Essay One: Fallacy Evaluation and Metacognitive Response

Essay One: Fallacy Evaluation and Metacognitive Response

Essay One: Fallacy Evaluation and Metacognitive Response

For the first few weeks of class, we have been exploring the ways in which questions are central to developing arguments. Questioning, we have learned, is at the root of all understanding, is the core of all curiosity, is the beginning of all progress, is central to determining your own actions, and can keep you near the heart of the issue you are exploring or debating. Asking questions, then, is crucial to learning.

As we have also learned, asking questions about an argument’s logic—especially its use of fallacies—is equally important. It is important because it allows us to evaluate not just what a person is claiming but how they are doing it, a related endeavor that often influences whether or not an argument is successful. Being able to identify errors in reasoning is useful not only because it allows you to tear apart your opponent’s claim, which is, I’ll admit, fun, but because being able to identify fallacies in one’s own thinking can help build better claims and better thinking about what you think.

As an additional bonus, the more people learn about fallacies and how they are used, the better our social discourse (exchange, discussions) can become—Why? Because we will demand more from our leaders: better reasoning, less name-calling, less deceitful use of rhetoric for less than admirable ends. Going fallacy hunting, then, is a social responsibility as much as anything. It is one way we can “speak truth to power.”

For your first essay, please find, print, read, and evaluate any editorial, op-ed, or political speech for fallacy use. If I were you, I would look for “hot button” topics or figures because, generally speaking, the more contentious an issue or person, the more likely fallacies will appear. It’s a law of nature or something. When I say evaluate the fallacy use, I mean identify the fallacy, explain how it is being used, why you think it is being used, and how it affects the author/speaker’s position overall. How do the fallacies affect the argument’s evidence, assumptions, reasoning and appeals? How do the fallacies manipulate the audience?

In addition to your fallacy analysis, you will need to do some “thinking about your thinking,” which is to say, you will write a metacognitive response to the article you have chosen. This means I want you to use the 3 questions central to Wait, What? to interrogate (question) your response to the article you have evaluated for fallacies. use questions, “I wonder why this stance makes me uncomfortable?”, “Couldn’t I at least agree with some aspect of the claims being made?, “What really matters in this argument?” By employing (using) the questions we studied, you will possibly identify flaws and assumptions in your own beliefs. In any case, it will help you understand your own patterns of thinking, which is a good thing; I promise.

Your fallacy evaluation should be four pages in length, and your metacognitive analysis, your “thinking about your thinking,” should be two pages in length. The whole assignment should be turned in as one document, double spaced, and in MLA format. Please include a print out of the original article or speech.