PHIL1010: CRITICAL THINKINg

2. Consider the following argumentative analogy:

“If you found by chance a watch or other piece containing intricate mechanisms,

you would infer that it had been made by someone. But all around us in nature

we find by chance intricate natural mechanisms, so we should therefore infer that

these too have a Maker. The only difference, on the side of nature, is that of the

intricacy being more and greater and exceeding all computation (William Paley, clergyman,Natural Theology, 1802).

(a)What is the analogue?

(b)What is the primary subject?

(c)If you’re careful, you’ll note two similarities. What are they?

(d)What is the conclusory feature?

(e)Put the argument in standard form.

(f)Paley himself mentions a dissimilarity between the analogue and

the primary subject. Tell me what that dissimilarity is. Do you think it’s relevant Why or why not?

(g) Are the premises independent or dependent? If they’re

independent, tell me what makes them independent. If they’re

dependent, tell me what makes them dependent.

3.

Consider the following passage:

Under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, official U.S. law stipulates that the United

States would view any conflict over Taiwan with grave concern. Any war between

Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China would therefore quite likely embroi

the United States. Look at the 1995-96 Taiwan Strait crisis, too. As it showed, the

United States does not take its interest in Taiwan’s security lightly.

(a)Write down the statements the passage contains.

(b)Write down the statement that serves as the conclusion.

(c)How you can tell that statement is the conclusion?

(d) Is the argument inductive or deductive? If it’s inductive, tell me

what makes it inductive. If it’s deductive, tell me what makes it deductive.

4.Consider the following passage:

When it comes to discussions about slowing population growth, we tend to

focus on the poor, preaching to them about birth control. But while poverty-

stricken parents with four, five, or six children are the most publicized aspect of

population growth, they are by no means the most important numerical aspect of

the problem. The four-fifths of the nation’s families who earn more than the

poverty-line income and who can afford two, three, or four children produce a

greater total of children than the one poor couple out of five who may have six

youngsters (Lilienthal, David, “300,000,000 Americans Would Be Wrong,” New York Times , January 9, 1966).

(a)The author is recommending that we do something, but his

recommendation remains unstated. Write down what the author is

recommending.

(b) The author’s support for his recommendation can be represented

using only one premise. Write down this premise.

5.Consider the following statement:

Classes are cancelled today.

(a) Write down a credible explanation in which this statement serves as an explanandum. (Make sure it’s obviously an explanation.)

(b)Write down a credible argument in which this same statement serves as a conclusion. (Make sure it’s obviously an argument.)

(c)What makes the statement in 4a an explanandum rather than a

conclusion?

6.Recall the following argument from Exam 2, presumably made by an

airline representative and addressed to a potential passenger:

Look, a service animal is an animal that’s been trained to help a person with

disabilities, and service animals are certainly allowed on our flight. But the boa

constrictor around your neck can’t even be trained. This demonstrates that your

boa doesn’t count as a service animal. So I don’t think you’re allowed to bring it

on the flight.

Suppose the passenger responds thusly:

Actually, I think I am, because my boa does count as a service animal. Boas are

sensitive to the patterns of neuronal electrical activity that typically precede

epileptic convulsions. My boa has been trained to give me a slight squeeze

whenever she senses that I might be about to have a seizure.

(a) Write down the two conclusions contained in the passenger’s

response.

(b) Tell me which of these conclusions is the conclusion of the

passenger’s subargument.

(c) The conclusion of the passenger’s subargument serves as one of two

premises in the passenger’s main argument. Write down the main argument’s other

premise. (Keep in mind that the passenger

is replying to someone else, so for the sake of ease and brevity the

passenger might have left some relevant considerations unstated.)