Reframing Emotional Arguments in Ads in the Culture of Informal Logic

This paper examines, in studies utilizing Gilbert’s Multi-Modal Argumentation Model, processing of emotional arguments in ads which, due to Western Society’s bias, has tended toward logical analysis, even though they are emotional arguments. It explores reframing the analysis in the culture of Informal Logic, with particular reference to issues of the alethic status of premises, the ethics of claims, the context of assumptions, and the question of what constitutes truth in the context of emotion

Arguing For the Ethics of an Ad: An Application of Multi-Modal Argumentation Theory

In addition to functions traditionally ascribed to the socio-linguistic practice of arguing for a thesis, we can add: determining whether an advertisement is ethical. Ads regularly use fallacy and exaggeration, but when an ad uses argumentation that is based in unfair, damaging, dangerous fallacy, we may question its ethics. This paper uses Gilbert\u27s model of Multi-Modal Argumentation to decide whether the arguments underlying an advertisement make it an ethical one

Teaching Better Electronically or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Internet Teaching

Internet teaching is a worthy topic today because changes in society demand "that learners change their knowledge and skill bases and change them faster than at any time in history" [1], and Internet teaching is proving to be one of the best ways to reach those learners. This paper explores ten of the most common difficulties of online courses. It explains how the proper use of readily available technology can be brought to bear on these difficulties in ways that will reduce worry and stress both for beginners faced with teaching a first course and for professors who already have taught online courses but may be seeking ways to improve upon the experience

Plato, Socrates, Hunt, and Rotfeld: Eigenforms of Academic Collaboration

A number of academic institutions profess to offer Interdisciplinary Studies but few truly achieve it, and not without a great deal of effort over and above the normal workload of a professor and a level of patience and perseverance not found in many university students. This paper will report on a successful academic collaboration between two very different disciplines: philosophy and business. It will examine a course taught jointly by the two disciplines in a strategy of imbrication attempted by a college of York University in Toronto, Atkinson College, housing both liberal arts and professional school

Keeping Up with the Reality Show: A Ten-Years-Later Review of Surviving Teaching on the Internet

A dozen years ago, I set out to teach my first Internet course at York University, a large urban Canadian university with 55,000+ students who are mainly commuters. Two years later I wrote an article titled, "Survivor!: When the Next Reality Show is You Teaching Your First Internet Course", in which I argued that there are ten major things you should not do when teaching on the Internet. Now ten years later, in this paper I revisit those recommendations to see if they still hold true, and to see if we need to add any new ones

Plato, Socrates, Hunt, and Rotfeld: Eigenforms of Academic Collaboration

A number of academic institutions profess to offer Interdisciplinary Studies but few truly achieve it, and not without a great deal of effort over and above the normal workload of a professor and a level of patience and perseverance not found in many university students. This paper will report on a successful academic collaboration between two very different disciplines: philosophy and business. It will examine a course taught jointly by the two disciplines in a strategy of imbrication attempted by a college of York University in Toronto, Atkinson College, housing both liberal arts and professional school

Trickster Fiddles with Informatics: The Social Impact of Technological Marketing Schemes

"Information is power if and only if you have the knowledge to know what it means, the will to use it, the ability to apply it, and access to a channel of communication" [1]. We see this in current fields of research as varied as Marketing, Philosophy, and Communications Studies, and in current issues about who owns and controls technology. But a character from a far older tradition helps explain many problems in society today with technology: Trickster, the mythical character who confuses fact with fiction, makes good use of Technoism, a term coined by Davis [2] in 1999 to denote suppressed skepticism and blind compliance with the chaotic and uncontrolled progression of technology in our lives that leads to a dangerous split between the "haves" and "have-nots" of the technology world. This paper will discuss the use of Technoism to give the public and users of technology a false sense of power and control over their lives when in fact they are being duped into a financially motivated campaign of consumer exploitation. The paper makes some recommendations for establishing a conscience in the use of technology