Arguments
In this assignment, you will identify why arguments based on faulty premises fail to be convincing.
All of the given arguments below (found on pages 46-47 of your book: #2, #6, #14, #18, and #20) fail somehow. Your task is to describe how they fail.
Explain why the following five arguments are problematic. For example, maybe the premises and the conclusion are discussing two different issues, or maybe there aren’t enough premises to support the conclusion.
For each of the five items, restate the listed argument and clearly and specifically explain how each argument fails (in 3-5 sentences each). Be sure to use complete sentences in your explanations and reference your text.
NOTE: You do NOT need to state whether the given argument is deductive/non-deductive or valid/invalid (unless you want to). You simply need to describe what’s wrong with each argument.
#2: There are times when any of us may need to protect ourselves from intruders. Thus, we should all keep hand grenades on our bedside tables.
#6: Jameson is strong and quick and tall. We should recruit her for our basketball team.
#14: Most undergraduate students never take organic chemistry. So, the chances are that Claude, a graduating premed student, did not take it.
#18: The days when natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, or volcanoes had the power to bring death to thousands are fortunately behind us. Unlike the times of such catastrophes as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake or the hurricane of 1900 in Galveston, these days modern construction methods for buildings, sophisticated advanced warning systems, mass communication, and modern healthcare developments mean that we are able to keep the toll from even the worst natural events to tens or at most one or two hundred.
#20: Widespread logging in the rainforests of the Amazon basin is not the natural disaster that many ecologists claim. After all, the logging companies bring jobs, housing, and healthcare to an impoverished and backwachord part of the world.
