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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Nice Site

Nice Site

by John Cole|  September 7, 20057:24 pm| 19 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links

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Here is an interesting weblog that consists of ten U. Penn students discussing their thoughts. Check ’em out.

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Previous Post: « Kelo “Backlash”
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Reader Interactions

19Comments

  1. 1.

    Nathan Lanier

    September 7, 2005 at 7:31 pm

    Nice design.

  2. 2.

    caleb

    September 7, 2005 at 7:38 pm

    Am I the only one who sees irony, or perhaps premeditation on Mr. Coles part, in linking to this site when the top post is discussing the finer points of “Reasoning”?

    ;-)

  3. 3.

    demimondian

    September 7, 2005 at 7:42 pm

    It’s unfortunate that the first page of the blog has a classic error. Obviously, the author hadn’t ever read Kant or Hume.

  4. 4.

    John S.

    September 7, 2005 at 7:54 pm

    Clean layout, though the font they are using is just a bit on the tiny side…sort of like reading a blog that consists entirely of the fine print you find at the bottom of a contract.

  5. 5.

    Emma Zahn

    September 7, 2005 at 8:08 pm

    Personally, I believe that all people are rational beings capable of choosing what best suits their self interest in any given moment.

    This is so sweet. S/he is so young and apparently hasn’t been reading your site lately.

  6. 6.

    Otto Man

    September 7, 2005 at 8:10 pm

    Awesome. I love being lectured to by 19 year olds.

  7. 7.

    Nathan Lanier

    September 7, 2005 at 9:20 pm

    You read Juan Cole?

  8. 8.

    Jim Caputo

    September 7, 2005 at 9:23 pm

    Filed under: Excellent Links |

    I wonder what John found so “excellent” (say the word in your best Montgomery Burns voice).

    Could it be this smug comment?

    Pay attention, Ms. Sheehan. Somewhere in this story you may find the answer to your question about what noble cause your son died for.

    or maybe this…

    As millions remain stranded, homeless, and jobless in Louisiana and surrounding areas, the Left is out in full force, blaming Bush for his supposedly poor response to Hurricane Katrina.

    or perhaps this…

    Call it domestic abuse, but if you havn’t noticed, conservatives are using hurricane Katrina to push their agenda. Except it’s not such a bad thing.

    I wasn’t surprised to find any of that there. Considering the tone around here, it was pretty much what I expected.

  9. 9.

    John Cole

    September 7, 2005 at 9:44 pm

    Since I have to explain everything to the nattering nabobs (thanks Spiro!), it is filed under excellent links because that is the catch-all category for things I link to but don’t really talk about or comment on.

    Someone emailed me, said they had started the web site and had a bunch of college students writing there, I gave it a 30 second perusal and linked it to help them get some exposure. Kinda like the kind of thing people are supposed to do, and the kind of thing established blogs did for me.

    I am sorry it did not meet your high standards, but maybe the rest of the people who come here will find it useful.

  10. 10.

    Pb

    September 7, 2005 at 10:44 pm

    Heh Jim, I couldn’t help but notice those comments as well. I was thinking, “Oh look, young conservative shills! How cute!”

    Then I read a bit more closely and saw that someone liked to use the word ‘Libertarian’ a whole lot.

    And then I was thinking, “Oh look, *selfish* young conservative shills!” :)

    P.S. Apologies to any actual principled (and especially any non-selfish) Libertarians out there, this obviously is not intended to apply to you. But some people who call themselves “Libertarian” are really just in it for all the tax cuts, which currently aligns quite nicely with Bush’s policies.

  11. 11.

    Nathan Lanier

    September 7, 2005 at 11:24 pm

    Jesus, some of you people will nitpick at anything.

  12. 12.

    jobiuspublius

    September 7, 2005 at 11:54 pm

    Otto Man Says:

    Awesome. I love being lectured to by 19 year olds.

    It’s an opportunity to mentor a young mind.

  13. 13.

    Oh,Boy.Stupidity!

    September 8, 2005 at 3:25 am

    Yeah, I liked the site. It’s refreshing to see college kids actually thinking on their own instead of regurgitating the same old tired leftist groupthink: US and capitalism are bad.

    It’s amazing how this site’s resident leftists are up in arms about how bad FEMA’s response is. Two months from now, the same lefties will be crowing about nationalizing health care, you know, for the children.

  14. 14.

    John S.

    September 8, 2005 at 8:41 am

    Oh,Boy.Stupidity!

    What’s in a name?

    Yeah, I liked the site. It’s refreshing to see college kids actually thinking on their own instead of regurgitating the same old tired leftist groupthink: US and capitalism are bad.

    I guess yours pretty much says it.

  15. 15.

    p.lukasiak

    September 8, 2005 at 8:50 am

    why am I not surprised that John-Boy endorses a student blog whose managing editor is a proud member of “Free Republic”.

    John would help restore at least some of what was passing for his credibility if he changes the category of this post from “excellent links” to “general stupidity”.

    (And, as someone who is familiar with Penn and its publications, this blog appears to be the antecedent of the “libertarian” “Red and Blue”—-a publication that was notorious for its undisguised racism in the name of “libertarian” principles…)

  16. 16.

    docG

    September 8, 2005 at 9:42 am

    As a recovering academic, its good to see young people using their education to think a little about something that’s not on the test.

    My random thought for the morning, based on this and other comments sections:

    1. If you don’t like SOME of John Cole’s posts, pass by the ones you don’t like, new posts come frequently.
    2. If you don’t like ANY of the posts here, stop reading.
    3. If you like MOST of the posts, click the tip jar.
    4. If you comment, click the tip jar.
    5. If you just want to fight, get in a long term relationship in the real world ;-}

  17. 17.

    jobiuspublius

    September 8, 2005 at 10:43 am

    Guess which form of reasonning is most popular.

    A)


    Induction
    or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is the process of reasoning in which the premises of an argument support the conclusion, but do not ensure it. It is to ascribe properties or relations to types based on limited observations of particular tokens; or to formulate laws based on limited observations of recurring phenomenal patterns. Induction is used, for example, in using specific propositions such as:

    * The ice is cold.
    * A billiard ball moves when struck with a cue.

    to infer general propositions such as:

    * All ice is cold. or: There is no ice in the Sun.
    * For every action, there is an equal and opposite re-action.

    …

    B)

    In traditional Aristotelian logic, deductive reasoning is inference in which the conclusion is of lesser or equal generality than the premises, as opposed to inductive reasoning, where the conclusion is of greater generality than the premises. Other theories of logic define deductive reasoning as inference in which the conclusion is just as certain as the premises, as opposed to inductive reasoning, where the conclusion can have less certainty than the premises. In both approaches, the conclusion of a deductive inference is necessitated by the premises: the premises can’t be true while the conclusion is false. (In Aristotelian logic, the premises in inductive reasoning can also be related in this way to the conclusion.)
    rules of inference and replacement in deductive logic
    Enlarge
    rules of inference and replacement in deductive logic

    Examples

    Valid:

    All men are mortal.
    Socrates is a man.
    Therefore Socrates is mortal.

    The picture is above the desk.
    The desk is above the floor.
    Therefore the picture is above the floor.

    Invalid:

    Every criminal opposes the government.
    Everyone in the opposition party opposes the government.
    Therefore everyone in the opposition party is a criminal.

    This is invalid because the premises fail to establish commonality between membership in the opposition party and being a criminal. This is the famous fallacy of undistributed middle.

  18. 18.

    jobiuspublius

    September 8, 2005 at 10:50 am

    Oh, I forgot. Anybody notice the differance between the “nice” link and the wiki-pedia entries? Has U. Penn. invented their own system of logic?

    Deductive Reasoning

    Duductive reasoning starts with a certain set of premises, from which you directly draw a conclusion. Below is an example of the deductive reasoning process:

    Premise 1: Michael is a man
    Premise 2: Michael is 95 years old
    Premise 3: Michael has arthritis
    Conclusion: Michael cannot run a four minute mile

    The conclusion that Michael probably can’t run a mile in four minutes is a logical conclusion to reach based upon empirical evidence. Michael would have to be irrationally talented to accomplish such a feat at his age. Any person who defies this duductive conclusion would be an exception to the rule.
    Inductive Reasoning

    Inductive reasoning starts with a conclusion, and makes inferences about the premise — working a problem inside out. Below is an example of what I’m talking about.

    Premise 1: Conservatives don’t like gun control
    Premise 2: Ann Coulter is a conservative
    Conclusion: Ann Coulter doesn’t like gun control

    While this inductive conclusion is indeed rational, it differs from deductive reason in that we don’t necessarily have to accept an inductive reason as always true. I’m sure there are some conservatives out there who actually believe in the cause of gun control. Nevertheless, according to logic it is unlikely and irrational for a conservative to support gun control.

  19. 19.

    Captain O

    September 8, 2005 at 6:49 pm

    “U Penn?” You are so not from Philadelphia.

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