Post hoc ergo propter hoc describes a causal fallacy. It was made popular by that erstwhile American political period drama called ‘The West Wing’! Post hoc ergo propter hoc is a logical misconception where someone argues that one event happens because another event happened before it, and the earlier event caused the second event. By means of an illustration: A happened before B. Therefore, A is the cause of B. Now, if you want a totally bonkers example of post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy: After I sneezed, then suddenly my laptop exploded. Therefore, my sneezing caused my laptop to…
Punctuation Marks Can Be Fun
Rare Punctuation Marks There are 14 commonly used punctuation marks in English grammar. They are the full stop, question mark, exclamation mark, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, hyphen, square brackets, brackets, curly brackets or braces, apostrophe, quotation marks, and ellipsis. However, the more interesting punctuation marks are the less commonly used ones. There are many excellent guides to punctuation marks, one of the best can be found of the Cambridge Dictionary site, I could not hope to improve on them here. However, I would much rather obsess over some of the rare, the unusual, the wonderfully bonkers and lesser known punctuation…
Building an Argument: Five Canons of Rhetoric
Before we explore how to build an effective argument using the five canons of rhetoric, we better deal with ‘canon’ and ‘rhetoric’. Canon: One of those annoying English words with multiple meanings: ‘a priest in a cathedral’; ‘regulation of a church council’; ‘most solemn part of the Mass’; ‘authoritative list of books’; ‘standard of judgement’, and ‘contrapuntal musical composition’ and that list is not even exhaustive or indeed, canonical. Canon in this sense means ‘a body of principles, rules, standards, or norms’. Rhetoric: Is the art of persuasion and the study of rhetoric explores the ability to inform, persuade, or…
Epistemology and Research
If you are wanting conduct epistemology research, please see my introduction to ontology. If, however, you are in the Social Sciences and your supervisor, colleague, co-author, reviewer or editor is suddenly wanting you to talk about epistemology or defend your epistemological position like some demented pseudo-philosopher who has just swallowed a dictionary: Welcome! What is Epistemology? It is the study the theory of knowledge. Don’t panic! take a breath and relax. It really is all very simple. However, before you explore epistemology, make sure you have your ontology nailed down! Your ontological position is central to your selection of…
Ontology and Research
Ontology and Research If you are wanting conduct ontological research, may I wish you the best of luck and Godspeed, but this is not the page for you. If, however, you are in the Social Sciences and your supervisor, colleague, co-author, reviewer or editor is suddenly wanting you to talk about ontology or defend your ontological position like some demented pseudo-philosopher who has just swallowed a dictionary: Welcome! Ontology is the branch of philosophy that studies of reality. Don’t panic! take a breath and relax. It really is all very simple. You are writing about something or researching…
Aristotle and the Rhetoric Triangle
Classical discourse has three components: Rhetoric the art of persuasion; Grammar the art of speaking and writing clearly, and Logic (or analytics) the art of thought and reason. Rhetoric explores the ability to inform, persuade, or motivate a particular audience. Aristotle defines rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” Rhetoric Triangle Logos, ethos, and pathos are three central components of rhetoric. All good arguments, written, spoken or debated depend on them. Don’t worry if you have never heard of them before, they are easily learned. In themselves they are not new…
What is an Academic Theory?
Academic Theory – Does it matter? Well, if you’re reading this, you have found out that academic theory is important. However, you may also have discovered many people pretend they know what academic theory is but, frankly, they don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. Academic theory is critical. As an undergraduate or postgraduate student you will need to explain or situate your work within an existing body of academic theory or you will simply fail! If you’re a PhD student you will be expected to make a new contribution to theory and develop the existing literature. If you’re…
Coronavirus, University Tuition Fees and Lectures
What is happening with Coronavirus and Tuition Fees? I think the short answer to what is happening with coronavirus, university tuition fees and lectures is nobody really knows! I would treat with great scepticism anyone that tells you they know what will be happening and their University will be returning for the first semester in October and there will be no problems! Universities will want their tuition fees. Now, I don’t want to say they’re lying but they are probably doing a very good impression of the village idiot. Five months ago no one would have predicted the mess…