1. Fall 2017 Teacher: Murray Sherk msherk@ustc.edu.cn
IMBA English: Lesson 3
Fall 2017
Teacher: Murray Sherk

2. Presentation features Disasters and price gouging
Lesson 3 Outline
Logical fallacies
Pronunciation:
ʃ and Ʒ
l – r – n
Presentation features
Disasters and price gouging

3. Logical Fallacies (those on the handout)
(There are many more than these, but we’ll focus on these.)
Ad hominem ~ type of person who believes it
Appeal to pity
Hasty generalization
Appeal to ignorance
Missing the point
Straw man
Post hoc = False cause
Red herring
Slippery slope
False dichotomy
Weak analogy
Begging the question
Appeal to authority ~ who believes it
Equivocation
Ad populum (majority rules) ~# that believe it

4. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Let’s look at logical fallacies trying to support this claim.
Remember: These examples are BAD arguments.

5. 1. Hasty Generalization
Making assumptions about a whole group based on just a small sample of members of that group.
e.g. stereotypes about people
“Americans are rich.”

6. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “hasty generalization”
“Western people working in China often make this much, even people with less experience than Murray.”
Why is this a fallacy?

7. 2. Missing the point
Claiming that reasons support a conclusion when actually they point to a different or weaker conclusion.
“Many businessmen are corrupt and this is ruining the economy. We need to change our entire economic system.”
The “point” of the evidence does not match the “point” of the conclusion.
You need different evidence for that conclusion, or a different conclusion for that evidence.

8. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “missing the point”
“Murray is a valuable member of the USTC teaching community, and USTC should reward those who contribute to its success.”
“In Canada, Murray could make much more money as a computer scientist than he does here at USTC.”

9. 3. Post hoc (false cause)
Assuming that because X came before Y, therefore X must have caused Y.
(little or no further evidence)
“Taxes were increased in 2011 and crime was worse in Therefore tax increases cause crime.”
It is possible this is actual cause/effect, but the chronological sequence alone is NOT sufficient proof.

10. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “post hoc” (also called “false cause”)
“Since Murray came to USTC in 1991, USTC’s research results and international reputation have grown tremendously.”

11. 4. Slippery slope
Explain a huge change by splitting it into little change steps, each of which seems more likely, but ignore the difficulty that ALL steps must happen.
“If you sleep in tomorrow morning, you might be late for class. Missing the beginning of the lesson will make the rest harder to understand. That lesson could be vital to the course material and could easily lead to you ending up with insufficient grasp of the course. That could cause you to fail as a manager… all because you slept in.”

12. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “slippery slope”
“If we don’t pay Murray enough, he will leave USTC and tell others it’s a bad place. Then USTC won’t be able to get any good foreign teachers here and the students’ English education will fail. Soon no USTC graduate will have good enough English for international business and the Management school will die.”

13. 5. Weak analogy Similar to hasty generalization
X and Y are similar in one way, therefore they are similar in other ways too.
“Guns and knives are both tools that can be used for good or evil. It doesn’t make sense to ban guns without banning table knives.”

14. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “weak analogy”
“People will pay almost anything to stay alive when they have an illness. Ignorance of English can kill a student’s academic life, so how can we complain about paying Murray a high salary?”

15. Appeal to authority
a form of the strategy “character & credentials” but where the credentials are weak or there is no other evidence.
“name-dropping”
“Basketball player Kobe Bryant says France is a terrible country to live in.”

16. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “appeal to authority”
“Murray’s father, who was a principal at the University of Toronto, says Murray is worth this much.”

17. 7. Ad populum: “majority rules”
Assuming that the number of people that believe a claim determines its truth.
Believe a claim because the “in crowd” believes it.
“You are silly if you don’t agree.”
“Everybody knows that most criminals come from poor families.”
“Billionaires like Bill Gates all followed this plan.”

18. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “ad populum”
“Almost all of Murray’s former students view Murray as a treasure. The USTC authorities have invited him back year after year. Everybody likes him, so let’s do whatever it takes to get him to stay!”

19. 8. Ad hominem: Attack people who hold/deny the claim, rather than analyzing the claim itself.
“Trump said it and he’s crazy so it must be wrong.”
“Those who say that free trade is wrong are just unable to understand it. Because of their lack of education and sophistication, they want to stop free trade.”

20. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “ad hominem”
“The Chinese people who claim foreign teachers are paid too much are the stupid ones who failed English and they’re just bitter. Why should we believe people who will never amount to anything?”

21. 9. Appeal to pity Believe a claim because you feel sorry for somebody
This is using an emotion argument strategy with no other evidence.
“My parents are elderly and need my help, which takes a lot of my time. Could you excuse me from doing the class assignment?”

22. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “appeal to pity”
“Murray’s daughter Emily is in university, so Murray’s family will be needing a lot of money for her education. Should Murray’s daughter’s education suffer because he is teaching at USTC when he could be making more money in Canada?”

23. Is “appeal to pity” always fallacious?
Pity alone is not enough.
“Buy my product because otherwise I’ll get fired.”
Could be strengthened by logic.
“My new company needs sales, so it will do a lot to make and keep you as a customer. You’ll be doing us and yourself a favor.”
Many fallacious arguments have a grain of truth in them, but if that grain is all you’ve got then you’re in trouble.

24. 10. Appeal to ignorance
If we cannot prove the claim is false, then we should believe it is true.
“The benefit of the doubt” should go to the claim.
“Nobody has conclusively proven that import taxes are hurting the economy right now, so we should keep those taxes.”

25. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “appeal to ignorance”
“Can you imagine how much Murray could make if he were working as a computer scientist in Canada? $200,000 per year might be average for someone of his experience and talents.”

26. 11. Straw man
Attack a bad description of your opponent’s claim (e.g. an exaggeration) rather than the real claim.
“The ultimate goal of import tariffs is isolation of the economy. But in our modern world, no country can prosper without economic partners, so import tariffs just do not make sense today.”

27. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “straw man”
“If you don’t want to pay foreign teachers a good salary for working at USTC then what sort of teachers do you think you are going to get? We cannot pay teachers 1% of what they’d make in their home countries and expect them to do good work here in China.”

28. 12. Red herring similar to “missing the point”
Start talking about one claim, then switch suddenly to a different claim.
“China has a very different culture from our country, so we should not build a factory overseas.”

29. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “red herring”
“Dedicated teachers put their hearts into educating their students. It takes time, talent, experience, and energy. Murray deserves this salary.”

30. 13. False dichotomy “dichotomy” = only 2 choices
Ignoring other possible options
“We cannot manufacture our product at a competitive price in our own country. We must build an overseas factory or go out of business.”

31. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “false dichotomy”
“We can pay Murray this much or we can watch him walk away from USTC next year. Which do you want?”

32. 14. Begging the question circular reasoning
ignoring important counter- evidence
“Higher import tariffs are vital for our economy because keeping them at the current level is killing our economy.”

33. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “begging the question”
“Murray should get this salary because good teachers deserve to be paid what they are worth to the school, and Murray is worth it.”

34. 15. Equivocation
Using tricky wording and/or double meanings to hide illogical connections
“Justice is just that, just! All our policies must be just and so you should vote for just this new policy, rather than any other.”
Note the “vote for just this…” sounds like “vote for justice”
a sneaky audible connection

35. Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year
Using “equivocation” (tricky words, double meanings)
“One of the basic rights of any worker is ‘Fair pay for good work’. Any lower salary for Murray would be wrong, not right.”
“Having Murray teaching at USTC is better than nothing, and nothing is better than USTC having all the money it needs. Therefore, logic says that having Murray teaching here is better than USTC having all the money it needs.”
Murray > nothing > rich USTC

36. The moral of the story is…
Presentations in business are arguments.
Your arguments must be sensible and avoid fallacious (=“bad”) reasoning.

37. Homework situation:
You are the CEO of a company in your home country, and you need to buy equipment for your new factory.
Two salespeople, Alice and Bob, from two different companies are trying to sell their equipment to you.
Alice is from an American firm.
Bob is from a British firm.
For each of the 15 fallacies, write a short fallacious argument that Alice or Bob might give you.
“Alice says: …” or “Bob says: …”
(You, of course, will recognize each fallacy and not be convinced by it.)

38. Homework
to me before next class a document (.doc or .docx format) with 15 fallacious arguments those salespeople might give you, one for each of the 15 logical fallacies on the handout.
You do NOT have to explain why the argument is a fallacy.
List and number them in the order on the handout.
1. Hasty generalization: “...<your sentence(s)>”
2. Missing the point: “… <your sentence(s)>”
At the top of your document, write your English name and student#.

40. Pronunciation

41. Pronunciation: ʃ and Ʒ ʃ = “sh” like in Chinese – a bit “softer”
Ʒ = voiced ʃ
measure treasure pleasure
vision explosion conclusion
azure seizure
mirage garage genre

42. Pronunciation of Asia American English: Asia = ei Ʒ a
British English: Asia = ei ʃ ia
(ei-she-ya)
Hong Kong English: Asia = ei s ia
(ace-ya)

43. Pronunciation: Ʒ “conclusion” (not “conclu-yun”)
“usual” (not “you-you-al”)
measure mayor
pleasure player

44. (azure, beige, rouge: similar to blue, white, red)
Occasionally, in the garage, Jacques measured Asian treasures that were azure, beige, and rouge.

45. Pronunciation: L, R, N
Back of “Consonants” handout you got in Lesson 2
Note similarity of mouth & tongue position

46. light
night
line
nine

47. Pronunciation of R: Problem for some language groups like Chinese!
Chinese R – e.g. “rén”
mouth more open
tongue retroflexed (bent back or pointed straight up at roof)
tongue close to roof so friction produces “rough” sound
lips pulled back a bit
English R – e.g. “wren”
mouth more closed
tongue points to front roof
tongue away from roof of mouth so get “smooth” sound
lips rounded & pushed out a bit

48. errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-iiiiiiiiiii-ng
Pronunciation of R
Big problem for many Chinese speakers
Chinese R sounds like L or Ʒ to English ears
Tongue too close to roof
“LRight” ≠ “Right”
See handout hints
errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-iiiiiiiiiii-ng
errrrrrrrrr-iii-ng
errrrrr-ing
errr-ing
er-ing

49. Think of “er-” but quickly slide from “er-” into the next part
Think of 1.5 syllables!
Not 2 but more than 1.
Push rounded lips out a bit.
er-ight = right
er-oad = road
er-ing = ring
er-eed = reed
er-ong = wrong

51. Presentation Skills
Most of you have given and listened to (many?) business presentations before
Are you already an expert?
Think of this as a review
Look for some new tricks to make your presentations better

52. Discuss with your partner
What was the best presentation you have ever witnessed?
What was the worst?

53. Our goal in this course in regard to presentation skills
What do you need from this course to improve your presentations? Anything?
Do other courses cover presentations well enough?
Are there special things related to English language that this course should focus on?

55. Current Event Class Discussion
Should charging more for goods or services during a disaster be allowed?
“Price gouging” = unreasonably higher prices because of shortages just before, during, or just after a disaster

56. Airline price gouging in Florida around the time of Hurricane Irma?
“Some of the biggest complaints have been targeted at airlines, though. Yahoo News spoke with one customer who paid $159 for an American Airlines ticket from Miami to Hartford, CT on Monday, then saw the price spike to $1,020 the next day, when he tried to buy another ticket.”

57. Fair because of last-minute?
Hurricane Irma hit Florida about September 10
Wednesday, September 6
“A search of airfares using IRA Matrix to a variety of locations, including Atlanta, Phoenix and New York does show notably higher fares for the next three days, though it's common for airlines to charge last minute flyers more.
“The cheapest price for a flight from Miami to NYC (with a four day stay) this Friday, however, is $985. That same flight on the 15th will cost just $159.”

58. Price caps stop price gouging: A good idea?
“Price caps discourage extraordinary supply efforts that would help bring goods in high demand into the affected area,” Michael Giberson, an instructor with the Center for Energy Commerce in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University, wrote in an opinion piece from several years ago that was widely circulated around parts of Wall Street this weekend. Meanwhile, he suggested, “You discourage conservation of needed goods at exactly the time they are in high demand.”

59. Increased prices  better use?
Consider this scenario, as described by Matt Zwolinski, the director of the Center for Ethics, Economics, and Public Policy at the University of San Diego: If a hotel that normally charges $50 per room were allowed to double the price to $100 a night during an emergency, “a family that might have chosen to rent separate rooms for parents and children at $50 per night will be more likely to rent only one room at the higher price, and a family whose home was damaged but in livable condition might choose to tough it out if the cost of a hotel room is $100 rather than $50.”

60. If stores cannot gouge, will gouging stop?
“If the store doesn’t raise prices, attentive customers may buy up the whole stock, resell it during the emergency and price gouge themselves,” he wrote last week. “Or store employees may funnel the scarce goods to their friends and relatives. Don’t think the alternative to corporate price gouging is necessarily a fairer outcome, but that subtle point doesn’t always translate well to social media.”

61. Pros and cons of some possible government policies
Firms must maintain previous level of service but offer 25% cheaper prices.
Firms must not change their level of service or pricing policy.
Like Policy 2 but government will pay the firms 50% extra on sales made, including on higher levels of service.
Firms can charge up to 100% more. (200%? 500%? Depends on goods?)
Firms can charge whatever they want (whatever the market will bear).

62. Homework situation:
You are the CEO of a company in your home country, and you need to buy equipment for your new factory.
Two salespeople, Alice and Bob, from two different companies are trying to sell their equipment to you.
Alice is from an American firm.
Bob is from a British firm.
For each of the 15 fallacies, write a short fallacious argument that Alice or Bob might give you.
“Alice says: …” or “Bob says: …”
(You, of course, will recognize each fallacy and not be convinced by it.)

63. Homework
to me before next class a document (.doc or .docx format) with 15 fallacious arguments those salespeople might give you, one for each of the 15 logical fallacies on the handout.
You do NOT have to explain why the argument is a fallacy.
List and number them in the order on the handout.
1. Hasty generalization: “...<your sentence(s)>”
2. Missing the point: “… <your sentence(s)>”
At the top of your document, write your English name and student#.