Week 6 — Readings & Resources

Your primary reading is Chapter 6 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 38–46 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (17–20 min total)

• Vagueness — 1000-Word Philosophy
• CRITICAL THINKING - Fallacies: Equivocation — Wireless Philosophy
• CRITICAL THINKING - Fallacies: Fallacy of Composition — Wireless Philosophy

① Fuzzy edges and sharp lines

Chapter 6, Section “Find the fuzzy edge: vagueness versus ambiguity” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Fuzzy edges and double meanings” · Remember: a vague word has a gray zone you fix by drawing a line, and an ambiguous word has two meanings you fix by naming one.

• Vagueness — 1000-Word Philosophy — a short essay on words like tall, bald, and rich, on what a borderline case is, and on the old puzzle of the heap of sand; read the first two sections closely and skim the three proposed solutions. Use it while working through the Week-6 module overview. (reading, 6–9 min)
• The Sorites Paradox: Navigating Vagueness in Human Ideas and Concepts — Intriguing Insights — a three-minute look at the heap puzzle and at why everyday words such as heap, beauty, and intelligence have no sharp boundary; as you listen, name a clear heap, a clear non-heap, and a pile in the gray zone between them. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)
• 5. Vagueness and Ambiguity: Term Logic — Logic Made Accessible — a five-minute lesson that sets vague terms beside ambiguous ones; pause after each example and say whether the trouble is a fuzzy edge or two meanings. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)
• Blizzard — National Weather Service glossary — a one-paragraph glossary entry that turns a vague everyday word into a checkable one with a wind speed, a visibility, and a duration; read it as a real precising definition at work. (reading, 2–3 min)

② When one word changes its meaning

Chapter 6, Section “Catch the shift: equivocation” · Session 1, Segment 3, “The word that shifts” · Remember: underline the key word in each line and write its meaning beside it; if the meanings differ, the argument equivocates.

• CRITICAL THINKING - Fallacies: Equivocation — Wireless Philosophy — a six-and-a-half-minute animated lesson on arguments that use one word in two senses, with a playful example about a star; this builds on Week 3's work with validity, since an equivocating argument can look valid until you check what each word means. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)

③ Parts, wholes, and the features that travel

Chapter 6, Section “Parts and wholes: composition and division” · Session 2, Segment 4, “Parts and wholes” · Remember: before calling composition or division, ask whether this particular feature is the kind that passes between parts and whole.

• CRITICAL THINKING - Fallacies: Fallacy of Composition — Wireless Philosophy — a four-minute animated lesson on reasoning from parts to a whole, with a puzzle about colorless atoms and colorful cats; compare it with the chapter's red-brick wall, where the feature does travel. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)
• Fallacy of Division — Carneades.org — a ninety-second explanation of the mirror-image mistake, reasoning from a whole to its parts; afterward, say in one sentence why the orchestra passage fits it. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)

④ Words that carry a verdict

Chapter 6, Section “Hear the slant: loaded language, euphemism, and dysphemism” · Session 2, Segment 5, “Words that carry a verdict” · Remember: rewrite slanted wording in plain, neutral words first, and judge the claim only after the slant is gone.

• Prebunking Manipulation Techniques: Emotional Language — Info Interventions — a two-minute cartoon on how emotionally charged words make a post spread and push a reaction; as you watch, rewrite one of its charged phrases in neutral words. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)
• Use of the Term Natural on Food Labeling — U.S. Food and Drug Administration — a short agency page explaining that the word natural on a food label has no formal definition, only a longstanding policy; read it for how a warm, vague label word can sell a product before anyone says what it means. (reading, 4–6 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

• Equivocation (Fallacies) — Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy — the reference entry's short paragraph on equivocation, with two compact examples; read that one paragraph and skip the rest of the long list for now. (reading, 3–5 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

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