the division because it had an undefeated season and shared the division title, so Joshua, who is their goalie, must be the best goalie in the division. 24. Figure of Speech or Parallel-word Construction A fallacy characterized by ambiguities due to the fact that different words in Greek (and in Latin) may have different cases or genders even though the case endings or gender endings are the same. Since this is not widespread in other languages or since it coincides with other fallacies (e. g. quivocation, see above) writers tend to interpret it very broadly. Examples: Activists have been labeled as idealists, sadists, anarchists, communists, and just about any name that can come to mind ending in  -ist, like  samok-ist, saba-ist, bad-ist,  and of course, who could forgetdevil-ist? (The writer has the unsaid argument that any name ending in  -ist  is viewed as trouble-m akers by our society. ) An introductory book on philosophy has an appendix entitle List of Isms the proceeds to list the schools of thought in philosophy. (Not all words that end in  -ism  is a school of thought: take for example,  syllogism. ) Types of Fallacies Essay Example Types of Fallacies Essay FALLACIES OF RELEVANCE 1. Appeal to Force If you suppose that terrorizing your opponent is giving him a reason for believing that you are correct, then you are using a scare tactic and reasoning fallaciously. Example: David: My father owns the department store that gives your newspaper fifteen percent of all its advertising revenue, so I’m sure you won’t want to publish any story of my arrest for spray painting the college. Newspaper editor: Yes, David, I see your point. The story really isn’t newsworthy. David has given the editor a financial reason not to publish, but he has not given a relevant reason why the story is not newsworthy. David’s tactics are scaring the editor, but it’s the editor who commits the scare tactic fallacy, not David. David has merely used a scare tactic. This fallacy’s name emphasizes the cause of the fallacy rather than the error itself. 2. Appeal to Pity You commit the fallacy of appeal to emotions when someone’s appeal to you to accept their claim is accepted merely because the appeal arouses your feelings of anger, fear, grief, love, outrage, pity, pride, sexuality, sympathy, relief, and so forth. We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Example of appeal to relief from grief: [The speaker knows he is talking to an aggrieved person whose house is worth much more than $100,000. ] You had a great job and didn’t deserve to lose it. I wish I could help somehow. I do have one idea. Now your family needs financial security even more. You need cash. I can help you. Here is a check for $100,000. Just sign this standard sales agreement, and we can skip the realtors and all the headaches they would create at this critical time in your life. There is nothing wrong with using emotions when you argue, but it’s a mistake to use emotions as the key premises or as tools to downplay relevant information. Regarding the fallacy of  appeal to pity, it is proper to pity people who have had misfortunes, but if as the person’s history instructor you accept Max’s claim that he earned an A on the history quiz because he broke his wrist while playing in your college’s last basketball game, then you’ve committed the fallacy of  appeal to pity. *Appeal to Snobbery 3. Ad Hominem You commit this fallacy if you make an irrelevant attack on the arguer and suggest that this attack undermines the argument itself. It is a form of the  Genetic Fallacy. Example: What she says about Johannes Kepler’s astronomy of the 1600? s must be just so much garbage. Do you realize she’s only fourteen years old? This attack may undermine the arguer’s credibility as a scientific authority, but it does not undermine her reasoning. That reasoning should stand or fall on the scientific evidence, not on the arguer’s age or anything else about her personally. If the fallacious reasoner points out irrelevant circumstances that the reasoner is in, the fallacy is a circumstantial ad hominem. Tu Quoque  and  Two Wrongs Make a Right  are other types of the ad hominem fallacy. The major difficulty with labeling a piece of reasoning as an ad hominem fallacy is deciding whether the personal attack is relevant. For example, attacks on a person for their actually immoral sexual conduct are irrelevant to the quality of their mathematical reasoning, but they are relevant to arguments promoting the person for a leadership position in the church. Unfortunately, many attacks are not so easy to classify, such as an attack pointing out that the candidate for church leadership, while in the tenth grade, intentionally tripped a fellow student and broke his collar bone. *Ad Hominem Circumstantial Guilt by association is a version of the  ad hominem  fallacy in which a person is said to be guilty of error because of the group he or she associates with. The fallacy occurs when we unfairly try to change the issue to be about the speaker’s circumstances rather than about the speaker’s actual argument. Also called â€Å"Ad Hominem, Circumstantial. Example: Secretary of State Dean Acheson is too soft on communism, as you can see by his inviting so many fuzzy-headed liberals to his White House cocktail parties. Has any evidence been presented here that Acheson’s actions are inappropriate in regards to communism? This sort of reasoning is an example of McCarthyism, the technique of smearing liberal Democrats that was so effectively used by the late Senator Joe McCarthy in the early 1950s. In fact, Acheson was strongly anti-communist and the architect of President Truman’s firm policy of containing Soviet power. 4. Appeal to the People If you suggest too strongly that someone’s claim or argument is correct simply because it’s what most everyone believes, then you’ve committed the fallacy of appeal to the people. Similarly, if you suggest too strongly that someone’s claim or argument is mistaken simply because it’s not what most everyone believes, then you’ve also committed the fallacy. Agreement with popular opinion is not necessarily a reliable sign of truth, and deviation from popular opinion is not necessarily a reliable sign of error, but if you assume it is and do so with enthusiasm, then you’re guilty of committing this fallacy. It is essentially the same as the fallacies of ad numerum, appeal to the gallery, appeal to the masses, argument from popularity, argumentum ad populum, common practice, mob appeal, past practice, peer pressure, traditional wisdom. The â€Å"too strongly† mentioned above is important in the description of the fallacy because what most everyone believes is, for that reason, somewhat likely to be true, all things considered. However, the fallacy occurs when this degree of support is overestimated. Example: You should turn to channel 6. It’s the most watched channel this year. This is fallacious because of its implicitly accepting the questionable premise that the most watched channel this year is, for that reason alone, the best channel for you. If you stress the idea of appealing to a  new  idea of the gallery, masses, mob, peers, people, and so forth, then it is a bandwagon fallacy. *Bandwagon If you suggest that someone’s claim is correct simply because it’s what most everyone is coming to believe, then you’re committing the bandwagon fallacy. Get up here with us on the wagon where the band is playing, and go where we go, and don’t think too much about the reasons. The Latin term for this fallacy of appeal to novelty is Argumentum ad Novitatem. Example: [Advertisement] More and more people are buying sports utility vehicles. Isn’t it time you bought one, too? [You commit the fallacy if you buy the vehicle solely because of this advertisement. ] Like its close cousin, the fallacy of appeal to the people, the bandwagon fallacy needs to be carefully distinguished from properly defending a claim by pointing out that many people have studied the claim and have come to a reasoned conclusion that it is correct. What most everyone believes is likely to be true, all things considered, and if one defends a claim on those grounds, this is not a fallacious inference. What is fallacious is to be swept up by the excitement of a new idea or new fad and to unquestionably give it too high a degree of your belief solely on the grounds of its new popularity, perhaps thinking simply that ‘new is better. ’ The key ingredient that is missing from a bandwagon fallacy is knowledge that an item is popular because of its high quality. Appeal to Past People (â€Å"You too†) 5. Accident We often arrive at a generalization but don’t or can’t list all the exceptions. When we reason with the generalization as if it has no exceptions, we commit the fallacy of accident. This fallacy is sometimes called the â€Å"fallacy of sweeping generalization. † Example: People should keep their promises, right? I loaned Dwayne my knife, and he said he’d return it. Now he is refusi ng to give it back, but I need it right now to slash up my neighbors who disrespected me. People should keep their promises, but there are exceptions to this generaliztion as in this case of the psychopath who wants Dwayne to keep his promise to return the knife. 6. Straw Man You commit the straw man fallacy whenever you attribute an easily refuted position to your opponent, one that the opponent wouldn’t endorse, and then proceed to attack the easily refuted position (the straw man) believing you have undermined the opponent’s actual position. If the misrepresentation is on purpose, then the straw man fallacy is caused by lying. Example (a debate before the city council): Opponent: Because of the killing and suffering of Indians that followed Columbus’s discovery of America, the City of Berkeley should declare that Columbus Day will no longer be observed in our city. Speaker: This is ridiculous, fellow members of the city council. It’s not true that everybody who ever came to America from another country somehow oppressed the Indians. I say we should continue to observe Columbus Day, and vote down this resolution that will make the City of Berkeley the laughing stock of the nation. The speaker has twisted what his opponent said; the opponent never said, nor even indirectly suggested, that everybody who ever came to America from another country somehow oppressed the Indians. The critical thinker will respond to the fallacy by saying, â€Å"Let’s get back to the original issue of whether we have a good reason to discontinue observing Columbus Day. † 7. Missing the Point The conclusion that is drawn is irrelevant to the premises; it misses the point. Example: In court, Thompson testifies that the defendant is a honorable person, who wouldn’t harm a flea. The defense attorney commits the fallacy by rising to say that Thompson’s testimony shows once again that his client was not near the murder scene. The testimony of Thompson may be relevant to a request for leniency, but it is irrelevant to any claim about the defendant not being near the murder scene. 8. Red Herring A red herring is a smelly fish that would distract even a bloodhound. It is also a digression that leads the reasoner off the track of considering only relevant information. Example: Will the new tax in Senate Bill 47 unfairly hurt business? One of the provisions of the bill is that the tax is higher for large employers (fifty or more employees) as opposed to small employers (six to forty-nine employees). To decide on the fairness of the bill, we must first determine whether employees who work for large employers have better working conditions than employees who work for small employers. Bringing up the issue of working conditions is the red herring. FALLACIES OF PRESUMPTION 9. Begging the Question A form of  circular reasoning  in which a conclusion is derived from premises that presuppose the conclusion. Normally, the point of good reasoning is to start out at one place and end up somewhere new, namely having reached the goal of increasing the degree of reasonable belief in the conclusion. The point is to make progress, but in cases of begging the question there is no progress. Example: â€Å"Women have rights,† said the Bullfighters Association president. â€Å"But women shouldn’t fight bulls because a bullfighter is and should be a man. † The president is saying basically that women shouldn’t fight bulls because women shouldn’t fight bulls. This reasoning isn’t making any progress. Insofar as the conclusion of a deductively valid argument is â€Å"contained† in the premises from which it is deduced, this containing might seem to be a case of presupposing, and thus any deductively valid argument might seem to be begging the question. It is still an open question among logicians as to why some deductively valid arguments are considered to be begging the question and others are not. Some logicians suggest that, in informal reasoning with a deductively valid argument, if the conclusion is psychologically new insofar as the premises are concerned, then the argument isn’t an example of the fallacy. Other logicians suggest that we need to look instead to surrounding circumstances, not to the psychology of the reasoner, in order to assess the quality of the argument. For example, we need to look to the reasons that the reasoner used to accept the premises. Was the premise justified on the basis of accepting the conclusion? A third group of logicians say that, in deciding whether the fallacy is committed, we need more. We must determine whether any premise that is key to deducing the conclusion is adopted rather blindly or instead is a reasonable assumption made by someone accepting their burden of proof. The premise would here be termed reasonable if the arguer could defend it independently of accepting the conclusion that is at issue. 10. Complex Question You commit this fallacy when you frame a question so that some controversial presupposition is made by the wording of the question. Example: [Reporters question] Mr. President: Are you going to continue your policy of wasting taxpayer’s money on missile defense? The question unfairly presumes the controversial claim that the policy really is a waste of money. The fallacy of complex question is a form of begging the question. 11. False Dichotomy A reasoner who unfairly presents too few choices and then implies that a choice must be made among this short menu of choices commits the false dilemma fallacy, as does the person who accepts this faulty reasoning. Example: I want to go to Scotland from London. I overheard McTaggart say there are two roads to Scotland from London: the high road and the low road. I expect the high road would be too risky because it’s through the hills and that means dangerous curves. But it’s raining now, so both roads are probably slippery. I don’t like either choice, but I guess I should take the low road and be safer. This would be fine reasoning is you were limited to only two roads, but you’ve falsely gotten yourself into a dilemma with such reasoning. There are many other ways to get to Scotland. Don’t limit yourself to these two choices. You can take other roads, or go by boat or train or airplane. The fallacy is called the â€Å"False Dichotomy Fallacy† when the unfair menu contains only two choices. Think of the unpleasant choice between the two as being a charging bull. By demanding other choices beyond those on the unfairly limited menu, you thereby â€Å"go between the horns† of the dilemma, and are not gored. 12. Suppressed Evidence Intentionally failing to use information suspected of being relevant and significant is committing the fallacy of suppressed evidence. This fallacy usually occurs when the information counts against one’s own conclusion. Perhaps the arguer is not mentioning that experts have recently objected to one of his premises. The fallacy is a kind of fallacy of  Selective Attention. Example: Buying the Cray Mac 11 computer for our company was the right thing to do. It meets our company’s needs; it runs the programs we want it to run; it will be delivered quickly; and it costs much less than what we had budgeted. This appears to be a good argument, but you’d change your assessment of the argument if you learned the speaker has intentionally suppressed the relevant evidence that the company’s Cray Mac 11 was purchased from his brother-in-law at a 30 percent higher price than it could have been purchased elsewhere, and if you learned that a recent unbiased analysis of ten comparable computers placed the Cray Mac 11 near the bottom of the list. FALLACIES OF WEAK INDUCTION 13. Appeal to Ignorance The fallacy of appeal to ignorance comes in two forms: (1) Not knowing that a certain statement is true is taken to be a proof that it is false. 2) Not knowing that a statement is false is taken to be a proof that it is true. The fallacy occurs in cases where absence of evidence is not good enough evidence of absence. The fallacy uses an unjustified attempt to shift the burden of proof. The fallacy is also called â€Å"Argument from Ignorance. † Example: Nobody has ever proved to me there’s a God, so I know there is no God. This kind of reasoning is generally fallacious. It would be proper reasoning only if the proof attempts were quite thorough, and it were the case that if God did exist, then there would be a discoverable proof of this. Another common example of the fallacy involves ignorance of a future event: People have been complaining about the danger of Xs ever since they were invented, but there’s never been any big problem with them, so there’s nothing to worry about. 14. Appeal to Unqualified Authority You appeal to authority if you back up your reasoning by saying that it is supported by what some authority says on the subject. Most reasoning of this kind is not fallacious, and much of our knowledge properly comes from listening to authorities. However, appealing to authority as a reason to believe something  is  fallacious whenever the authority appealed to is not really an authority in this particular subject, when the authority cannot be trusted to tell the truth, when authorities disagree on this subject (except for the occasional lone wolf), when the reasoner misquotes the authority, and so forth. Although spotting a fallacious appeal to authority often requires some background knowledge about the subject or the authority, in brief it can be said that it is fallacious to accept the words of a supposed authority when we should be suspicious of the authority’s words. Example: The moon is covered with dust because the president of our neighborhood association said so. This is a fallacious appeal to authority because, although the president is an authority on many neighborhood matters, you are given no reason to believe the president is an authority on the composition of the moon. It would be better to appeal to some astronomer or geologist. A TV commercial that gives you a testimonial from a famous film star who wears a Wilson watch and that suggests you, too, should wear that brand of watch is committing a fallacious appeal to authority. The film star is an authority on how to act, not on which watch is best for you. 15. Hasty Generalization A hasty generalization is a fallacy of  jumping to conclusions  in which the conclusion is a generalization. See also  Biased Statistics. Example: I’ve met two people in Nicaragua so far, and they were both nice to me. So, all people I will meet in Nicaragua will be nice to me. In any hasty generalization the key error is to overestimate the strength of an argument that is based on too small a sample for the implied confidence level or error margin. In this argument about Nicaragua, using the word â€Å"all† in the conclusion implies zero error margin. With zero error margin you’d need to sample every single person in Nicaragua, not just two people. 16. False Cause Improperly concluding that one thing is a cause of another. The Fallacy of Non Causa Pro Causa is another name for this fallacy. Its four principal kinds are the  Post Hoc Fallacy, the Fallacy of  Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc,  the  Regression  Fallacy, and the Fallacy of  Reversing Causation. Example: My psychic adviser says to expect bad things when Mars is aligned with Jupiter. Tomorrow Mars will be aligned with Jupiter. So, if a dog were to bite me tomorrow, it would be because of the alignment of Mars with Jupiter. 17. Slippery Slope Suppose someone claims that a first step (in a chain of causes and effects, or a chain of reasoning) will probably lead to a second step that in turn will probably lead to another step and so on until a final step ends in trouble. If the likelihood of the trouble occurring is exaggerated, the slippery slope fallacy is committed. Example: Mom: Those look like bags under your eyes. Are you getting enough sleep? Jeff: I had a test and stayed up late studying. Mom: You didn’t take any drugs, did you? Jeff: Just caffeine in my coffee, like I always do. Mom: Jeff! You know what happens when people take drugs! Pretty soon the caffeine won’t be strong enough. Then you will take something stronger, maybe someone’s diet pill. Then, something even stronger. Eventually, you will be doing cocaine. Then you will be a crack addict! So, don’t drink that coffee. The form of a slippery slope fallacy looks like this: A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D. †¦ Z leads to HELL. We don’t want to go to HELL. So, don’t take that first step A. 18. Weak Analogy The problem is that the items in the analogy are too dissimilar. When reasoning by analogy, the fallacy occurs when the analogy is irrelevant or very weak or when there is a more relevant disanalogy. See also  Faulty Comparison. Example: The book  Investing for Dummies  really helped me understand my finances better. The bookChess for Dummies  was written by the same author, was published by the same press, and costs about the same amount. So, this chess book would probably help me understand my finances, too. FALLACIES OF AMBIGUITY 19. Accent The accent fallacy is a fallacy of ambiguity due to the different ways a word is emphasized or accented. Example: A member of Congress is asked by a reporter if she is in favor of the President’s new missile defense system, and she responds, â€Å"I’m in favor of a missile defense system that effectively defends America. † With an emphasis on the word â€Å"favor,† her response is likely to  favor  the President’s missile defense system. With an emphasis, instead, on the words â€Å"effectively defends,† her remark is likely to be  againstthe President’s missile defense system. And by using neither emphasis, she can later claim that her response was on either side of the issue. Aristotle’s version of the fallacy of accent allowed only a shift in which syllable is accented within a word. 20. Amphiboly This is an error due to taking a grammatically ambiguous phrase in two different ways during the reasoning. Example: In a cartoon, two elephants are driving their car down the road in India. They say, â€Å"We’d better not get out here,† as they pass a sign saying: ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR Upon one interpretation of the grammar, the pronoun â€Å"YOUR† refers to the elephants in the car, but on another it refers to those humans who are driving cars in the vicinity. Unlike  equivocation, which is due to multiple meanings of a phrase, amphiboly is due to syntactic ambiguity, ambiguity caused by multiple ways of understanding the grammar of the phrase. 21. Equivocation Equivocation is the illegitimate switching of the meaning of a term during the reasoning. Example: Brad is a nobody, but since nobody is perfect, Brad must be perfect, too. The term â€Å"nobody† changes its meaning without warning in the passage. So does the term â€Å"political jokes† in this joke: I don’t approve of political jokes. I’ve seen too many of them get elected. FALLACIES OF GRAMMATICAL ANALOGY 22. Composition The composition fallacy occurs when someone mistakenly assumes that a characteristic of some or all the individuals in a group is also a characteristic of the group itself, the group â€Å"composed† of those members. It is the converse of the  division  fallacy. Example: Each human cell is very lightweight, so a human being composed of cells is also very lightweight. 23. Division Merely because a group as a whole has a characteristic, it often doesn’t follow that individuals in the group have that characteristic. If you suppose that it does follow, when it doesn’t, you commit the fallacy of division. It is the converse of the  composition  fallacy. Example: Joshua’s soccer team is the best in the division because it had an undefeated season and shared the division title, so Joshua, who is their goalie, must be the best goalie in the division. 24. Figure of Speech or Parallel-word Construction A fallacy characterized by ambiguities due to the fact that different words in Greek (and in Latin) may have different cases or genders even though the case endings or gender endings are the same. Since this is not widespread in other languages or since it coincides with other fallacies (e. g. quivocation, see above) writers tend to interpret it very broadly. Examples: Activists have been labeled as idealists, sadists, anarchists, communists, and just about any name that can come to mind ending in  -ist, like  samok-ist, saba-ist, bad-ist,  and of course, who could forgetdevil-ist? (The writer has the unsaid argument that any name ending in  -ist  is viewed as trouble-m akers by our society. ) An introductory book on philosophy has an appendix entitle List of Isms the proceeds to list the schools of thought in philosophy. (Not all words that end in  -ism  is a school of thought: take for example,  syllogism. )

Tennessee Williams Essays - English-language Films, Free Essays

Tennessee Williams Essays - English-language Films, Free Essays Tennessee Williams The playwright, Tennessee Williams, allows the main characters in the plays A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie to live miserable lives which they try to deny and later change. The downfall and denial of the Southern gentlewoman is a common theme in both plays. The characters, Blanche from A.S.N.D. and Amanda from T.G.M., are prime examples of this concept. Both Blanche and Amanda have had many struggles in their lives and go through even more through out the rest of the plays. The problem is that Williams never lets the two women work through and move on from these problems. The two ladies are allowed to destroy themselves and he invites us to watch them in the process(Stine and Marowski 474). The downfall, denial, and need to change of the two women is quite evident in these two plays. First the troubles of Blanche and Amanda need to be recognized. Blanche hides her drinking problem so well when she arrives and sneaks a shot of whiskey (William A Streetcar Named Desire, ,Scene1. Page 18. Lines 12-17) that when she is later offered a drink, she acts as though she has no idea where they keep them (Williams, A.S.N.D. 1.19.12-15). Amanda cannot accept that no gentlemen callers are coming for Laura,herdaughter, thus making it harder for Laura to accept it (Williams,The Glass Menagerie, 1.28.1-5). Blanche and Amanda both do not allow themselves to accept their problems and work them out. They deny these problems which feeds them making them larger and even more complicated. When Stella offered Blanche a second drink she stated, ?One?s my limit.? (Williams, A.S.N.D., 1.21.14-15) Blanche is very ?self-destructive? (Hassan 326). She is her own worst enemy because of how she handles her problems. Amanda comments at the end of the play that Tom shouldn?t think about his poor mother and sister in a very sarcastic way (Williams, T.G.M., 9.114.1-3). She tries to push her problems off on him and not deal with them herself. By pushing the blame off on Tom, she feels as though she did nothing wrong and it is everyone else?s fault. If the two women had just accepted that they were at fault too and not just everyone else they could have moved on with their lives. Both Blanche and Amanda?s biggest problem is that they deny the truth. Blanche denies her drinking problem. She also denies the fact that she was a prostitute. She even made such an unbelievable comment that, ?I take for granted that you still have sufficient memeory of Belle Reve to find this place and these poker players impossible to live with.? (Williams, A.S.N.D., 4.70.1-3) She denies that she ever sunk lower than Stella when in truth, she was much worse. She was the one who lost her job for sleeping with a seventeen year old and was kicked out of the town for being a slut by the mayor. She had the gall to lecture Stella on her choice of men. ?You can?t have forgotten that much of our up bringing, Stella, that you just suppose that any part of a gentlemen in his nature!? (Williams, A.S.N.D., 4.71.13-18) Blanche speaks to Stella as though it is absolutely terrible that she married Stanley, of all people, when she slept with more people than she could even remember. She shows the ?do as I say, not as I do? philosophy while though at first, Stella is not even aware of her sister?s past. Amanda on the other hand, just shrinks poor Laura?s self-esteem and confidence more than it already is by bragging about how she had seventeen gentlemen callers over one evening when she was Laura?s age. Amanda also refers to her husband?s leaving her and her childeren as, ?he fell in love with long distances...? (Williams, T.G.M., 1.23.28). She sannot admit the truth that he just left them. She cannot even admit to herself that Laura is crippled, she only refers to her as different. Also, when Amanda looks back at her past, she tends to only remember the good things that happened. She has blocked out the things that she did not enjoy and has exaggerated the past to an extent. At one point

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Research Paper - 1

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace - Research Paper Example Resultantly, most of the ladies were overtly fearful of disclosing their sexual harassment matters and occurrences at their workplaces since they feared being put to blame for being provocative. This happened since fear was still imminent and had not been eradicated. Though, there are workplaces with ladies who have the aptitude to take benefit of the prerogatives they hold in these regards and in relationship to the stipulations and how it shields women in the event of happening. In actuality, under the existing law system, the actuality that a woman belligerently trailed her boss, would not have essentially stopped her from organizing a harassment suit and probably contriving a believable settlement had she thereafter altered her thinking (Anna, 2005). Thus, it is overly clear as explicated, that ladies or women in workplaces know that, with reference to the law, they possess prerogatives in numerous cases. In this respect, it would be intricate to claim that ladies are under haras sment contemporarily, with regard to sexual persecution. However, numerous ladies have acquired the advantage of the docket of law when dealing with paltry cases surrounding sexual persecution that they could simply have faced personally, if not ignored completely. Furthermore, there exist numerous matters in the work areas that the administration deals with every time, amid interference with the management, administration or the stipulations of the law. Most persons, thus, assume that simply because a masculine may purport that a lady is beautiful or cute or summon her in various terms as â€Å"honey† he does not respect her. Alternatively, it may be well to declare that ladies’ harassment has been consummately... In actuality, under the existing law system, the actuality that a woman belligerently trailed her boss, would not have essentially stopped her from organizing a harassment suit and probably contriving a believable settlement had she thereafter altered her thinking (Anna, 2005). Thus, it is overly clear as explicated, that ladies or women in workplaces know that, with reference to the law, they possess prerogatives in numerous cases. In this respect, it would be intricate to claim that ladies are under harassment contemporarily, with regard to sexual persecution. However, numerous ladies have acquired the advantage of the docket of law when dealing with paltry cases surrounding sexual persecution that they could simply have faced personally, if not ignored completely.  Furthermore, there exist numerous matters in the work areas that the administration deals with every time, amid interference with the management, administration or the stipulations of the law. Most persons, thus, assu me that simply because a masculine may purport that a lady is beautiful or cute or summon her in various terms as â€Å"honey† he does not respect her. Alternatively, it may be well to declare that ladies’ harassment has been consummately truncated via the attention and discretion this subject has received throughout the entire media channels and additionally, through the law dimensional approach of the matter. Women no longer have to exhibit panic being sacked unreasonably other than she declined to have sexual advances with the boss.

Philosophy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Philosophy - Assignment Example of the things they say seem to parallel one another in that the same self-value is recognized though Kant says it is autonomous and comes from within and Mill seems to think it okay to take advantage of others to some degree in order to derive physical pleasure over pain. Kant was a believer in the â€Å"freedom of will† or what we call free will as it pertains to the individual. He also believed that we don’t morally sacrifice our conscience or what is â€Å"good† about us just to meet some expedient need. Mill seems to make the argument that self-preservation comes first. He isn’t going so far as to say it’s okay to trample on others for personal pleasure of the highest degree, but that self-valuation holds the highest place on the ladder. Kant believes that any reasonably sane adult, in possession of rationality and the need to be autonomous (separated from the crowd) in his moral beliefs, will answer the question â€Å"What should I do?† (in this situation) with a two-fold set of beliefs: How will it affect me, and how will it affect others? Moral virtue plus complete happiness equals Highest Good. What is our obligation, our duty, or the good will we must show others when making a determination about how to conduct ourselves in the moral universe? In Mill’s world, the only life’s happiness to be found is in rote self-gratification and the only thing mankind need fret himself about is making certain (s)he is surrounded with only that which makes him feel pleasure and no pain. All else is ‘morally’ expendable, meaning there is no such thing, really, as guilt if the person who derived the pleasurable benefit is happy. Then Kant unwittingly crosses that by saying (close enough) that true happiness comes from within. Mill’s hedonistic stance is that there is no moral guide or judge when a person is pleasuring themselves and that no one has to be surrounded by anything or anyone that does not make them happy or give them their highest pleasures in

Standartization of SAT and GRE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Standartization of SAT and GRE - Essay Example The biasness of the universities associating the scores of such examination in admission procedure are also been studied over here. Thesis statement: The SAT and GRE examinations are biased in their scoring pattern and has little effectiveness in determining the performance of the students in colleges due to degradation in its standard. Meritocracy in America and SAT: The importance of SAT cannot be overlooked. SAT has established itself as the primary gatekeepers for the entry in university of America. The admissions system in America became more selective because of the increase in the number of applicants every year and the limited number of seats in American universities. In this environment the importance of SAT cannot be ignored. SAT acts as a mechanism to rank students and allow entry into the universities based on he scores. SAT has been to predict the performance of the students over the years. (Nagasaki, 44) Another important factor which deals with SAT is the benefits asso ciated with it. Sat and Act provides the facilities of scholarships. The scholarship is granted to the students based on their merits. Providing of such scholarships facilitates students from economically weak class to peruse their education. Often it was found that meritorious students would stop pursuing higher education due to financial constraint, but the competitive examinations helped them a lot by the grant of the scholarships (Wadsworth). SAT and Act acts as the guiding factor to a numerous college and universities all over the United States and the admission procedure is claimed to be followed based on the merit of students. (Sebastian) The meritocracy of America is popular over the decades. However in recent times the model of meritocracy has been in question. The globalization of the world and the popularity of the education system of America have turned the education system as a medium for grasping more economic benefits. The universities have also cited social discrimin ation against the students of various races seeking an admission in the universities. The origination of SAT happened in the year 1926 as an effort to enable youths from various parts of the worlds to attend the universities regardless of their social backgrounds. The idea of nationwide scholarship test was framed by James Bryant Conant. (Toch) However in recent times social factors have taken much significance in the admission criteria. The educational inequality has been a striking factor. Often it is found that meritorious students emerging from the lower class in the society are deprived from proper educational facilities and they fail to make an entry to the graduate schools. The African Americans are found to attend less prestigious schools. These inequalities have spread also in the higher education system of the country. Studies reflect that Latin and Americans belonging from the northern parts of the country tend to score lower in their SAT exams in comparison to the Whites . However the difference in SAT scores by them have been claimed to be due to the difference in the level of education they received in their school levels. Whether it is due to the fact of quality of education or due to discrepancy in the SAT scores the effect of the social class on SAT scores cannot be ignored. (Shephard, 347) It is claimed that examinations like SAT and GRE are predictor of family

The Classification Of Outliers Psychology Essay

The Classification Of Outliers Psychology Essay The concern over the outliers is one of the challenge existed for at least several hundred years. Outliers are the observations those are apart from the bulk of data. Edgeworth (1887) wrote that discordant observations those appeared differently from other observations with which they are combined. Almost every data set has the outliers in different percentages. Grubbs (1969) said that an outlier is one that appears to deviate significantly from other values of data. Sometimes outliers may not be noticed but most of the times they can change the entire statistical data analysis. As Peter (1990) explored those observations which do not follow the pattern of the majority of the data are called outliers. At the earlier stage of the data analysis, summary statistics such as the sample mean and variance, outliers can cause totally different conclusion. For example a hypothesis may or may not be rejected due to outliers. In fitting regression line outliers can significantly change the slope. The detection of outliers before analyzing the data analysis is not done then it may lead to model misspecification, biased parameter estimation and incorrect results. It is therefore important to identify the outliers prior to proceed further for analysis and modeling. An observation (or subset of observations) that appears to be inconsistent with the rest of data set is called an outlier (Barnet1995). The exact definition of an outlier depends on the assumption regarding the data structure and the methods which are applied to detect the outliers. Outliers are observations that appear to be unusual with respect to the rest of the data. Classification of Outliers Outliers are classified into one of four classes. First, an outlier may arise from procedural error, such as a data entry error or a mistake in coding. These outliers should be identified in the data cleaning stage, but if overlooked, they should be eliminated or recorded as missing values. Second, an outlier is the observation that occurs as the result of an extraordinary event, which is an explanation for the uniqueness of the observation. In this case the researcher must decide whether the extraordinary event should be represented in the sample. If so, the outlier should be retained in the analysis; if not, it should be deleted. Third, outliers may represent extraordinary observations for which the researcher has no explanation. Although these are the outliers most likely to be omitted, they may be retained if the researcher feels they represent a valid segment of the population. Finally, outliers may be observations that fall within the ordinary range of values on each of the var iables but are unique in their combination of values across the variables. In these situations, the researcher should be very careful in analyzing why these observations are outliers. Only when specific evidence is available that discounts an outlier as a valid member of the population should it is deleted. Outliers may be real or ericaceous. Real outliers are observations whose actual values are very different from those observed for rest of the data and violate plausible relationships among variables. Erroneous outliers are observations those are distorted due to misreporting errors in the data-collection process. Data set either come from homogeneous groups or from heterogeneous groups, have different characteristics regarding a specific variable, outliers occurred by incorrect measurements including data entry errors or by coming from a different population than the rest of the data. If the measurements in correct, it represent a rare event. Outliers are often caused by human error, such as errors in data collection, recording, or entry. Data from an interview can be recorded incorrectly, upon data entry. Outliers may cause from intentional or motivated misreporting. Many times the outliers come when participants purposefully report incorrect data to experimenters or surveyors. A participant may make a conscious effort to sabotage the research or may be acting from other motives. Depending on the details of the research, one of two things can happen: inflation of all estimates, or production of outliers. If all subjects respond the same way, the distribution will shift upward, not generally causing outliers. However, if only a small sub sample of the group responds this way to the experimenter, or if multiple researchers conduct interviews, then outliers can be created. Another cause of outliers is sampling error. It is possible that a few members of a sample were inadvertently drawn from a different population than the rest of the sample. Outliers can be caused from standardization failure like the weak research methodology, unusual phenomena; faulty equipment is another common cause of outliers. By these causes data can be legitimately discarded if the researchers are not interested in studying the particular phenomenon in question. One type of data entry error is implausible or impossible values, for they make no sense when considering the expected range of the data. An out-of-range value is often easy to identify since it will most likely lie well outside the bulk of the data. Another common cause for the occurrence of outliers is the rare event. Extreme observations that for some correct reason are just fine, but do not fit within the typical range of other data values There are many possible sources of outliers. Firstly, purely deterministic reasons those include: reading or measurement error, recording error and execution error. Secondly, some reasons are pointed out by Beckman and cook (1983) they arrange the reasons of outliers into three broad categories. These are global model weaknesses, local model weaknesses and natural variability. When we replace the present model with a new are revised model for the entire sample. Measurement of response variables are in the wrong scale is called Global model weakness. Local model weaknesses are applied only on the outlying observations and not to the model as a whole. And Natural variability is the variation over the population rather than any weakness of the model. These reasons are uncontrollable and reflect the properties of distribution of a correct basic model describing the generation of the data. The outliers occurs due to entry error or a mistake in coding should be identified in the data cleaning stage, but if overlooked, they should be eliminated or recorded as missing values. 1.3 Problematic effects of outliers Outliers of either type may influence on the results of statistical analysis, so they should be identified by using some suitable and reliable detection methods prior to performing data analysis. When potential outlier(s) is encountered, the first suspicion may be that such observations resulted from a mistake or other extraneous effect, and should be discarded. However, if the outlier in real it may be contained some important information about the underlying population of real values. Non judicious removal of observation that appears to be outliers may results in underestimation of the uncertainty present in the data. In the presence of outliers, any statistical test based on sample means and variances can be distorted. There will be Bias or Distortion of estimates and it will give wrong results. The inflated sum of squares makes it unlikely and will partition sources of variation in the data into meaningful components. The decision point of a significance test, p-value, is also distorted. Statistical significance is changed due to presence of a few or even one unusual data value. The strong building of the statistical methods is based on weak legs of assumptions. Incorrect assumptions about the distribution of the data can also lead to the presence of suspected outliers. If the data may have a different structure than the researcher originally assumed, and long or short-term trends may affect the data in unanticipated ways. Depending upon the goal of the research, the extreme values may or may not represent an aspect of the inherent variability of the data. Outliers can represent a nuisance, error, or legitimate data. They can also be inspiration for inquiry. Before discarding outliers, researchers need to consider whether those data contain valuable information that may not necessarily relate to the intended study, but has importance in a more global sense. . The considerable effects of outliers are bias or distortion of Estimates, inflated sum of square and ended analysis of the entire data set at faulty conclusions. The key features of descriptive data analysis like the mean, variance and regression coefficient are highly affected by outliers. 1.4 Aspects of outlier There are two considerable aspects. The first aspect explains that, outliers have a negative effect on data analysis. Outliers generally cause to increase error variance and reduce the power of statistical tests. Outliers violate the assumption of normality. Outliers can seriously influence estimates. The second aspect of outliers in that they are correct, and they may be provides useful information about data set. It the outliers are most information points they should not be automatically discarded without justification. In this case the analyses perform the analysis both with and without these outliers, and examine their specific influence on the results. If this influence is minor, then it may not matter whether or not they are omitted. If their influence is substantial, then it is probably best to present the results of both analysis, and simply alert the researcher to the fact that these points may be questionable. The data set may contain outliers and influential observation. It is thus important for the data analyst to be able to identify such observation; if the data set contains a single outlier or influential observation then identification of such an observation in relatively simple. On the other hand, if the data set contain more than one outlier or influential observations the identification of such observation becomes more difficult. This is due to the marking and swamping effects. Masking occurs when an outlying subset goes undected because of the presence of adjacent subset of outliers. Swamping occurs when good observations are incorrectly identified as outliers because of the presence of other outliers. An outlier is the observation that occurs as the result of an extraordinary event. In this case the researcher must decide about that event. If it represents the sample then that outlier should be retained in the analysis. If that event should not represent the sample it should be deleted. Some time outliers may represent extraordinary observations but the researcher can not explain it. These types of the outlier may be omitted but sometime the may be retained if the researcher feels that they represent a valid segment of the population. Both the detection and the suitable treatment of outliers are therefore important. In the present scenario of modern sciences where the messy data sets are generated, potentially troublesome outlier detection method(s) should be researched and presented at one place The main feathers of such identify criteria is that imperative to correctly identify outliers amongst large masses of data, so that experts can be alerted to the possibility of trouble and investigate the matter in detail. Outliers can provide useful information about the process. An outlier can be created by a shift in the location (mean) or in the scale (variability) of the process. Though an observation in a particular sample might be a candidate as an outlier, the process might be shifted. Numbers of treatments are taken in order to deal with outlier(s) involved studies. Accommodation of outliers uses techniques to mitigate their harmful effects. One of its strength is that accommodation of outliers does not need to precede identification. These techniques can be used with prior information that outlier exist. One very effective way to work with data is to use nonparametric methods which are robust in the presence of outliers. Nonparametric statistical method fit into this type of analyses and should be more widely applied to continuous or interval data than their current use. Often the observed data set do not follow the any of the specified distribution then it is better to transform the data by applying appropriate transformation(s) so that data set could follow the specific distribution. Only as a last resort should outliers be deleted, and then only if they are found to be errors they can not be corrected or lie so far outside the range of the remainder of the data that they distort statistical inferences Our goal in this thesis is firstly to collect the outliers detection methods in univariate and bivariate/ multivariate studies followed the Gaussian and Non-Gaussian distributions and secondly to modify them accordingly. 1.5 Univariate Outliers In unvariate data sets, the study of outlier(s) is relatively simple but demands careful attention. Outliers are those values located distant from the bulk of the data and can often be revealed from simple plot of the data, such as scatter plot, stem-and-leaf plot, QQ-plot, etc. Sometimes univariate outliers are not easy to identify as would appear at first sight. Barnet and Lewis (1994) indicate that an outlying observation, or outlier, is one that appears differently and deviate markedly from other members of the sample, in which it occur. A common rule for outlier identification might be to calculate the sample mean and standard deviation, and classify all those points as outliers which are at 2 or 3 standard deviations away from the mean. It is an unfortunate reality that the presence of two or more outliers could leave some or most of the outliers invisible to this method. If there is one or more distant outlier and one or more not so distant outlier in the same direction, the more distant outlier(s) could significantly shift the mean in that direction, and also increase the standard deviation, to such an extent that the lesser outlier(s) falls less than 2 or 3 standard deviations from the sample mean, and goes undetected. This is called the masking eff ect, and results in this particular method and all related methods being unsuitable for use as outlier identification techniques. It is illustrated with an example, borrowed from Becker and Gather [1999]. Consider a data set of 20 observations taken from an N (0, 1) distribution: -2.21, -1.84, -0.95, -0.91, -0.36, -0.19, -0.11, -0.10, 0.18, 0.30, 0.31, 0.43, 0.51, 0.64, 0.67, 0.72, 1.22, 1.35, 8.1, 17.6, where the latter two observations were originally 0.81 and 1.76, but the decimal points were entered at the wrong place. It seems clear that these 2 observations should be labeled as outliers; let us apply the above method. The mean of this data set is 1.27 while the standard deviation is 4.35. Two standard deviations from the mean, towards the right, would be 9.97, while three standard deviations would be 14.32. Both criteria regard the point, 8.1, as expected with reasonable probability and do not consider it an outlier. Additionally, the three standard deviation boundary for detecting outliers seems rather extreme for an N (0, 1) dataset, surely a point would not have to be as large as 14.32 to be classified as an outlier. The masking effect occurs quite commonly in practice and we conclude that outlier methods based on classical statistics are unsuitable for general use, particularly in situations requiring non-visual techniques such as multivariate data. It is worth noting, however, that if instead of the sample mean and standard deviation, robust estimates of location and scale were used (such as the sample median, and median absolute deviation, MAD), both outliers would be detected without difficulty. 1.6 Multivariate Outliers Multivariate outliers are the challenges that do not occur with univariate data sets. For instance, visual methods simply do not work in case of multivariate case studies. Even plotting the data in bivariate form with a systematic rotation of coordinate pairs will not help. It is possible (and occurs frequently in practice) that points which are outliers in bivariate space, are not outliers in either of the two univariate subsets. Generalization to higher dimensions leads to the fact that a multivariate outlier does not have to be an outlier in any of its univariate or bivariate coordinates, at least not without some kind of transformation A successful method of identifying outliers in all multivariate situations would be ideal, but is unrealistic. By successful, we mean both highly sensitive, the ability to detect genuine outliers, and highly specific, the ability to not mistake regular points for outliers.

Essay on Luck and Fate in The Rocking Horse Winner -- Rocking Horse Wi

Luck and Fate in The Rocking Horse Winner The Rocking Horse Winner, by D.H. Lawrence, is an informative story about luck and one's own fortune. In this story, Lawrence attempts to illustrate how one can guide one's own fate, instead of allowing things to happen by chance. He believes that the only person that affects what happens to someone, is really that person himself. "Everything is what you make of it," is Lawrence's message to the reader. By his use of characterization, instructional images, and irony in The Rocking Horse Winner, D.H. Lawrence attempts to convey to the reader that success and luck are not something that one simply waits for to arrive, but things that one must works to achieve. Lawrence uses to contrasting characters to help convey his point, namely those of the boy Paul, and his mother, Hester. Paul, according to the story, is lucky, whereas his mother is not. It was not simply decided upon that it would be this way, but each character had a hand in how they would end up. Paul's mother allowed herself to be resigned to the fact that fate had dealt her an unlucky hand. Though she had three wonderful children, she could not love them. Though she had a roof over her head, she was not content, and yet she did nothing to change this besides wait for the difference that never came. The story says that Hester "wanted to be first in something, and did not succeed," and when she did not succeed, she moved on instead of working towards her goal. Paul, on the other hand, learned very quickly that if he is to succeed, he must have dedication. Paul applied him... ...mple, and death. She discovers the poor boy rocking himself into unconsciousness on the horse, and only understands the significance and importance of his exertion upon his death. Paul's mother, the inadvertent teacher, becomes the student, only to lose her teacher. Lawrence wishes for his reader's to understand the significance of working towards your goals before enjoying the fruits of one's labor. He instructs that waiting for good things to just fall into your lap is a lost cause, and the odds are hugely against you. If however, this does happen to you, that you should "take your gold and sit on it," before making any kind of decision about its proper use. Chances might be that the products themselves might depict their use, as in Paul's case.

Part Time Job Influenced Student’s Study Essay

The prevalence of secondary school students working part-time is linked to economic cycles: when there is an economic upturn, more students work; when economies are depressed, fewer work. Most students who work do so in low-paying service, clerical, or sales jobs, with some evidence that proportionately more students from middle-class families work than students from either poor or wealthy families. There appears to be a general view that there is a connection between working more than 15 to 20 hours per week and reduced school success in terms of academic achievement, as well as an increased risk of dropping out of school. However, it is not clear whether increased work causes the problems, or whether academic failure leads more students who are failing to increase their work hours. Literature Review A range of literature has been reviewed and some details from this literature are shared below. The prevalence of work It is not clear what proportion of students work, but in a (U. S. ) study of 21,000 senior high school students, 75% were working part-time for an average of 16. 4 hours a week (Gordon, 1985). The study found that working was related to a need for immediate income and to a lack of interest in school. In Canada, 40% of teenagers aged 15 to 19 had jobs in 1993, but these data include full-time summer jobs (Canadian Social Trends, Winter, 1994). B. C. teenagers are more likely to be employed than teenagers in Ontario, Quebec, or the Atlantic provinces, with 44% employed in B. C. Slightly higher teenage-employment rates than B. C. ’s were reported in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. When only part-time work is considered, 72% of those employed worked part-time. 3% of full-time Canadian students aged 15 to 19 worked during the school year. The Statistics Canada (StatsCan) data reported in Canadian Social Trends appear low in comparison to other data, but one possible explanation may be the differentiation between full- and part-time students, a difference not always clarified in some reports. Bernier (1995), using Canadian Labour Force data, found that 40% of Canadian full-time students participated in the labour force, compared to 77% of part-time students. There may be considerable differences across socio-economic groups, though there is little firm data to support this: Lawton (1992) states that middle-class students are more likely to work than either lower- or upper-class students. Lawton also indicates that about two-thirds of students in senior grades hold part-time jobs, findings closer to Gordon’s study than to the data supplied by StatsCan. The effect of working part-time on students’ academic achievement Most research shows that there is a detrimental effect on achievement if secondary students work for over 15 hours a week (Stern, 1997). Such students have lower grades, do less homework, are more likely to drop out, and are less likely to enter post-secondary education. Those students who work fewer hours suffer fewer negative consequences. These finding are supported by a Toronto study (Cheng, 1995), and are similar to StatsCan data (Canadian Social Trends, 1994), which show that students who worked fewer than 20 hours a week had much lower dropout rates than those who worked for more than 20 hours a week. There were startling differences between males who worked fewer than 20 hours (16% dropout rate), and those who worked longer than 20 hours (33% dropout rate), although the highest female dropout rates (22%) occurred among females who did not work at all while at school. There is one important caveat to the link between part-time work and marks: there is mixed evidence as to whether marks decline because students work more, or whether students whose marks are declining choose to work more. However, Singh (1998) in a study which factored in socio-economic status and revious achievement, stated that the more hours worked, the greater the negative effects on student achievement. The consequences for younger students working longer hours could be more severe than for older students (Barone, 1993). Many students who work find some problems balancing school and work demands (Worley, 1995). Many who work part-time have limited participation in extra-curricular activities (Hope, 1990). The effect of working part-time on students’ overall well-being Stern (1997) and Cheng (1995) both state that students derive benefits from working, as long as the hours are below 15 per week. Stern identifies a benefit to future earning potential and a more positive attitude to work formed while working or during work experience at school. These findings are also supported by Canadian data. However, Lawton (1992) argues that those who support this argument also tend to support a vocational rather than a liberal view of education. Greenberger and Steinberg (1986), in an analysis of psycho-social aspects of working high-school students, concluded that â€Å"it may make them academically rich but psychologically poor. They also argued that instead of instilling good work habits, many students who worked part-time learned how to cheat, steal, and deal with boring work. Mortimer (1993) found no evidence to support the claim that working long hours fostered smoking or increased school behaviour problems, but there was evidence of increased alcohol consumption. Other studies, however, have found increased drug and alcohol use, and higher rates of delinquency associated with hig her number of hours worked by students. A 1991 Oregon Task Force found the numbers of 16- and 17-year-olds who were working to have increased in recent years. Jobs were often low-paying, unfulfilling, and offered little in the way of educational value or preparation for adult work. Canadian data suggest that trends in teenage employment are linked to economic cycles, with numbers rising and falling with buoyant or depressed economies. Most Canadian students (69%) work in service, clerical, or sales industries, with more females (84%) than males (57%) in these industries. Four times the number of males (16%) compared to females (4%) were employed in construction. Research also indicates that too many hours of work for teenagers increases fatigue and may cause lower academic performance. Carskadon (1999) describes changing sleep patterns during adolescence and discusses the influence of employment on sleep patterns. She found that students working 20 or more hours reported later bedtimes, shorter sleep times, more frequent episodes of falling asleep in school, and more late arrivals in school. An article in the American Federation of Teachers’ publication, American Teacher (February 1999), cited a report produced by the (U.  S. ) National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) which provided evidence of what it claims is an underestimate of 70 documented deaths of children and adolescents as a result of injuries at work, and 100,000 young people seeking treatment in hospital emergency wards as a result of work-related injuries. Based on these data, a committee established by the NRC/IOM is calling for Congress to a uthorize limits to the number of hours worked per day by teenagers, and to regulate teenagers’ work start-and finish-times on school nights.

placebos essays

placebos essays A placebo is defined as an inactive substance resembling a medication, given for psychological effect or as a control in evaluating a medicine believed to be active. However the placebo only fits this description under the restraints it has been given by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which refers to the placebo as an investigational new drug. In actuality, up until the present much of medicine was built on placebos. "Not very long ago, the rituals and symbols of healing constituted the bulk of the physicians armamentarium. In the early decades of the 20th century, most of the medication that doctors carried in their little black bags and kept in their office cabinets had little or no pharmacological value against the maladies for which they were prescribed. Nevertheless, their use in the appropriate clinical context was no doubt frequently beneficial."(Brown, 6) Even though placebos have been proven effective medicine time and time again the FDA remains reluctant to approve them for anything more than clinical research. The FDA stands on their disapproval of placebos as medicine on the basis that patients are to be given the best treatment available. Who is to say that a placebo is not as, if not more effective than the accepted remedy? There are an endless variety of cases that have proven placebos inconclusively effective. Among the most famous of these cases is the story of "Mr. Wright," who was found to have cancer and in 1957 was given only days to live. Hospitalized in Long Beach, California, with tumors the size of oranges, he heard that scientists had discovered a horse serum, Krebiozen, that appeared to be effective against cancer. After Wright begged to receive the serum, his physician, Dr. Philip West, finally agreed and gave wright the injection on a Friday afternoon, not telling Wright that injection consisted only of water. The following Monday the doctor was astonished to find that the patient's...

The Call of the Wild Summary by Jack London †Literature Essay

The Call of the Wild Summary by Jack London – Literature Essay Free Online Research Papers The Call of the Wild Summary by Jack London Literature Essay The Gold Rush in the Yukon and Alaska has prompted the need for big strong dogs to pull sleds over icy trails. A large and strong dog named Buck, living in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley, California, is exactly people want. Manuel, the assistant of the gardener of Buck’s master – Judge Miller, is in need for money, thus he kidnaps Buck and sells him on the black market. Buck is given to a saloon-keeper and then transported to the Northland. Buck is insulted during the trip and has worked himself into a rage. He decides to start revenge when he meets the Red Sweater. However, the painful encounters with the club push Buck into submission. He begins to learn some laws of the primitive world. Later Buck is sold to two Canadians, Francois and Perrault, with the other two dogs: Dave and Curly. While in camp, Curly is killed when she tries to show friendliness to a husky. After the experience Buck understands the law of the club and fang which dominates the new life he is headed for. He resolves never to go down in that manner. Buck and Dave join a preexisting dog team led by Spitz, a husky. By the time they are on their way to Dawson, Alaska and Skaguay, Buck learns a lot and starts to become wilder. As the power grows, he is ready to take Spitz’s place and be a new leader. Therefore, while the hunting of a rabbit one day, the two end up with a fighting to the death. Spitz is killed and Buck gets his mastery. Right after the fight, Buck â€Å"fights† for his leading position in the team with Francois. It is victorious when he finally takes the position, because Buck earns his right and no longer allows human to decide his fate completely. They are equal. When the government work is done, Buck, together with other dogs which are toiled to death, is sold to an imbecile group of people without any knowledge to survive the primitive land, Hal, Charles and Mercedes. Many dogs die because of the mistreating of their masters. Fortunately, Buck is saved by John Thornton and later becomes his favorite pet. Buck adores his master very much. Hence he does a number of miraculous deeds for him – saves his life twice and earns a large amount of money to pay off his debts. He enjoys the life with John though longing for the primitive world subconsciously. While his master is working for gold on the mine, Buck muses on the call he hears during the night in the forest. Eventually he starts to sleep away from the camp and embraces his instincts and wild tendencies. After his master, without Buck’s protection, is killed by the invading Yeehats, Buck feels no more nostalgia for mankind and returns to the primitive land where he has been longing for. He finally answers the call of the wild. * Jack London’s novel, The Call of the Wild, is the most successful work that describes the life of the Alaska dogs in the history of literature. The novel has reflected some of London’s early wishes, which were formed during his childhood, and later developed in his later experiences. The shadow of his early experiences never goes out of his mind. In psychological point of view, one might get a strong sense of struggling in such living conditions. Therefore, most of London’s novels are about this theme – struggle to survive the tough reality. (Such as The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf.) In his stories, Jack seems to show us the inner part of the animals, like the dogs, human’s loyal friends, have their innate wild instinct and acquired tameness; And a primitive world which has the overwhelming power of nature over human beings. In the primitive world, one has to struggle to survive the harsh environment; the animals are of no exceptions. As Buck, he is stolen and sold to be a sledge dog in the frozen North, thus he must try every means to adapt the cruel life. The characters in his novels have to depend on the nature to survive. And nature is sometimes their friend and sometimes their enemy. The strong will of surviving of the characters in his novels show the solid part of human and animal’s vitality?With the plot of the stories, he also discusses the delicate relationship in the nature – thus the stronger beat the weaker. At that time, the American people were facing the hard times in which the fittest survives. Thus Jack London’s novel was a great success after published because many people found it the origin of their energy. In The Call of the Wild, London may want to describe an ideal character that struggles against the tough living conditions and becomes more mature through the struggling. Buck, the main character of the novel, a strong and intelligent dog with human tendencies and dignity, fight against his fate in the harsh environment. The important reason for Buck to manage his struggling is his remarkable ability of learning and his control over his emotions – he experiences sensation and transforms it into cold and logical response. However, there is an utter lack of analyzing in his mind at first. The confrontation with the Red Sweater is a turning point which forces Buck to realize the primitive law. Buck’s experiences reveal the complicated relationship between nature and human. We are in awe of nature’s great power and challenge it a lot in order to â€Å"survive†. However we do not realize that there are various ways to survive the nature. â€Å"Challenge and conquer† may not be the only way. Like Buck in the novel, he finally merges into the nature and thus lives in harmony with the primitive creatures. This is the right attitude towards nature – to keep a balance. Furthermore, there are a lot of metaphors in the novel. From the macro perspective, nature to Buck is like what society to Jack London. Both the human and the dog have been through the struggling against their living conditions: Buck (ideally) achieves his goal – he heeds the call and returns to the primitive lands where he belongs; while poor London still doesn’t know what the future is like when he finishes the draft of the novel, and finally lives with debts, alcoholism, illness and fear of losing his creativity for the rest of his life. And from the micro perspective, Spitz may bea metaphor for London’s political opponents because he tries to provoke Buck for several times and menaces the security of Buck. It may just like the situation of London when he was a member of the Socialist Party. However, Buck again succeeds in beating his enemy and takes his place as a leader, while in reality London fails on the Socialist party ticket for mayor of Oakland and st arts steadily to be a writer. A few months before his death, London resigned from the Socialist Party. What’s more, the types of human beings in the novel are also the metaphors for the types of the upper class and the government in reality – some are cruel and only believe in club and fang, such as the Red Sweater; some are capable but work in a mechanical way, such as Francois and Perrault; some are ignorant, stupid but cling obstinately to their course such as Hal, Charles and Mercedes. The only kind of people London wants is like John Thornton, considerate and kind, yet there are few around him at that time. To sum up, the novel is the reflection of the ideal life London yearns for, cruel but hopeful. Through reading, we can get the picture of the glorious history of the human beings and animals in the primitive lands. Research Papers on The Call of the Wild Summary by Jack London - Literature EssayThe Fifth HorsemanHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayHonest Iagos Truth through DeceptionCapital PunishmentComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoWhere Wild and West MeetMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever Product19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraMind TravelTwilight of the UAW