Deductive statements that people used to proved this statement included:
We can use space ships and rockets to travel into space. From space, we can get far away enough from Earth to observe it in its entirety and take pictures. The pictures and observations we have of Earth show that it is round. Therefore, the Earth is round.
We have ships and air planes that can travel great distances. If a ship or airplane leaves in one direction and continues in that direction it will return back to where it started. Since the ship or plane is able to travel in one direction without turning and return back to where it was, the Earth is round.
Next, we practiced with inductive reasoning. Everyone took an activity card that they felt had a larger story. Everyone looked at their picture and tried to figure out as much as they could from it (example below).
This person is wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and running shoes and so must be a runner. This person does not yet look tired or sweaty and so has not yet been running. Since she is stretching and does not yet look tired or sweaty she must be starting her run. The sky looks like it is party bright and partly dark so the sun is either going up or down. It looks like this runner is in a remote, natural sort of area. It would be a bad ideas to start a run in a remote area just as it is getting dark. So, this woman must be preparing for a run early in the morning as it is getting light. If the sun is just coming up that is really early so she must have other things going on in the day and needs to do the run early. Therefore this picture is of a woman getting ready to go for a run in the early morning before she has to do the other things in her day.
This is inductive reasoning because the results are only probable. There remains some possibility that this woman was out for a walk in the evening and stopped to watch the sunset and figured she'd stretch out her leg while watching the sun set. Inductive reasoning looks at what is probable, not what is certain.
Next, we returned to our work with the Freakonomics argument and looked at the text for it's use of rhetorical devices. We shared these in class. For homework, everyone should respond to the final question.
Handouts:
Freakonomics' Argument (Logos)
Freakonomics reading response questions (logos set)
Logos handout
Homework:
Respond to question 4 of the logos reading questions.
Freakonomics' Argument (Logos)
Freakonomics reading response questions (logos set)
Logos handout
Homework:
Respond to question 4 of the logos reading questions.
