【辉太郎杀G大队】7/19作业 by Aliciasun

AliciaSunUID: 2660743

Issue 184
"It is a grave mistake to theorize before one has data."

If not for innumerable theories and their corresponding further research and validation, the history of mankind couldn’t have been resplendent and bright. With the duty of guidance human being advancing towards the eternal truths, theories without a doubt are supposed to be as accurate and precise as they can. Generally, in natural science and economic realm, practice with persuading data is the most common measure to facilitate a rational and objective theory before it is publicized unless somehow the relevant data cannot be provided. However, in art and psychological realm, theories which normally come from perceptual and subjective recognization are acceptable with experience and further exploration into the precedent topics, rather than physical data.

Normally, in the natural science such as economics, mathematics, and physics, it is undeniable that the validity of a theory has to be setup on the basis of verification of practical information. In the broad sense, science doesn’t acknowledge vacant sayings without elaborate statistics, and this common point to some extent restricts the adulterating researches and thus maintains a fair and convictive atmosphere for advancement of our life. If no data is available before theorizing, the guarantees of its objective precision will be absent, and the border between theory and fantasy will be blurred as well. In the narrow sense, the data supporting theories can also directly reflect the consequence of an event to some extent, so it could be much easier for people to reveal principle and to form correct theory. Anyhow, the support of experimental data is crucial for theorization. The experiments of extremely cold refrigeration which were designed by the team of Onnes and led to the discovery of superconductivity are good examples that experiment and technique improvement drives theoretical development. Newton’s theory of universal gravitation and the three laws of motion also came from thousands of times experiments and also later clearly represent a simple but essential discipline of our cosmic.

However, not all the cases about theorizing can be directly verified by data, even in natural science area. When the experiment conditions are beyond verification scope, scientists also use thought experiments and other methods to achieve the purpose of validation. It frequently happens when particular physical experiments are impossible to conduct, which are labeled by Carl Gustav Hempel as “theoretical experiments”. A famous example if Einstein’s relativism theory, to verifying which a light beam should be chased but impossible. As a unique use of scientific thought experiment, instead of a physical experiment, it was never able to be carried out but led to a successful theory that was proven by other empirical means. Hence, it is a hasty conclusion that all the theories should be supported with particular data, without consideration of those cases which cannot be verified with data.

Furthermore, data is not so much important as experience, observation, and speculation in most of the social science and psychologies realm. First of all, it’s not easy to obtain quantitative criteria in these areas. How can we measure people’s thought toward a specific event? How can we calculate the motivation serious degree when they action? Some may argue that this is also a particular sort of data, but actually most of the theories in perceptual sense were raised based on minority of people’s thinking or even only the thinker who raised the theory himself, and then, on the second step, were agreed or reproached later in the public. Taking Froid’s theories about Eros and Thanatos, mostly came from his understanding towards this world and the precedent cognization about subconscious inside this realm, was never supported by those statistical evidences. But all the controversial arguments about it don’t impede the immortality of its legacy. Secondly, perceptual results usually stem at deepen thinking about people’s mental world, and it is obviously of instability. Quite different with scientific truth, people’s thoughts change as per the time passing by and environment changing, simply put, theories for these abstracted topics are extremely impossible to be deduced from physical data.

In conclusion, admittedly, on the premise that the data can be able to be collected to fortify the theory’s principle, especially in natural science area, we should try the best to use practical information for the verification a theory. Meanwhile, for those realm concerning the mental areas of people, the theories can also be supported by speculation of various perspectives of this world.
                                                                                                                          
  
TOPIC: ARGUMENT9 - The following appeared in a memorandum from a dean at Omega University.

"Fifteen years ago, Omega University implemented a new procedure that encouraged students to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of all their professors. Since that time, Omega professors have begun to assign higher grades in their classes, and overall student grade averages at Omega have risen by thirty percent. Potential employers apparently believe the grades at Omega are inflated; this would explain why Omega graduates have not been as successful at getting jobs as have graduates from nearby Alpha University. To enable its graduates to secure better jobs, Omega University should now terminate student evaluation of professors."


This argument is well presented but not well reasoned. The dean traced back to a historical procedure about evaluating professors in this school, and concluded that it caused the overall students’ grade averages have risen.Thus, he believes that the potential employer regard that there is inflation in the grades of students in Omega and that’s the reason why graduates cannot get as good jobs as Alpha University. And to ameliorate this situation, the investing procedure should be terminated. The memorandum is plausible at the first glance, but after further examination, I find several fallacies existing in this reasoning.

To begin with, there is no evidence to prove that the procedure which was implemented 15 years ago did effect the students’ grade previously and is still effecting the current overall grade of students now. Firstly, there is no information that the overall grade rise was due to this procedure existing in this argument. Certainly it was possible the professors were trying to adulate their students by giving higher scores than the virtual level of their courses. However, it is also possible that the professors were stimulated to represent the knowledge better in their classes and utilized better teaching communication skills, and thus the students as a react received better education and get better grade. Secondly, given that the procedure did result in inflation in students’ grade to some extent, after all, 15 years is a long time. Nobody can make sure that the policy useful at that time is still working at today. It’s possible students in the current time work harder than those 15 years ago because they are facing a more critical competition. Hence, the temporal reasoning is specious as represented in this way.


Moreover, granted that this evaluating procedure has truly inflated the grade level, there is still lack of information to confirm this is the reason for bad employment situation of students of Omega. This is an obvious, “after this, therefore, because of this” fallacy. The first question is, how can the employers unreasonably believe the grades provided by Omega are for sure inflated? Probably some may argue that enterprise also has the measures to get to know the status of different universities. But this assumption was not indicated in this memorandum. Additionally, the second question is, isn’t it possible that there are any other fallacies with the student resources for employment of Omega school compared to the nearby Alpha University as mentioned? Of course yes. It is possible that the Omega mainly focused on the social society majors, such as psychology, philosophy and so on while the enterprises in this region reversely require most of the engineering students. And it is also possible that a higher portion of students in Omega prefer to continue studying the master degree or make other choices such as applying for oversea schools rather than finding jobs, and leading to a result that the employment situation is not as good as other schools. Therefore, equating all the reasons into the evaluating procedure is unfair and thus the reasoning is not believable.

Last but not least, it is said in the end of this memorandum that Omega school should stop this evaluation process to make graduated secure better jobs. However, the arguer fails to realize the other cons which can be resulted within this decision. Probably it will be true that the grades will return back to a normal level as the dean expected, but it can also relieve the professors’ serous attitudes towards teaching. As we all know, no restriction, no gain. As a result, the students will not be able to attain sufficient knowledge and an even worse employment may happen.

To sum up, lacking of the information which is crucial to several aspects in this memorandum, this memorandum cannot persuade readers based on the current reasoning. To make it believable, the causal relationship between the evaluating process to the low overall grade lever, the time factor analyzed as above, and also the validated bad-employment reasons should be further illustrated.

lmcdragonflyUID: 2601914

Issue 184
"It is a grave mistake to theorize before one has data."
If not for innumerable theories and their corresponding further research and validation, the history of mankind couldn’t have been resplendent and bright. With the duty of guidance human being advancing towards the eternal truths, theories without a doubt are supposed to be as accurate and precise as they can. Generally, in natural science and economic realm, practice with persuading data is the most common measure to facilitate a rational and objective theory before it is publicized unless somehow the relevant data cannot be provided. However, in art and psychological realm, theories which normally come from perceptual and subjective recognization are acceptable with experience and further exploration into the precedent topics, rather than physical data.

Normally, in the natural science such as economics（经济学是社会科学？）, mathematics, and physics, it is undeniable that the validity of a theory has to be setup on the basis of verification of practical information. In the broad sense, science doesn’t acknowledge vacant sayings without elaborate statistics, and this common point to some extent restricts the adulterating researches and thus maintains a fair and convictive atmosphere for advancement of our life. If no data is available before theorizing, the guarantees of its objective precision will be absent, and the border between theory and fantasy will be blurred as well. In the narrow sense, the data supporting theories can also directly reflect the consequence of an event to some extent, so it could be much easier for people to reveal principle and to form correct theory. Anyhow, the support of experimental data is crucial for theorization. The experiments of extremely cold refrigeration which were designed by the team of Onnes and led to the discovery of superconductivity are good examples that experiment and technique improvement drives theoretical development. Newton’s theory of universal gravitation and the three laws of motion also came from thousands of times experiments and also later clearly represent a simple but essential discipline of our cosmic.（牛顿的例子想当然了，至少万有引力不是实验做出来的，而是开普特第三定律结合牛顿第二定律推出来的，这样表述欠妥，
感觉有个问题是：data一定是实验中的具体数据吗？前人留下的理论，资料不是data吗？从这个角度说万有引力也是根据data得出的。）（感觉作者的抽象论证能力真是强，in broad sense，这段不是一般人可以驾驭的。）

However, not all the cases about theorizing can be directly verified by data, even in natural science area. When the experiment conditions are beyond verification scope, scientists also use thought experiments and other methods to achieve the purpose of validation. It frequently happens when particular physical experiments are impossible to conduct, which are labeled by Carl Gustav Hempel as “theoretical experiments”. A famous example if Einstein’s relativism theory, to verifying which a light beam should be chased but impossible. As a unique use of scientific thought experiment, instead of a physical experiment, it was never able to be carried out but led to a successful theory that was proven by other empirical means. Hence, it is a hasty conclusion that all the theories should be supported with particular data, without consideration of those cases which cannot be verified with data.

Furthermore, data is not so much important as experience, observation, and speculation in most of the social science and psychologies realm. First of all, it’s not easy to obtain quantitative criteria in these areas. How can we measure people’s thought toward a specific event? How can we calculate the motivation serious degree when they action? Some may argue that this is also a particular sort of data, but actually most of the theories in perceptual sense were raised based on minority of people’s thinking or even only the thinker who raised the theory himself, and then, on the second step, were agreed or reproached later in the public. Taking Froid’s theories about Eros and Thanatos, mostly came from his understanding towards this world and the precedent cognization about subconscious inside this realm, was never supported by those statistical evidences. But all the controversial arguments about it don’t impede the immortality of its legacy. Secondly, perceptual results usually stem at deepen thinking about people’s mental world, and it is obviously of instability. Quite different with scientific truth, people’s thoughts change as per the time passing by and environment changing, simply put, theories for these abstracted topics are extremely impossible to be deduced from physical data.（例子很好）

In conclusion, admittedly, on the premise that the data can be able to be collected to fortify the theory’s principle, especially in natural science area, we should try the best to use practical information for the verification a theory. Meanwhile, for those realm concerning the mental areas of people, the theories can also be supported by speculation of various perspectives of this world.
关键是data的定义问题，前面一段论证局限在data是实验数据。或者数据就是数字的，这是个误解。
本文的逻辑基础是data是数字相关的，而那些前人留下的资料和思想，就不是data，这点需要在文首定义。作者的文字功力还是了得，佩服。但感觉issue要拿分，关键还是要看文章的思想。

TOPIC: ARGUMENT9 - The following appeared in a memorandum from a dean at Omega University.

"Fifteen years ago, Omega University implemented a new procedure that encouraged students to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of all their professors. Since that time, Omega professors have begun to assign higher grades in their classes, and overall student grade averages at Omega have risen by thirty percent. Potential employers apparently believe the grades at Omega are inflated; this would explain why Omega graduates have not been as successful at getting jobs as have graduates from nearby Alpha University. To enable its graduates to secure better jobs, Omega University should now terminate student evaluation of professors."

This argument is well presented but not well reasoned. The dean traced back to a historical procedure about evaluating professors in this school, and concluded that it caused the overall students’ grade averages have risen.Thus, he believes that the potential employer regard that there is inflation in the grades of students in Omega and that’s the reason why graduates cannot get as good jobs as Alpha University. And to ameliorate this situation, the investing procedure should be terminated. The memorandum is plausible at the first glance, but after further examination, I find several fallacies existing in this reasoning.
To begin with, there is no evidence to prove that the procedure which was implemented 15 years ago did effect（？was responsible for） the students’ grade previously and is still effecting the current overall grade of students now. Firstly, there is no information that the overall grade rise was due to this procedure existing in this argument. Certainly it was possible the professors were trying to adulate their students by giving higher scores than the virtual level of their courses. (支持作者观点的话还是不说为好)However, it is also possible that the professors were stimulated to represent the knowledge better in their classes and utilized better teaching communication skills, and thus the students as a react received better education and get better grade. Secondly, given that the procedure did result in inflation in students’ grade to some extent, after all, 15 years is a long time. Nobody can make sure that the policy useful at that time is still working at today. It’s possible students in the current time work harder than those 15 years ago because they are facing a more critical competition. Hence, the temporal reasoning is specious as represented in this way.（如果分成两段写是不是更好一点？）

Moreover, granted that this evaluating procedure has truly inflated the grade level, there is still lack of information to confirm this is the reason for bad employment situation of students of Omega. This is an obvious, “after this, therefore, because of this” fallacy. The first question is, how can the employers unreasonably believe the grades provided by Omega are for sure inflated? Probably some may argue that enterprise also has the measures to get to know the status of different universities. But this assumption was not indicated in this memorandum. Additionally, the second question is, isn’t it possible that there are any other fallacies with the student resources for employment of Omega school compared to the nearby Alpha University as mentioned? Of course yes. It is possible that the Omega mainly focused on the social society majors, such as psychology, philosophy and so on while the enterprises in this region reversely require most of the engineering students. And it is also possible that a higher portion of students in Omega prefer to continue studying the master degree or make other choices such as applying for oversea schools rather than finding jobs, and leading to a result that the employment situation is not as good as other schools. Therefore, equating all the reasons into the evaluating procedure is unfair and thus the reasoning is not believable.
Last but not least, it is said in the end of this memorandum that Omega school should stop this evaluation process to make graduated secure better jobs. However, the arguer fails to realize the other cons which can be resulted within this decision. Probably it will be true that the grades will return back to a normal level as the dean expected, but it can also relieve the professors’ serous attitudes towards teaching. As we all know, no restriction, no gain. As a result, the students will not be able to attain sufficient knowledge and an even worse employment may happen.
To sum up, lacking of the information which is crucial to several aspects in this memorandum, this memorandum cannot persuade readers based on the current reasoning. To make it believable, the causal relationship between the evaluating process to the low overall grade lever, the time factor analyzed as above, and also the validated bad-employment reasons should be further illustrated.

评语：A很不错。居然有674个字，我I也写不了那么多。作者的论证是非常到位的，文字功底很好。学习。