Skip to main content

#10 Identify elements of Toulmin's model in Russel's essay 'Keeping Errors at Bay'.





Arguments often make their way to essays and writings in order to  give emphasis on an idea or to clarify certain meaning. Toulmin's model has been used in Russel's essay to throw light on the nature of commitment and prevention of error. Each element of Toulmin's model has been deployed to convey the message that error can be prevented by simple consciousness on our daily attitude,dogmatism and behavior. 

The writer explicitly states that No superhuman genius is required to avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind are prone. This is the claim of the essay.  But the writer is cautious in limiting the scope of his argument to avoid possible oppositions. He has used qualifiers to make this essay seem more conceivable and grounded. He writes that a few simple rules will keep us, not from all but from silly errors. Here, a few, simple and not from all are used as qualifiers.

According to the essay, avoiding  prejudices and dogmatism is one simple rule to prevent errors. The next rule is to be wary of opinions that flatter our self esteem. Also prevention of error can be done by reducing our fear . These are presented as the evidences to the claim.

The writer points out our weakness in thinking that we know about something when in fact we don't. This prevents us from making an observation to find out the reality. We should also become aware of opinions held in circles different from your own. One can use his psychological imagination to imagine an argument with a person having different bias. All of us are in one way or other firmly convinced of the superior excellence of sex, religion, country, culture or race that we belong to. Getting rid of such conviction is next step to prevent errors.These are the backings given to evidences.
If an opinion contrary to our own makes us angry then it is time for us to reconsider whether our belief is going beyond what evidence warrants. And becoming aware of foreign customs doesn't always have beneficial effect. These two statements are presented as rebuttal in the given essay.

Hence, 'Keeping Errors at bay' is a perspective essay that uses the elements of Toulmin's model to convey its message.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#6 Essay on an issue presented in the four tusked elephant following the structure outlined by Toulmin.

Animal hunting and poaching is a serious crime. As seen in Armand Denis’ The four-Tusked Elephant, if a person is determined to do something for his sake, whatever the way is, he will end up doing it. Many animals may have lost lives for his search for the Four-Tusked elephant. The constitutions of different countries grants protection to these animals. And for the people trying to poach these animals, the constitutions grant severe punishment, which is imprisonment or fine. Some of the countries even grants death penalty for the person trying to defy Animal Protection Act. Source www.elephantjournal.com We can see lot of newspaper article quoting “Twelve people arrested with five tiger-skins” or “People trying to cross border with 15 Rhino horns taken into custody”. People risk their lives to kill animals and sell these animals’ body parts for money. The international market offer huge amount of money to tempt these peoples. Even with these strict rules, it i...
Post a Comment
Read more

#12 Concept paper on "Software Freedom" to Microsoft Corporation on behalf of Kathmandu University

SOFTWARE FREEDOM 1.BACKGROUND It is a fact that Microsoft Cooperation is one of the best company in the field of information and technology. From the day of establishment, Microsoft Cooperation is wining hearts of many people. The products such as Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 10 are among the best and are still used world-wide. Only such big and best company can design the powerful and effective programming language, C#. The fact that Microsoft Cooperation is conducting research in different fields of data processing and Artificial Intelligence( AI ) overlaps the fact about Kathmandu University. Kathmandu University, Department of Computer Science and Engineering ( DoCSE ) has started a program on Data Processing and AI which has attracted all the data science enthusiast and AI  researchers. Kathmandu University has felt the need for Software Freedom form a long time to facilitate students and researchers. 2.PURPOSE The students and fac...
Post a Comment
Read more

#3 Armand Denis and Ignaz Semmelweis. Differences? Similarities?

Armand Denis After going through the text, let us compare the research process followed by the researchers Armand Denis and Ignaz Semmelweis. Both Armand Denis and Ignaz Semmelweis were interested in a particular topic. They followed a hunch and got engaged in a field that were of their interest, through ups and downs, failure and most importantly, coincidences. Armand Denis started with an assumption about the existence of  the four-tusked elephant, asked about it to the Pigmeys, bribing them for information. He asked people to help him to verify the existence of the four-tusked elephant but wasn't completely prove his hypothesis. While on the other hand, Semmelweis started by observing the death of women in labor, read the medical documentations, examined if there were any trends, conducted experiments to reach the concrete conclusion. Both Armand Denis and Ignaz Semmelweis sought for the helping hands in their way of reaching the concrete hypothesis. Semmelweis was ...
Post a Comment
Read more