What kinds of assumptions interfere with critical thinking?
2. What are a few steps that can help you to refine your position on issues that meet the tests of logic?
Main Paper – Separate from the Discussion Questions
Select three of the scenarios below and Apply the following in 500 words for each scenario:
Evaluate each argument, using the 4-step process described below (truth and validity).
Explain your assessment and add alternative argumentation where necessary.
12.2 Check each of the following arguments to be sure that it contains no
hidden premises and, if it is a complex argument, that all parts are
expressed. Revise each, as necessary, to make the expression complete.
Then evaluate the argument and decide whether it is sound.
Explain your judgment.
a) Low grades on a college transcript are a handicap in the job
market, so teachers who grade harshly are doing students a
disservice.
b) The Bible can’t be relevant to today’s problems; it was written
many centuries ago and is filled with archaic phrasing.
c) It is dishonest to pretend to have knowledge one does not have,
so plagiarism is more virtue than vice.
d) A mature person is self-directing, so parents who make all their
children’s decisions for them are doing their offspring a disservice.
e) If the theory of evolution is true, as scientific evidence overwhelmingly
suggests, a human being is nothing more than an ape.
f) Rock musicians are contributing to the decline of language by
singing in a slurred, mumbling manner.
g) If emphasis on error paralyzes effort, this college is paying
my English professor to make it impossible for me to learn
English.
h) Nuclear power is a threat to world peace. Nuclear energy
stations generate nuclear power. So nuclear energy stations are a
threat to world peace.
i) All religious authorities are concerned about the dangers of
nuclear war. All politicians are concerned about the dangers of
nuclear war. Therefore, all politicians are religious authorities.
j) The government should undertake a comprehensive censorship
program because censorship eliminates undesirable books and
films from the market.
k) It’s ridiculous to think that there will be fewer deaths if we ban
handguns. Handguns don’t kill people; people kill people.
l) The antiabortionists say that the fetus is human, but they have
not proved it. Therefore, they have no reasonable basis for
opposing abortion.
m) We must either defeat communism or be defeated by it. To be
defeated by communism is unthinkable. Therefore, we must
defeat communism.
STEPS IN EVALUATING AN ARGUMENT
The following four steps are an efficient way to apply what you learned in this chapter—in other words, to evaluate your argument and overcome any errors in validity or truth that it may contain.
218 Chapter 12 Evaluate Your Argument on the Issue
1. State your argument fully, as clearly as you can. Be sure to identify any
hidden premises and, if the argument is complex, to express all parts of it.
2. Examine each part of your argument for errors affecting truth. (To be sure your examination is not perfunctory, play devil’s advocate and challenge the argument, asking pointed questions about it, taking nothing for granted.) Note any instances of either/or thinking, avoiding the issue, overgeneralizing, oversimplifying, double standard, shifting the burden of proof, or irrational appeal. In addition, check to be sure that the argument reflects the evidence found in your investigation (see Chapter 8) and is relevant to the pro and con arguments and scenarios you produced earlier
3. Examine your argument for validity errors; that is, consider the reasoning that links conclusions to premises. Determine whether your conclusion is legitimate or illegitimate.
4. If you find one or more errors, revise your argument to eliminate them. The changes you will have to make in your argument will depend on the kinds of errors you find. Sometimes, only minor revision is called for—the adding of a simple qualification, for example, or the substitution of a rational appeal for an irrational one. Occasionally, however, the change required is more dramatic. You may, for example, find your argument so flawed that the only appropriate action is to abandon it altogether and embrace a different argument. On those occasions, you may be tempted to pretend your argument is sound and hope no one will notice the errors. Resist that hope. It is foolish as well as dishonest to invest time in refining a view that you know is unsound.
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