TFY Chapter 10-12 Exercises

Chapter 10

Fallacies:

What’s a Faulty Argument?

Chapter Quiz

Identify the following arguments either as NF for not fallacious or by the types of fallacious arguments indicated for each section. In some cases, you may find that more than one fallacy applies; choose the one you feel to be the most appropriate. Be prepared to defend your answers.

Part I

In this section, look for arguments that are Misapplied Euphemisms, Band Wagon, Appeal to Fear, and Nonfallacious.

1. It was announced today that our troops, who have been shelled for some weeks now in Lebanon, have made a strategic transfer to their ships offshore of that country. ME
2. In China, Europe, and Brazil, efforts are being made to control the population growth that adds one billion people to the planet every decade. NF
3. “Africa, the birthplace of humankind, provides a disturbing clue to our future. As I fly across areas that were forests just years ago and see them becoming desert, I worry. Too many people crowd this continent, so poor they strip the land for food and wood for fuel. The subject of my life’s work and our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and gorillas are slaughtered for food or captured for the live-animal trade. Pollution of air, land, and water abounds.” NF
4. Five million people have already seen this movie. Shouldn’t you? BW
5. Why do I think the president’s program is sound? It is sound because the polls show that the vast majority supports it. BW
6. By a margin of two to one, shoppers prefer Brand X to any of the leading competitors. Reason enough to buy Brand X. BW
7. What if your bank fails and takes your life savings? Buy diamonds-the safe investment. AF
8. There is virtually no tar in these cigarettes. ME
9. It has been estimated that illegal aliens are costing our taxpayers in excess of $5 billion a year. Should our senior citizens be denied full health care benefits, should our children suffer overcrowded classrooms in order to subsidize the costs of illegal aliens? AF
10. There are plenty of people out there on the streets waiting to get your job. If you go on strike, you may find yourself out there with them. AF
11. The natural way to relieve muscular pain is through our vitamin ointment. It relieves pain from burns, stiff neck, backache, swelling, and so forth. ME

Chapter 11

Exercise

Inductive Reasoning and Inductive Fallacies

Chapter Quiz

Rate the following statements as true or false. If you decide the statement is false, then revise the statement to make it a true one.

1. Inductive reasoning is also known as the scientific method. T
2. You are out swimming in the ocean and you see some fish with prominent sharp teeth swimming around you. You know that some fish with sharp teeth are predatory. You take off without waiting around to see if they might harm you. Your decision is based on analogous reasoning. T
3. You could use inductive reasoning to put together a picture puzzle if all the pieces were available, even if there were no box cover to show what the whole picture would look like when it was finished. T
4. There is a contest to guess how many gumballs are in a jar. You can use inductive reasoning to figure this out. T
5. Inductive reasoning could help you cook a new dish by carefully following instructions from a cookbook. F
6. Inductive reasoning can extrapolate reliable predictions from only one or two examples of a phenomenon.
7. Counterexamples can test or refute theories or generalizations. T
8. A hypothesis is a theory that can lead to new facts and discoveries, but the hypothesis itself is not a certainty. T
9. Statistical evidence is always reliable regardless of the attitudes of the people who research and present the information. F

Chapter 12

Deductive Reasoning: How Do I Reason from Premises?

Exercise

Chapter Quiz

1. A premise is a reason given to support a conclusion. T
2. Syllogisms are used in logic because logicians like to make their knowledge arcane, or hidden and secret. F
3. Logic is less concerned with truth than with whether one statement follows reasonably from another. T
4. Reasoning occurs only in deduction – not in induction. F
5. A generalization reached through induction can become a premise used in a deductive syllogism. T
6. “All homeowners are taxpayers. He is a property owner. Therefore, he is a taxpayer.” This is a valid argument. T
7. “Bloodletting reduces fever. This patient has fever. This patient needs bloodletting.” This syllogism shows valid reasoning although both premises may not be true. T
8. “White-skinned people are superior to dark-skinned people. Therefore, it is the manifest destiny of white-skinned people to rule dark-skinned people.” No country would ever accept such fallacious reasoning as this. F

State whether the reasoning in each of the following syllogisms is correct or incorrect:

9. “If the two parties agree, then there is no strike. The two parties agree.

Therefore, there is no strike. Correct

10. “If the two parties agree, then there is no strike.

There is no strike. Incorrect

Therefore, the two parties agree.

11. “If the two parties agree, then there is no strike.

The two parties do not agree. Incorrect

Therefore, the two parties do not agree.

12. “If the two parties agree, then there is no strike.

There is a strike. Correct

Therefore, the two parties do not agree.