Week 6 - Critical Thinking and Application to Management

Week 6

Critical Thinking and Applications to Management

            On this week of critical thinking, I learned about analogy and analogical arguments, causal relationship and causal arguments and fallacies. Honestly, I have no idea what will we be learning. The overview of the topic makes me think of biology or psychological subject because of the analogy and causal arguments. So, I didn’t really know what to expect from this lecture.

            First, we start with analogy and analogical arguments. The definition of analogy is a comparison made to draw out similarities between two things. The important thing is the comparison must be VALID!  The two items is not valid of the two items not have similarities, the comparison is misleading and the description is inaccurate. An analogical argument means that when an analogy became a part of an argument.

Then I learn about causal relationship and causal arguments. Basically, causal relationship is correlations vs. causes. It’s flawed reasoning to assume that just because two things are found together, there must be a causal link. Remember that correlation is NOT cause. Before making a causal claim, you must check whether it is maybe just coincidence or maybe you have got the cause and effect reversed. There are few other things.

Lastly, I learned about fallacies. This one is the longest compared to the other two before this. A fallacy actually is another type of bad arguments. This argument should be rejected as it is so bad and it is typically unrepairable. Causal fallacies are fallacy that is associated with causality. For example, post hoc and slippery slope.  For fallacies of generalization, according to the lecture, a generalization is a statement that asserts that all or most things of certain kind have a certain quality or characteristics. The most popular are hasty generalization, sweeping generalization and false dilemma. The last fallacy is false analogy. This will occur when the arguer compares two things that are not really comparable in relevant aspects.