A Riddle About Fate
Before we leave the Causal Unit behind, let’s take a look at a peculiar sort of causal reasoning in which something happens first SO THAT something else can happen later.
Syntax Lesson
Only Matters Only When It Matters
The Rebuttal Unit
My Worthy Opponent is Wrong.
For the sake of practice, let’s assume you are strongly in favor of nuclear power as an alternative to burning fossil fuels. Nuclear doesn’t burn petroleum, coal, or natural gas. It doesn’t emit carbon dioxide or methane. It is, by comparison to many alternatives, a clean and sustainable fuel for producing electricity. You’re writing a paper to promote new investment in nuclear power plants.
In your research, you run across an article by Bob Herbert in the New York Times that concerns you. Herbert sounds pretty knowledgeable, and you know he speaks compellingly for opponents of nuclear power in the US. How can you USE HIS ARTICLE in your Rebuttal Argument?
Does he make mistakes of logic? Does he apply his evidence inappropriately? Does he complain of cost overruns that don’t actually result in overly expensive power? Does he concentrate on one or two objections and ignore all the advantages of nuclear power? Does he set up a false choice between two options when there are other alternatives?
Read the article at the New York Times
Read the Article as Text Only
Next Portfolio Task
The 1000-word Rebuttal Argument
DUE MON NOV 25 (11:59 SUN NOV 24)
Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
Class notes- figure8clementine 11/11/24
Class Notes 11/11/2024
Exercise Expressing a Belief in Fate
She told him she loved him.
Only she told him she loved him. – She’s the only one who has told him that they loved him.
She only told him she loved him. – The only thing she did was tell him she loved him.
She told only him she loved him. – She didn’t tell anyone else she loved them except for him.
She told him only she loved him. – She told him that she was the only person who loved him.
She told him she only loved him. – She told him that he was the only person she loved.
11/11
We begin with one last discussion on causality, specifically the causality of death.The Prof. provides the example of two different types of death.One was “My father dies because of a car crash” and the other “My father dies in a rebel uprising”. Two quite different means of death but the causality happening at two different times.The cause of death from the car crash is the car crash itself and the cause of death due to the rebel uprising would be to be a martyn and to inspire people to rise up even more.To die for the cause is the purpose of the cause at the end of any real rebellion.
We then have a nice riddle on Fate, saying that everything must happen for a reason. We use 4 different scenarios on the subject and are assigned to answer how it expresses a belief of fate and how “Everything happens for a reason”.
Next, the professor uses the sentence “She told him she loved him” to describe how a sentence like this can swerve and change via just adding more singulated words.To do this the Prof. just kept adding the word only to the sentence, as in “ONLY she told him she loved” andso and so forth to completely change the sentence entirely.
Final we finish off with a talk on our rebuttal argument assignment. Going over what a rebuttal argument is about, with an example of a article on the catastrophes on Japan. As well as explaining how we need to carry our rebuttal argument for our own thesis and showing how we aren’t defending another persons reasoning for the opposite of our thesis but completely and utterly destroying it (Respectfully though Respectfully).
11/11/24
What Happened:
What I Got:
What I still have Questions about:
Class Notes 11.11.24
Class Notes – 11/11/24
Class Notes – phoenixxxx23
-Everything happens for a reason (?)
–ONLY she told him she loved him. Exclusively her told him that she loved him
-She ONLY told him she loved him. Words are not actions
-She told ONLY him she loved him. She told only him, no one else
-She told him ONLY she loved him. She told him no one else loves him
-She told him she ONLY loved him. She loved him, but nothing else, only one feeling
-She told him she loved ONLY him. She does not love anyone else
-She told him she loved him ONLY. She does not love anyone else
-Find the worthiest opponent you can find and tear her in shreds, doing it respectfully and fairly.
-My worthy opponent is wrong
-Worst-case scenarios unfold more frequently than we’d like to believe.
-DESTROY the opposition!
“Everything Happens for a Reason”
It is a very broad psychological statement of how one defines the word fate.
“She told him she loved him” Exercise
By adding the word only into the sentence and moving once can branch out different ways of how it perceived.
Only she told him she loved him
Putting ONLY at the beginning of the sentence states that only one person told him and no one else
She only told him she loved him
Like adding ONLY between she and told would state that she ONLY told him she loved him but show no affection.
She told only him she loved him
Adding between told and him would mean that she specifically told him she loved him.
She told him only she loved him
Between him and she would mean that no one can loved him besides her
She told him she only loved him
Between she and loved would state that she loved him specifically and no one else.
She told him she loved only him
Between loved and him would have the same effect because she specially loved him even when the word only is moved.
She told him she loved him only
Lastly adding only at the end still doesn’t change the effects of who she loved because it still specifically states that she loved him only.
A rebuttal argument is the opposing side of our current argument where they are our enemies. The purpose of a rebuttal argument is to stand firm to your argument from the opposing side. It’s by explaining why your argument is right, and your opposing side is wrong, but you have to identify, acknowledge, and demolish your enemies.
Class Notes: 11/11/24
-Causes can come before or after when answering a “why” question. A reason and a cause seem to be the same thing, but they are not. A cause is where an event leads to another event causing an effect, while a reason is an explanation for why an event occurred. This is why it can come before or after; people use these interchangeably causing how a “why” question can be answered before or after
“She told him she loved him.” What word can go in-between each one and change the meaning each time? The word “only” does.
-The word “only” modifies or even limits the words that follow it causing it to change what the sentence means each time it is inserted in a different area of the sentence.
-We have 3 more portfolio assignments: annotated bibliography(full maturity of proposal +5), the big 3,000 research paper, and the reflective statement.
-The rebuttal argument is our last portion of writing for our research paper. With this paper we are finding opponents against our disruptive point of view and essentially saying why her argument is wrong and ours is right.
-Find where your opponent goes/writes something wrong, so that you can use their own point against them.
-If we are aiming for an A, DO NOT use a rhetorical question, I repeat DO NOT. Not in a title, not in a paragraph, no where. Like Hodges said before, we must earn our right to use them and right now, we definitely don’t have this right.
-Nuclear waste article: We don’t refute by disrespecting this authors point of view, but instead show where they were incorrect/sounded silly.
-The purpose of the rebuttal argument is to improve our point even more by including another author and explaining why they are wrong. There is no alternatives to my point. We are just acknowledging another side in order to prove why our argument is correct as well as the best argument in this case.
-Rebuttal arguments are respectful, specific, and firm. We tell how the other person was mislead and why our argument/side is actually right in every scenario.
-We don’t have to have great evidence to refute lousy evidence. We just have to show evidence to argue our claim.
-Use their stupid arguments against them. See their stupid/false analogies and use it to show how incorrect they are.
11/11
Syntax Lesson
When moving the word “Only” around in the sentence “She told him she loved him.” it changes the meaning of the sentence.
Rebuttal Unit
Be fair in your argument and ripe into her idea of argument
Mistake of Logic
Inappropriate Evidence
Cost overruns
The rebuttal argument is just to identify your author point then describe why your point is the strongest point
nOtEs FoR cLaSs:
So first we watched the final episode of fate/stay zero as the main character finally obtains the Holy Grail! Then we debated the hard questions like, what did that confusing ending mean, does the ends justify the means, and is topless Gilgamesh a thirst trap?!
I’m just kidding!
We did not watch anime watch anime in class today. We did however talk about fate, but like in the traditional sense, with a garnish of philosophy.
What I find interesting about our lesson today is that it appears contradictory for one to hold a belief in luck and fate at the same time. Luck implying a degree of freedom in an unknown future, while fate implying a lack of freedom as your future is already decided, usually by God or whatever spiritual belief is held. Did you win $1,000,000 at the casinos because you were lucky, or because you are higher on God’s favorite list than me?
In our class we examined how people could potentially use the phrase “Everything happens for a reason.” This phrase implies that fate is at work, or that there is some grand plan for us. It is a phrase I usually hear in yoga communities, or those “manifesters” who read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, or sometimes by religious people right after a tragedy.
You certainly do not hear “Everything happens for a reason.” in someone’s victory speech or after they become rich. Could you image how funny it would be if one of the top 10 wealthiest people came down from their ivory tower to a group of impoverished people and said that “Everything happens for a reason”; and your suffering contrasted with my jubilee is happening for a reason. See how well that goes over. People would think it satire from the movie Shrek!
Shrek (2001) – Some of you May Die, But it’s a Sacrifice I am Willing to Make
We examined four blocks of text and how the fictional characters in the text used the phrase “Everything happens for a reason.” One character, in my opinion, meant it in a way as to understand a sequence of events. The rest of the characters, in my opinion, meant it in a meaningful way, a way of looking at the past and giving it a positive spin. With exercises like this, when we shift a phrase to mean different things in different contexts, I find the English language is fascinating and confusing at the same time.
We did another exercise like this where we played with the word “only” in a sentence. By placing “only” in different places in the sentence we achieved different results in the meaning of the sentence.
Lastly, we went over rebuttals. This is a quick part at the end of an argument or claim, or accusation, where one tries to destroy down potential counter arguments before they can get off the ground. We looked at a newspaper article and analyzed how we could use the article against itself. We can flip his statistics to be seen in a good light rather than a negative light. We can invalidate arguments that do not apply in a different context. We can address the issue of dichotomy in the article; remember “there is no opposites of your argument”, and we can dispel such narrow thinking by introduce other options or combinations of options. We can counter his notions of probability and probably do even more.
Notes
11/11/24
A riddle about fate
Syntax
Rebuttal unit
11/11/24
Causal Reasoning aka Intro
She Told Him She Loved Him
Rebuttal
11/11/24 Class notes
Class notes 11/11/24
Type / to choose a block
11/11
Class Notes 10/11
Mongoose Notes – 11/11/2024
Class Notes 11/11
-The why question is double facing as it faces what let up to the event and how the event ended. What is fate? “Everything Happens for a Reason”
3. Jay’s notion that God’s will is some hand in life that he can not control and “Everything happens for a reason,” is the human condition is not fate. As I previously stated if this is what fate is considered then it is nothing more then a dangerous excuse that will never allow a person to own up to their own actions. For him that car accident didn’t happen for any reason that made what he did excusable.
4. Zed and Dee’s claim that “This was no accident; everything happens for a reason, Dad.” Is an example of fate. After the tragic accident they organized a group that can help people across the world. This shows that a reason for the tragic accident could be to start this group that can help and inspire others.
-I word like “only” can be put in many places in a sentence but will change the sentence meaning depending on the meaning. The word that follows the word “only” is immediately emphasized.
-The Rebuttal Unit: It does not do well to ignore arguments against the one you are trying to convince your reader. By rebutting the argument it can make your essay stronger because now the reader can take the opposing side out of their minds. We must refute the argument not completely tell the author they are wrong.
Class Notes – 11/11/24
Why can be both past and forward. Why can be explained with what happened leading up to the event but it can also be explained by claiming that it happened so that a future event may happen. The question of fate.
Word placement matters. Words can change the entire meaning of the sentence. Be careful where you put them.
Pick a worthy opponent to refute. Refuting some random does nothing. Refuting a smart and knowledgable person can convince the reader to ignore the arguments of the other side.
Claiming that the other side doesn’t have enough evidence is not enough to be a true rebuttal.
Class notes 11/11:
Riddle About Fate- consequence comes after the cause or vice versa, everything has a cause,
Syntax Lesson- placement of a word in a sentence matter and can change the meaning of the sentence, example insurance policy;
The Rebuttal Unit- pick strongest opponent to refute, pick on weak spots in their arguments, opponent should be credible and persuasive, insufficient evidence requires counter evidence
Assignments:
Rebuttal Argument DUE SUN NOV 24
Notes 11/11/24
Class notes:
Notes 11/11
Only matters, only when it matters
It matters when it
(1) ABC Casualty will reimburse the insured (2) to replace possessions (3) if destroyed by (4) fire (5) in the insured’s (6) apartment.
Class Notes 11/13