On the great website of Yahoo! they have a few "news" posts that they cycle through for the day. On such was a video of a cat ridding a Roomba (I believe they are those robot vacuum cleaners that roam around our home vacuuming so you do not have to). The caption for this video on the Yahoo! page read as such: "When it comes to dogs, some cats think they're superior — but this one thinks he's invincible."
To read the Yahoo! post go to : http://m.www.yahoo.com/?r0=1263071513
To watch the cat go to: http://video.yahoo.com/network/100284668?v=6646643&l=3774740
The claim that they are making about this video is that when it comes to dogs, some cats think they are superior.
The reason they use is that this cat is riding a Roomba and swatting a dog which apparently makes that cat feel invincible.
The complete arguement with the claim and reason is: When it comes to dogs, some cats think they are superior because this cat is riding a Roomba and swatting a dog, making him feel invincible.
The assumption they are using is: Whatever cat is riding a Roomba will make that cat think that they are superior to dogs.
The audience at first could understand that some cats do infact think that they are superior to dogs becuase of their own expereinces with observing some cats taunting acts infront of dogs. So the assumption they use could be valid to audience members if they understand that some cats act as though they are superior to dogs. However, though some of the audience my not initally accept that cats feel superior to dogs. The audience is drawn to the claim because at first it does not seem acceptable with the reason they are using to back up the claim.
Personally, I think this arguement is very weak, though it does draw the attention of viewers becuase of the unexpected video photoage. How many people have seen a cat riding a Roomba? I haven't until this moment. But just because a cat is riding a Roomba and swatting at a dog does not mean the cat feels superior to dogs. Cats do weird things just becuase they can and no one can actually figure out what the thought process is of a cat. You cannot get into a cat's head and see their thoughts. The assumption they are using is guilty of commiting the fallacy of jumping on the bandwagon (just becuase many people believe that the claim is true does not actually mean that it is true).
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I wasn't able to find the article on yahoo, but judging on what you said, I also believe that that is a weak argument. I think the author definitely has a biased opinion towards cats. And being more of a dog person myself, I think that the cat just being cruel towards the dog. And I find it funny that the assumptions were made about the cat and it's belief that it is invincible. So by saying the cat was invincible are they saying the dog is a coward? And in this case all dogs are cowards?
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't an article, it was a video with that caption.
ReplyDeleteI guess this means that dogs are coward to cats. But they did say "some" do it probably doesn't apply to ALL dogs. The problem with saying ALL or EVERYTHING is that it there is just about always and excpetion to the rule somewhere.
I agree that is seems like a weak claim. Seriously there are other logical reasons for why the cat was swatting at the dog. Plus this was just one instance that they made their claim on.
ReplyDeleteI don't really think they are trying to say that dogs are cowardly; their focus seems to be on the cat.