Aristotle described argumentation as the following: “For to a certain extent all men attempt to discuss statements and to maintain them, to defend themselves, and to attack others.”
DQ1 Aristotle described argumentation as the following: “For to a certain extent all men attempt to discuss statements and to maintain them, to defend themselves, and to attack others.” Aristotle’s description of argumentation represents his view of how argumentation is a part of who we are as human beings. Do you agree or disagree with Aristotle’s viewpoint? Explain why. How has his viewpoint played a significant role in the historical development of argumentation?
DQ2 Find a blog that presents and defends an argument within one of its posts. Write a paragraph evaluating the arguments as either inductive or deductive. Provide the blog link in your paragraph response. Why do you think identifying these different elements in an argument is important?
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 2 Discussion
DQ1 When watching or reading the news, what fallacies do you see people make most often in their arguments?
DQ2 Identify a fallacy you used in a recent discussion with another person. Why did you use that fallacy and how can you address the concern without the use of the fallacy?
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 3 Discussion
DQ1 Find an example in society of a dispute that is (1) based on the ambiguity of language and (2) is not a genuine dispute. Point out the differences and propose how to resolve the dispute.
DQ2 Take a term that is related to a social issue you are personally interested in and clearly define it. For example, defining a right vs. a privilege in the debates on health care. Comment on another student’s post by seeing if you can find an exception that is excluded from the definition given.
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 4 Discussion
DQ1 Examine an argument made in public and translate its conclusion to show one of the four standard-form categorical propositions (A, E, I, or O). Does the conclusion follow from the premises? Why or why not? Second, if its premises are true, what else can you infer about the conclusion? Analyze.
*Note: Remember that standard-form categorical propositions use affirmative or negative “to be” verbs (e.g., is, are, am, was, were, be, been, being) in its copula to set up a connection between two classes — the subject (S) and the predicate (P).
DQ2 As you are learning about propositions and contradictions, write out a view that you hold on a social issue in propositional form (A, E, I, or O). What is the logical contradiction to your view? Identify a specific group that advocates the contradiction of your viewpoint.
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 5 Discussion
DQ1 Using an argument from an organization you found, create the logical contradiction for the organization’s position. Be sure to properly label the quality and quantity of the propositions.
DQ2 How would you communicate with someone who holds a different view than yourself in a way that is logically sound but does not deny the human dignity of the other person?
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 6 Discussion
DQ1 Why is it important to understand how a syllogism functions when it comes to doing advocacy work?
DQ2 Provide an argument in affirmation of the topic; it is better to protect privacy over security. Your response should be at least 250 words long and include at least one source found using resources available from the school’s library or online.
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 7 Discussion
DQ1 Research an argument in the realm of apologetics and evaluate the syllogism given (e.g., the transcended argument for the existence of God). Translate the argument into a standard-form categorical syllogism with a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion that contains a major term (predicate) and a minor term (subject). Make certain the major term, minor term, and middle term are connected by an affirmative or negative copula that uses “to be” verbs (e.g., is, are, am, was, were, be, been, being) in both premises and the conclusion.
DQ2 Find an argument against a position you hold. This can be in the realm of politics, religion, art, etc. Identify the form of the argument and state whether it is valid or invalid. Then, provide a response.
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 8 Discussion
DQ1 When you are asked to construct an ethical argument, what do you consider that to mean? Explain and discuss with other whether there are objective or subjective standards for ethical arguments.
DQ2 Find an outside source that argues for some specific ethical standards in its argumentation. Translate it into a syllogism and evaluate its position. Comment on another student’s post.
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 2 Assignment
Social Fallacies
Specialists in communication are often hired to clean up problems created by unthoughtful messaging. While advocates dedicate significant amounts of time and energy promoting causes, they often struggle to clearly identify their logical positions. To further the problem, in light of clear arguments advocates commonly utilize informal fallacies to persuade their target audiences. These weaknesses tend to create easily avoidable communications crises. The first step is to identify the communicative problems.
For this assignment, identify a social issue you are personally interested in learning more about, advocating for the cause, or are against it, and identify fallacious reasoning.
In 750-1,000words:
Research an advocate (individual or organization) that promotes a relevant social issue. Identify the organization and explain the relevancy of the social issue.
Show the steps you took to translate the position/argument you researched into a clear logical form by writing out the logical premises and conclusions from the material presented by the advocate.
Identify a minimum of five informal fallacies that are made by the advocate. Explain the fallacies themselves and how each functions.
At least two academic peer-reviewed sources are required for this paper.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 8 Assignment
Benchmark – Social Issue Analysis and Response
The skills you have been practicing throughout the course will be assessed in this paper and conclude with you constructing your own argument on a position. Your argument can be a contradiction, a support, or an alteration of the argument you’ve research. Whichever you choose should be sufficiently supported with materials covered throughout the course and your own outside research.
This assignment should continue with the social issue research conducted in Topic 2
In 1,000-1,500 words
Summarize the position/argument researched and assess it for validity. This positions/argument should be presented in a clear logical form. This includes translating their rhetoric into: premises and a conclusion, identifying the category of propositions, and the quality and the quantity of the parts.
Identify the assumptions of the position by drawing inferences from its communicated proposition to its position regarding human dignity.
Construct a valid and sound argument that contradicts, challenges, or improves the position of the organization.
At least three academic peer-reviewed sources are required for this paper.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.
This assignment measures programmatic competency
4.2: Examine the connections between ethical communication and human dignity.
4.4: Construct ethical arguments.
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 1 Assignment
Reading Exercise
Complete the exercises in the attached document, “Reading Exercises.” These exercises are also in the textbook, refer to your text should you have questions or need further examples.
Topic 1 Reading Exercises from:
Copi, Irving M. Introduction to Logic, 14th Edition. Routledge.
Chapter 1
INSTRUCTIONS
Identify the premises and conclusions in the following passages. Some premises do support the conclusion; others do not. Note that premises may support conclusions directly or indirectly and that even simple passages may contain more than one argument.
Example Problem
A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
—The Constitution of the United States, Amendment 2
Example Solution
Premise: A well-regulated militia is necessary for the security of a free state.
Conclusion: The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
PROBLEMS
5. Standardized tests have a disparate racial and ethnic impact; white andAsian students score, on average, markedly higher than their black andHispanic peers. This is true for fourth-grade tests, college entranceexams, and every other assessment on the books. If a racial gap is evidenceof discrimination, then all tests discriminate.
—Abigail Thernstrom, “Testing, the Easy Target,” The New York Times,15 January 2000
6. Good sense is, of all things in the world, the most equally distributed,for everybody thinks himself so abundantly provided with it that even those most difficult to please in all other matters do not commonly desiremore of it than they already possess.
—René Descartes, A Discourse on Method, 1637
7. When Noah Webster proposed a Dictionary of the American Language, hisearly 19th-century critics presented the following argument against it:“Because any words new to the United States are either stupid or foreign,there is no such thing as the American language; there’s just bad
English.”
—Jill Lepore, “Noah’s Mark,” The New Yorker, 6 November 2006
8. The death penalty is too costly. In New York State alone taxpayers spentmore than $200 million in our state’s failed death penalty experiment,with no one executed.In addition to being too costly, capital punishment is unfair in its application.The strongest reason remains the epidemic of exonerations ofdeath row inmates upon post-conviction investigation, including ten
New York inmates freed in the last 18 months from long sentences beingserved for murders or rapes they did not commit.
—L. Porter, “Costly, Flawed Justice,” The New York Times, 26 March 2007
9. Houses are built to live in, not to look on; therefore, let use be preferredbefore uniformity.
—Francis Bacon, “Of Building,” in Essays, 1597
10.To boycott a business or a city [as a protest] is not an act of violence, but it can cause economic harm to many people. The greater the economic impact of a boycott, the more impressive the statement it makes. At the same time, the economic consequences are likely to be shared by people who are innocent of any wrongdoing, and who can ill afford the loss of income: hotel workers, cab drivers, restaurateurs, and merchants. The boycott weapon ought to be used sparingly, if for no other reason than the harm it can cause such bystanders.
—Alan Wolfe, “The Risky Power of the Academic Boycott,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 March 2000
11.Ethnic cleansing was viewed not so long ago as a legitimate tool of foreign policy. In the early part of the 20th century forced population shifts were not uncommon; multicultural empires crumbled and nationalism drove the formation of new, ethnically homogenous countries
—Belinda Cooper, “Trading Places,” The New York Times Book Review, 17 September 2006
12.If a jury is sufficiently unhappy with the government’s case or the government’s conduct, it can simply refuse to convict. This possibility puts powerful pressure on the state to behave properly. For this reason a jury is one of the most important protections of a democracy
—Robert Precht, “Japan, the Jury,” The New York Times, 1 December 2006
13.Without forests, orangutans cannot survive. They spend more than 95 percent of their time in the trees, which, along with vines and termites, provide more than 99 percent of their food. Their only habitat is formed by the tropical rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra
—BiruteGaldikas, “The Vanishing Man of the Forest,” The New York Times, 6 January 2007
14.Omniscience and omnipotence are mutually incompatible. If God is omniscient, he must already know how he is going to intervene to change the course of history using his omnipotence. But that means he can’t change his mind about his intervention, which means he is not omnipotent
—Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
15.Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God
—Martin Luther, Last Sermon in Wittenberg, 17 January 154
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 2 Assignment
Reading Exercise
Topic 2 Reading exercises from:
Copi, Irving M. Introduction to Logic, 14th Edition. Routledge.
4.3 INSTRUCTIONS
Identify and explain the fallacies of relevance in the following passages:
PROBLEMS
1.If you can’t blame the English language and your own is unforgivingly precise, blame the microphone. That was the route Jacques Chirac took after his nuclear remark about a nuclear Iran. “Having one or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that’s not very dangerous,” Mr. Chirac said with a shrug. The press was summoned back for a retake. “I should rather have paid attention to what I was saying and understood that perhaps I was on the record,” Mr. Chirac offered, as if the record rather than the remark were the issue.
—Stacy Schiff, “Slip Sliding Away,” The New York Times, 2 February 2007
2.Nietzsche was personally more philosophical than his philosophy. His talk about power, harshness, and superb immorality was the hobby of a harmless young scholar and constitutional invalid.
—George Santayana, Egotism in German Philosophy, 1915
3.Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lances full and fair against the brazen foreheads of every defamer of his country and maligner of its honor.
For the Republican party to desert this gallant man now is worse than if an army should desert their general upon the field of battle.
—Robert G. Ingersoll, nominating speech at the
Republican National Convention, 1876
4.However, it matters very little now what the king of England either says or does; he hath wickedly broken through every moral and human obligation, trampled nature and conscience beneath his feet, and by a steady and constitutional spirit of insolence and cruelty procured for himself an universal hatred.
—Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
5.This embarrassing volume is an out-and-out partisan screed made up of illogical arguments, distorted and cherry-picked information, ridiculous generalizations and nutty asides. It’s a nasty stewpot of intellectually untenable premises and irresponsible speculation that frequently reads like a “Saturday Night Live” parody of the crackpot right.
—Michiko Kakutani, “Dispatch from Gomorrah, Savaging the Cultural Left,”
The New York Times, 6 February 2007.
6.I was seven years old when the first election campaign which I can remember took place in my district. At that time we still had no political parties, so the announcement of this campaign was received with very little interest. But popular feeling ran high when it was disclosed that one of the candidates was “the Prince.” There was no need to add Christian and surname to realize which Prince was meant. He was the owner of the great estate formed by the arbitrary occupation of the vast tracts of land reclaimed in the previous century from the Lake of Fucino. About eight thousand families (that is, the majority of the local population) are still employed today in cultivating the estate’s fourteen thousand hectares. The Prince was deigning to solicit “his” families for their vote so that he could become their deputy in parliament. The agents of the estate, who were working for the Prince, talked in impeccably liberal phrases: “Naturally,” said they, “naturally, no one will be forced to vote for the Prince, that’s understood; in the same way that no one, naturally, can force the Prince to allow people who don’t vote for him to work on his land. This is the period of real liberty for everybody; you’re free, and so is the Prince.” The announcement of these “liberal” principles produced general and understandable consternation among the peasants. For, as may easily be guessed, the Prince was the most hated person in our part of the country.
—Ignazio Silone, The God That Failed, 1949
7.According to R. Grunberger, author of A Social History of the Third Reich, Nazi publishers used to send the following notice to German readers who let their subscriptions lapse: “Our paper certainly deserves the support of every German. We shall continue to forward copies of it to you, and hope that you will not want to expose yourself to unfortunate consequences in the case of cancellation.”
8.In While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within (2006), Bruce Bawer argues that “by appeasing a totalitarian [Muslim] ideology Europe is “imperiling its liberty.” Political correctness, he writes, is keeping Europeans from defending themselves, resulting in “its self-destructive passivity, softness toward tyranny, its reflexive inclination to appease.” A review of the book in The Economist observes that Mr. Bawer “weakens his argument by casting too wide a net,” and another reviewer, Imam FatihAlev, says of Bawer’s view that “it is a constructed idea that there is this very severe difference between Western values and Muslim values.”
—“Clash Between European and Islamic Views,” in Books,
The New York Times, 8 February 2007.
9.To know absolutely that there is no God one must have infinite knowledge. But to have infinite knowledge one would have to be God. It is impossible to be God and an atheist at the same time. Atheists cannot prove that God doesn’t exist.
—“Argument Against Atheism,”
http://aaron_mp.tr¬ipod.com/i¬d2.html (2007)
10.When we had got to this point in the argument, and everyone saw that the definition of justice had been completely upset, Thrasymachus, instead of replying to me, said: “Tell me, Socrates, have you got a nurse?”
“Why do you ask such a question,” I said, “when you ought rather to be answering?”
“Because she leaves you to snivel, and never wipes your nose; she has not even taught you to know the shepherd from the sheep.”
—Plato, The Republic
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 3 Assignment
Reading Exercise
Topic 3 Reading Exercises from:
Copi, Irving M. Introduction to Logic, 14th Edition. Routledge.
3.1 INSTRUCTIONS
Which of the various functions of language are exemplified by each of the following passages?
PROBLEMS
1.Check the box on line 6a unless your parent (or someone else) can claim you as a dependent on his or her tax return.
—U.S. Internal Revenue Service, “Instructions,” Form 1040, 2006
2.‘Twasbrillig, and the slithytoves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the momerathsoutgrabe.
—Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, 1871
3.What traveler among the ruins of Carthage, of Palmyra, Persepolis, or Rome, has not been stimulated to reflections on the transiency of kingdoms and men, and to sadness at the thought of a vigorous and rich life now departed …?
—G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of History, 1823
4.Moving due south from the center of Detroit, the first foreign country one encounters is not Cuba, nor is it Honduras or Nicaragua or any other Latin American nation; it is Canada.
5.I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
—Edgar Allan Poe, “Annabel Lee,” 1849
INSTRUCTIONS
What language functions are most probably intended to be served by each of the following passages?
PROBLEMS
1.There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful.
—Justice John Harlan, dissenting in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 1896
2.Judges do not know how to rehabilitate criminals—because no one knows.
—Andrew Von Hirsch, Doing Justice—The Choice of Punishment (New York: Hill & Wang, 1976)
3.When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers therefore are the founders of human civilization.
—Daniel Webster, “On Agriculture,” 1840
4.The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
—Edmund Burke, letter to William Smith, 1795
5.They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters.
—Sir Thomas More, Utopia, 1516
3.3 INSTRUCTIONS& PROBLEM
Identify three disagreements in current political or social controversy that are of the three types described in this section: one that is genuine, one that is merely verbal, and one that is apparently verbal but really genuine. Explain the disagreements in each case.
3.5 INSTRUCTIONS
Arrange each of the following groups of terms in order of increasing intension:
PROBLEMS
1.Animal, feline, lynx, mammal, vertebrate, wildcat.
2.Alcoholic beverage, beverage, champagne, fine white wine, white wine, wine.
3.Athlete, ball player, baseball player, fielder, infielder, shortstop.
4.Cheese, dairy product, Limburger, milk derivative, soft cheese, strong soft cheese.
5.Integer, number, positive integer, prime number, rational number, real number.
3.6 INSTRUCTIONS
Criticize the following in terms of the rules for definition by genus and difference. After identifying the difficulty (or difficulties), state the rule (or rules) that are being violated. If the definition is either too narrow or too broad, explain why.
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 4 Assignment
Reading Exercise
Topic 4 Reading Exercises from:
Copi, Irving M. Introduction to Logic, 14th Edition. Routledge.
5.3 INSTRUCTIONS
Identify the subject and predicate terms in, and name the form of, each of the following propositions:
PROBLEMS
1.Some historians are extremely gifted writers whose works read like first-rate novels.
2.No athletes who have ever accepted pay for participating in sports are amateurs.
3.No dogs that are without pedigrees are candidates for blue ribbons in official dog shows sponsored by the American Kennel Club.
4.All satellites that are currently in orbit less than ten thousand miles high are very delicate devices that cost many thousands of dollars to manufacture.
5.Some members of families that are rich and famous are not persons of either wealth or distinction.
6.Some paintings produced by artists who are universally recognized as masters are not works of genuine merit that either are or deserve to be preserved in museums and made available to the public.
7.All drivers of automobiles that are not safe are desperadoes who threaten the lives of their fellows.
8.Some politicians who could not be elected to the most minor positions are appointed officials in our government today.
9.Some drugs that are very effective when properly administered are not safe remedies that all medicine cabinets should contain.
10.No people who have not themselves done creative work in the arts are responsible critics on whose judgment we can rely.
5.4 INSTRUCTIONS
Name the quality and quantity of each of the following propositions, and state whether their subject and predicate terms are distributed or undistributed:
PROBLEMS
1.Some presidential candidates will be sadly disappointed people.
2.All those who died in Nazi concentration camps were victims of a cruel and irrational tyranny.
3.Some recently identified unstable elements were not entirely accidental discoveries.
4.Some members of the military-industrial complex are mild-mannered people to whom violence is abhorrent.
5.No leader of the feminist movement is a major business executive.
6.All hard-line advocates of law and order at any cost are people who will be remembered, if at all, only for having failed to understand the major social pressures of the twenty-first century.
7.Some recent rulings of the Supreme Court were politically motivated decisions that flouted the entire history of U.S. legal practice.
8.No harmful pesticides or chemical defoliants were genuine contributions to the long-range agricultural goals of the nation.
9.Some advocates of major political, social, and economic reforms are not responsible people who have a stake in maintaining the status quo.
10.All new labor-saving devices are major threats to the trade union movement.
5.5 INSTRUCTIONS& PROBLEM
A. If we assume that the first proposition in each of the following sets is true, what can we affirm about the truth or falsehood of the remaining propositions in each set?
B. if we assume that the first proposition in each set is false, what can we affirm?
PROBLEMS
1. a. All successful executives are intelligent people.
b. No successful executives are intelligent people.
c. Some successful executives are intelligent people.
d. Some successful executives are not intelligent people.
2. a. No animals with horns are carnivores.
b. Some animals with horns are carnivores.
c. Some animals with horns are not carnivores.
d. All animals with horns are carnivores.
3. a. Some uranium isotopes are highly unstable substances.
b. Some uranium isotopes are not highly unstable substances.
c. All uranium isotopes are highly unstable substances.
d. No uranium isotopes are highly unstable substances.
4. a. Some college professors are not entertaining lecturers.
b. All college professors are entertaining lecturers.
c. No college professors are entertaining lecturers.
d. Some college professors are entertaining lecturers.
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 5 Assignment
Reading Exercise
Topic 5 Reading Exercises
Copi, Irving M. Introduction to Logic, 14th Edition. Routledge.
EXERCISE A INSTRUCTIONS
State the converses of the following propositions, and indicate which of them are equivalent to the given propositions:
PROBLEMS
1.No people who are considerate of others are reckless drivers who pay no attention to traffic regulations.
2.All graduates of West Point are commissioned officers in the U.S. Army.
3.Some European cars are overpriced and underpowered automobiles.
4.No reptiles are warm-blooded animals.
5.Some professional wrestlers are elderly persons who are incapable of doing an honest day’s work.
EXERCISE B INSTRUCTIONS
State the obverses of the following propositions:
PROBLEMS
1.Some college athletes are professionals.
2.No organic compounds are metals.
3.Some clergy are not abstainers.
4.No geniuses are conformists.
5.All objects suitable for boat anchors are objects that weigh at least fifteen pounds.
EXERCISE C INSTRUCTIONS
State the contrapositives of the following propositions and indicate which of them are equivalent to the given propositions.
PROBLEMS
1.All journalists are pessimists.
2.Some soldiers are not officers.
3.All scholars are nondegenerates.
4.All things weighing less than fifty pounds are objects not more than four feet high.
5.Some noncitizens are not nonresidents.
EXERCISE D INSTRUCTIONS
If “All socialists are pacifists” is true, what may be inferred about the truth or falsehood of the following propositions? That is, which can be known to be true, which can be known to be false, and which are undetermined?
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 6 Assignment
Reading Exercise
Topic 6 Reading Exercises from:
Copi, Irving M. Introduction to Logic, 14th Edition. Routledge.
6.1 INSTRUCTIONS
Rewrite each of the following syllogisms in standard form, and name its mood and figure. (Procedure: first, identify the conclusion; second, note its predicate term, which is the major term of the syllogism; third, identify the major premise, which is the premise containing the major term; fourth, verify that the other premise is the minor premise by checking to see that it contains the minor term, which is the subject term of the conclusion; fifth, rewrite the argument in standard form—major premise first, minor premise second, conclusion last; sixth, name the mood and figure of the syllogism.)
Example Problem
No nuclear-powered submarines are commercial vessels, so no warships are commercial vessels, because all nuclear-powered submarines are warships.
Example Solution
Step 1. The conclusion is “No warships are commercial vessels.”
Step 2. “Commercial vessels” is the predicate term of this conclusion and is therefore the major term of the syllogism.
Step 3. The major premise, the premise that contains this term, is “No nuclear-powered submarines are commercial vessels.”
Step 4. The remaining premise, “All nuclear-powered submarines are warships,” is indeed the minor premise, because it does contain the subject term of the conclusion, “warships.”
Step 5. In standard form this syllogism is written thus:
No nuclear-powered submarines are commercial vessels.
All nuclear-powered submarines are warships.
Therefore no warships are commercial vessels.
Step 6. The three propositions in this syllogism are, in order, E, A, and E. The middle term, “nuclear-powered submarines,” is the subject term of both premises, so the syllogism is in the third figure. The mood and figure of the syllogism therefore are EAE-3.
PROBLEMS
2. Some evergreens are objects of worship, because all fir trees are evergreens, and some objects of worship are fir trees.
3. All artificial satellites are important scientific achievements; therefore some important scientific achievements are not U.S. inventions, inasmuch as some artificial satellites are not U.S. inventions.
4. No television stars are certified public accountants, but all certified public accountants are people of good business sense; it follows that no television stars are people of good business sense.
5. Some conservatives are not advocates of high tariff rates, because all advocates of high tariff rates are Republicans, and some Republicans are not conservatives.
6. All CD players are delicate mechanisms, but no delicate mechanisms are suitable toys for children; consequently, no CD players are suitable toys for children.
7. All juvenile delinquents are maladjusted individuals, and some juvenile delinquents are products of broken homes; hence some maladjusted individuals are products of broken homes.
8. No stubborn individuals who never admit a mistake are good teachers, so, because some well-informed people are stubborn individuals who never admit a mistake, some good teachers are not well-informed people.
9. All proteins are organic compounds, hence all enzymes are proteins, as all enzymes are organic compounds.
10. No sports cars are vehicles intended to be driven at moderate speeds, but all automobiles designed for family use are vehicles intended to be driven at moderate speeds, from which it follows that no sports cars are automobiles designed for family use.
6.3 INSTRUCTIONS
Write out each of the following syllogistic forms, using S and P as the subject and predicate terms of the conclusion, and M as the middle term. (Refer to the chart of the four syllogistic figures, if necessary, on p. 235.)
Example Problem
AEE–1
Example Solution
We are told that this syllogism is in the first figure, and therefore the middle term, M, is the subject term of the major premise and the predicate term of the minor premise. (See chart on p. 235.) The conclusion of the syllogism is an E proposition and therefore reads: No S is P. The first (major) premise (which contains the predicate term of the conclusion) is an A proposition, and therefore reads: All M is P. The second (minor) premise (which contains the subject term of the conclusion) is an E proposition and therefore reads: No S is M. This syllogism therefore reads as follows:
All M is P.
No S is M.
Therefore no S is P
PROBLEMS
2. EIO–2
3. OAO–3
4. AOO–4
5. EIO–4
INSTRUCTIONS
Put each of the following syllogisms into standard form, name its mood and figure:
PROBLEMS
1.Some reformers are fanatics, so some idealists are fanatics, because all reformers are idealists.
2.Some philosophers are mathematicians; hence some scientists are philosophers, because all scientists are mathematicians.
3.Some mammals are not horses, for no horses are centaurs, and all centaurs are mammals.
4.Some neurotics are not parasites, but all criminals are parasites; it follows that some neurotics are not criminals.
5.All underwater craft are submarines; therefore no submarines are pleasure vessels, because no pleasure vessels are underwater craft.
6.4INSTRUCTIONS
Identify the rule that is broken by any of the following syllogisms that are invalid, and name the fallacy that is committed:
Example Problem
All chocolate éclairs are fattening foods, because all chocolate éclairs are rich desserts, and some fattening foods are not rich desserts.
Example Solution
In this syllogism the conclusion is affirmative (“all chocolate éclairs are fattening foods”), while one of the premises is negative (“some fattening foods are not rich desserts”). The syllogism therefore is invalid, violating the rule that if either premise is negative the conclusion must also be negative, thereby committing the fallacy of drawing an affirmative conclusion from a negative premise.
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 7 Assignment
Reading Exercise
Topic 7 Reading Exercises from:
Copi, Irving M. Introduction to Logic, 14th Edition. Routledge.
7.2 INSTRUCTIONS
Translate the following syllogistic arguments into standard form, and test their validity by using the syllogistic rules set forth in Chapter 6.
Example Problem
Some preachers are persons of unfailing vigor. No preachers are nonintellectuals. Therefore some intellectuals are persons of unfailing vigor.
Example Solution
This argument may be translated into: Some preachers are persons of unfailing vigor. (Some P is V.) All preachers are intellectuals. (By obversion: All P is I.) Therefore some intellectuals are persons of unfailing vigor. (Some I is V.) Explain whether the syllogism is valid using the 6 rules (6.4) and mood (6.5).
PROBLEMS
2. Some metals are rare and costly substances, but no welder’s materials are nonmetals; hence some welder’s materials are rare and costly substances.
3. Some Asian nations were nonbelligerents, because all belligerents were allies either of Germany or Britain, and some Asian nations were not allies of either Germany or Britain.
4. Some nondrinkers are athletes, because no drinkers are persons in perfect physical condition, and some people in perfect physical condition are not nonathletes.
5. All things inflammable are unsafe things, so all things that are safe are nonexplosives, because all explosives are flammable things.
6. All worldly goods are changeable things, for no worldly goods are things immaterial, and no material things are unchangeable things.
7. All those who are neither members nor guests of members are those who are excluded; therefore no nonconformists are either members or guests of members, for all those who are included are conformists.
8. All mortals are imperfect beings, and no humans are immortals, whence it follows that all perfect beings are nonhumans.
9. All things present are nonirritants; therefore no irritants are invisible objects, because all visible objects are absent things.
10. All useful things are objects no more than six feet long, because all difficult things to store are useless things, and no objects over six feet long are easy things to store.
7.3 INSTRUCTIONS
Translate the following into standard-form categorical propositions:
Example Problem
Roses are fragrant.
Example Solution
Standard-form translation: All roses are fragrant things.
PROBLEMS
2. Orchids are not fragrant.
3. Many a person has lived to regret a misspent youth.
4. Not everyone worth meeting is worth having as a friend.
5. If it’s a Junko, it’s the best that money can buy.
6. If it isn’t a real beer, it isn’t a Bud.
7. Nothing is both safe and exciting.
8. Only brave people have ever won the Congressional Medal of Honor.
9. Good counselors are not universally appreciated.
10. He sees not his shadow who faces the sun.
7.4 INSTRUCTIONS
A. Translate the following propositions into standard form, using parameters where necessary.
Example Problem
He groans whenever he is reminded of his loss.
Example Solution
Standard-form translation: All times when he is reminded of his loss are times when he groans.
COM362 Argumentation and Advocacy
Week 8 Assignment
Reading Exercise
Topic 8 Reading Exercises from:
Copi, Irving M. Introduction to Logic, 14th Edition. Routledge.
7.5 INSTRUCTIONS
For each of the following enthymematic arguments:
a. Formulate the plausible premise or conclusion, if any, that is missing but understood.
b. Write the argument in standard form, including the missing premise or conclusion needed to make the completed argument valid—if possible—using parameters if necessary.
c. Name the order of the enthymeme.
d. If the argument is not valid even with the understood premise included, name the fallacy that it commits.
Example Problem
Transgenic animals are manmade and as such are patentable.
—Alan E. Smith, cited in Genetic Engineering
(San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1990)
Example Solution
a. The premise understood but not stated here is that whatever is manmade is patentable.
b. Standard-form translation:
All manmade things are patentable things.
All transgenic animals are manmade things.
Therefore, all transgenic animals are patentable things.
c. The enthymeme is first-order, because the premise taken as understood is the major premise of the completed argument.
d. This is a valid syllogism of the form AAA–1, Barbara.
PROBLEMS
*15. Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his means of subsistence; consequently he is occasionally subject to a severe struggle for existence.—Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1871
16. No internal combustion engines are free from pollution; but no internal combustion engine is completely efficient. You may draw your own conclusion.
17. A nation without a conscience is a nation without a soul. A nation withouta soul is a nation that cannot live.—Winston Churchill
18. Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. —George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists, 1903
19. Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. —George Orwell, 1984
20. Productivity is desirable because it betters the condition of the vast majority of the people.
—Stephen Miller, “Adam Smith and the Commercial Republic,”
The Public Interest, Fall 1980
21.Advertisements perform a vital function in almost any society, for they help to bring buyers and sellers together.
—Burton M. Leiser, Liberty, Justice, and Morals, 1986
22.Logic is a matter of profound human importance precisely because it is empirically founded and experimentally applied.
—John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, 1920
23.Iphigeneia at Aulis is a tragedy because it demonstrates inexorably how human character, with its itch to be admired, combines with the malice of heaven to produce wars which no one in his right mind would want and which turn out to be utterly disastrous for everybody.
—George E. Dimock, Jr., Introduction to Iphigeneia at Aulis by Euripides, 1992
24.… the law does not expressly permit suicide, and what it does not expressly permit it forbids.
—Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
25.The man who says that all things come to pass by necessity cannot criticize one who denies that all things come to pass by necessity: for he admits that this too happens of necessity.
—Epicurus, Fragment XL, Vatican Collection
7.7 INSTRUCTIONS
Identify the form of each of the following arguments and state whether the argument is valid or invalid:
Example Problem
If a man could not have done otherwise than he in fact did, then he is not responsible for his action. But if determinism is true, it is true of every action that the agent could not have done otherwise. Therefore, if determinism is true, no one is ever responsible for what he does.
—Winston Nesbit and Stewart Candlish, “Determinism and the Ability to Do Otherwise,” Mind, July 1978
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