Sign reasoning was the most difficult type of reasoning to grasp for me. I read a summary on it but that did not help at all. I found this link to a powerpoint and it turned out to be very helpful:
http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/rgass/HCOM%20235%20Fall%202008/Sign%20reasoning.ppt
This powerpoint shows a lot of real life examples of sign reasoning including one that I thought was funny, signs of your significant other cheating.
Sign reasoning is when the existence of one thing indicates another event, but does not mean it causes the other event. The website uses the phrase "Judging a book by its cover" is exactly that. The cover of a book has nothing to do with the actual reading content of the book.
Other examples:
"That girl is stick skinny, she probably is anorexic."
"He hasn't been picking up his phone, he is probably ignoring me."
Both of these examples are judgements and opinions which have to do with a sign that makes them believe something.
Your example of sign reasoning was interesting. I felt that there were many example of sign reasoning in this power point that showed sign reasoning. For example, how Al Gore predicts global warming and signs of people using steroids and how they are anorexic. I found these examples fun as well as interesting. Many of them included common sense, but some didn’t. I liked the way in which you described sign reasoning. You stated that “sign reasoning is when the existence of one thing indicates another event, but does not mean it causes the other event.” I found this explanation to be broken down and to the point. Great job with the examples.
ReplyDeleteI could relate with your post because I too had trouble with this type of reasoning. Although this was not the exact one I wrote about, it was almost about to be because I had a very difficult time understanding it. Thankfully I clicked on your account because after reading your post and examples I feel like I seriously have a better understanding of sign reasoning. The link you provided was very helpful as it gave many easy to understand examples. I'll be referring to your profile in the future so please keep up the good work.
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