Key Terms in Argumentation and Rhetoric for Comp 2

Capitalism

an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Socialism

a social and economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and co-operative management of the economy.

The New Deal

Roosevelt's economic plan to pull the U.S.A. out of the Great Depression.

Identity Politics

an ideology that focus upon the interest and perspectives of groups with which people identify.

Induction

Reason that goes from particular to general.

Deduction

Reason that goes from general to particular.

Certitude

The quality or state of mind that ushered in modernity, asking about the questions.

Empirical reasoning

Reason that relies on or is derived from observation or experiment.

Ethics

Rules we live by even though they may not involve goodness and guilt.

Morality

Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.

Acting Out

The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by actions rather than reflections or feelings.

Denial

A person living near a volcano disregard the dangers involved.

Projection

A man, unable to accept that he has competitive or hostile feelings about an acquaintance, says, 'He doesn't like me.'

Rationalization

Offering a socially acceptable and apparently more or less logical explanation for an act or decision actually produced by unconscious impulses.

Repression

The involuntary exclusion of a painful or conflictual thought, impulse, or memory from awareness.

Sublimation

A woman is forced to undertake a restrictive diet; she becomes interested in painting and does a number of still life pictures, most of which include fruit.

Suppression

A young man at work finds that he is letting thoughts about a date that evening interfere with his duties; he decides not to think about plans for the evening until he leaves work.

Self-Assertion

The individual deals with emotional conflict or stressors by expressing his or her feelings and thoughts directly in a way that is not coercive or manipulative.

Ad Hominem

To the 'man,' name calling. He's a liar and a cheat.

False analogy

compares two situations that are unalike. Comparing marijuana with tobacco to argue for its legalization.

Bandwagon

'Mom, everybody is going to the beach after the prom, and so you should let me.'

Post Hoc

Correlation does not imply causation.

Straw man

An intentionally misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent's real argument.

The Single Standard of Ethics

What is right for one is right for all. The golden rule.

Totalitarianism

Keeping people in line with violence, force, torture, or murder, brute force.

NeoLiberal

1. Decreased government spending, 2. Fiscal austerity. Privatization of everything: Education, Utilities, Prisons 4. 'Free Trade/Free Markets' with major. 5. No Regulation.

Single Issue Politics

Campaigning on only one issue, such as abortion or immigration.

Intersectionality

The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

Political Correctness

The avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.

Diversity Politics

Political entities (neighborhoods, student bodies, etc.) with members who have identifiable differences in their cultural backgrounds or lifestyles.

Populism

Support for the concerns of ordinary people.

Left

Democrat, Liberal, Socialistic, Progressive.

Right

Republican, Conservative, Libertarian, Tea-Party.

Pathos

Appealing to emotion and feeling in presenting an argument.

Ethos

Appealing to one's identity or sense of likeability in presenting an argument.

Relativism

The doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.

Occam's razor

The principle can be interpreted as stating among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.

Inference to the Best Explanation

A form of logical inference which goes from an observation to a theory which accounts for the observation, ideally seeking to find the simplest and most likely explanation.

Socratic Method

A form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presumptions.

Newspeak

Ambiguous euphemistic language used chiefly in political propaganda.

Doublethink

The acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination.

The End justifies the Means

A good outcome excuses any wrongs committed to attain it.

Machiavellian

Cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics or in advancing one's career.

Either / Or Argument

A logical fallacy that presents two options as the only possibilities.

Ad Hominem

A fallacy that attacks the person rather than addressing the argument.

Faulty Analogy

A fallacy that occurs when an analogy is drawn between two concepts that are not truly comparable.

Bandwagon

A fallacy that suggests one should do something because everyone else is doing it.

Slippery Slope

A fallacy that suggests a relatively small first step leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant effect.

Straw Man

A fallacy that misrepresents an argument to make it easier to attack.

Hasty Generalization

A fallacy that draws a conclusion based on insufficient evidence.

Great chain of being

A medieval world view that says things are ordered from top to down.

Libertarian

What ideology wants to limit government, maybe not eliminate it?

Wokeness

A term that criticizes being too politically correct, that one is enlightened in politics?

Keynes

The famous 20th c. economist who advocated that government should regulate markets?

Modern

What we call the period in history that broke from the religious and monarchical order, the top-down world order, to what we have today: one that aspires to equality.

Innatism

A philosophical and epistemological doctrine that the mind is born with ideas, principles, or basic capacities that make us human. Therefore, the mind is not a tabula rasa at birth.

Blank slate

Tabula rasa, was the theory that at birth the (human) mind is without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one's sensory experiences.

Workers

The old left from the 1930s was about what group of people?

Civil society

This part of society is concerned with the elements such as freedom of speech, freedom to worship, privacy, and other kinds of assumed rights based on you as an individual in society.

End justifies means

A good outcome excuses any wrongs committed to attain it.

Sander/ Trump

What two popular presidential candidates in 2015 suggest a new political era in the US?

Priest

What is the "First Estate?"

Noblemen

What is the "Second Estate?"

Communist

What kind of government does China claim to have?

Boomer, 1945 to 1965? gen x, 1965-1980? millennial, 1980 - 2000? gen z

was born in 2000 forward

Merchants and trade people

In the Renaissance, these workers foreshadowed the Modern spirit of labor.

Mechanical philosophy

Newton's world view, based on observation and cause/effect understanding.

We are the 99%-

The political slogan about the smallest percent owning everything in our economic system?

1948

What year was the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights signed by all Nations?

Einstein

Who said, "God does not play dice with the universe," leaving us to chance or irrational forces?

Diversity/ equity/inclusion

What does DEI mean?

Labor

What is the basis of the "Third Estate?"

Labor

The basis of social or civic rights, why we have the right to claim life, equality under the law, and property. What we contribute to society.

People

Who is the "Third Estate?"

Fordism

The name of the economic idea of more production leads to more consumption and better lives for all, named for an auto manufacturer.

Enlightenment

A period in history in the 18th century that emphasized using reason and freedom as the purpose of life, and tried to implement that kind of social order through revolution.

Quest for happiness in freedom

What is the Modern promise, task, and goal of humanity?

Might makes right

Before there was exchange through labor and trade, what explains when one person claims power or dominance over another?

Social contract

An implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection.

Devine rights/blood (family)

What was the basis and justification for the First and Second Estates?

Antichrist

What political ideology wants to eliminate government altogether?

Common good

The justification for when the government asserts the good of all over an individual's liberty.

Hierarchical

A term that refers to a society that is organized from top to bottom, most people find it hard to spell.

Human resource

Abbreviated HR, this department sets the ethical standards by which we are employed.

Epistemology

The theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. The study of how we know, and asks the question, How do we know we know?

PMC (professional managerial class)

To what does PMC refer?

Egalitarian

A term that refers to a society where people have the same share of resources and power.

Race/sex/gender

The new left from the 1960 was about whom?

Institutions that are power

Media/school/government offices/NGO/corporations/bankers/wall street/big pharma/silicone valley/military/judicial branch

identity politics

A tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics

Faulty Analogy

Parents who aren't doctors wouldn't be allowed to perform surgery on their children on the kitchen table, so parents who aren't trained to teach shouldn't be allowed to teach their children."