Tag Archives: argument

Aristotle, Joshua Bell, and Persuasion

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Dr. Ayers

Watch the video. Then I’ll have a few words about this after the jump.

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Required Reading: Statistics and Inferences

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Dr. Ayers

In a blog post on the New York Times‘ site today, Nate Silver raises cautions about the use of statistical evidence in an argument that could be very useful to us. He’s discussing the debate before the Supreme Court right … Continue reading →

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Argument from Authority

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Dr. Ayers
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Two Spaces Forward, One Back

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Dr. Ayers

One of my pet peeves is when people are writing and double-space at the end of a sentence. This in fact was a rule once upon a time, when typewriters used monospaced type. Slate’s Farhad Manjoo wrote a screed about this … Continue reading →

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Peter Singer on Big Think

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Dr. Ayers
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The Battle Over Homework

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

Louis Menand, essayist and editor for The New Yorker, and author of the brilliant book The Metaphysical Club, reports that French president François Hollande intends to abolish homework in his country. He takes this opportunity to look at some research on whether … Continue reading →

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Gallagher-Corvino Debate

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

Here is the BookTV debate on gay marriage that we watched in class. If you’re interested in learning more about either Maggie Gallagher or John Corvino, or about their book, or the issue overall, here are some additional links for … Continue reading →

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Argument and the Dangers of Certainty

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

As some of you know, I’ve been reading a bit about the New England witchcraft crisis of the late 17th Century, and recently recommended Mary Beth Norton’s work in general. So it was serendipidous that Andrew Sullivan linked to this … Continue reading →

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PBS, Fox News, and Trustworthy Sources

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

Public Policy Polling has released a poll they conducted of what television sources people trust. Interestingly, PBS is the source that the most people trust, while Fox News was listed as the #1 “most trusted” source and the #1 “least … Continue reading →

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The Straw Man

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Dr. Ayers

Without necessarily endorsing the politics behind it, I thought I’d share this blog post by Jonathan Chait at the New Republic. Chait argues that MSNBC commentator Joe Scarborough is guilty of using a straw man in a recent editorial. Reading … Continue reading →

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