4 Exercises Bassham CT

Additional Resources
In this section we've included a broad range of supplementary materials that can be used
for homework or extra-credit assignments, test and quiz questions, or additional in-class
exercises. Supplementary materials have not been provided for Chapters 1, 8, or 12-15,
because for the most part these chapters do not lend themselves to the types of objective
questions included in this section.
Chapter 2: Recognizing Arguments
Recognizing Statements
Determine whether, in typical contexts, the following sentences are statements or

nonstatements. (Note: Some of these are tough.)
1. What time is the concert tonight?

2. My feet are sore.
3. Cowabunga, dude!
4. Why is man less durable than the works of his hand, but because this is not the place of
his rest? (William Penn)
5. Harrisburg is the capitol of Pennsylvania.
6. Give me a call if you have trouble downloading the file.
7. You'd better quit while you're ahead.
8. Sign : Keep off the grass.
9. How unfair!
10. Salt Lake City is a city in Mexico.
11. Mother to child: Don't talk with your mouth full.
12. Recipe: Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
13. What will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? (Matt.
16:26)
14. Marijuana should be legalized.
15. Who let the dogs out?
16. Ask what you can do for your country. (John F. Kennedy)
17. Banana splits are scrumptious.
18. She walks in beauty, like the night/ Of cloudless climes and starry skies. (Byron)
19. Out of the depths I cry to thee, O Lord! (Psalms 130:1)
20. If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? (Shelley)
21. The last one in is a rotten egg!
22. What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted? (Shakespeare)
23. Boxer to opponent: May the better man win.
24. Stealing is always wrong.
25. Merry Christmas!
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Answers
1. Nonstatement (question) 13. Statement (rhetorical question)

2. Statement 14. Statement
3. Nonstatement (exclamation) 15. Nonstatement (question)
4. Statement (rhetorical question) 16. Statement (ought imperative)
5. Statement 17. Statement
6. Nonstatement (suggestion or 18. Statement
request) 1. Statement
7. Statement (ought imperative) 20. Statement (rhetorical question)
8. Nonstatement (command) 21. Statement (nonliteral)
9. Statement 22. Statement (rhetorical question)
10. Statement 23. Nonstatement
11. Nonstatement (command) 24. Statement
12. Statement (ought imperative) 25. Nonstatement
True/False
Indicate in the space provided whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
_____ 1. All statements are sentences and all sentences are statements.
_____ 2. Rhetorical questions are statements.
_____ 3. A single grammatical sentence may be used to express more than one statement.
_____ 4. Commands are statements.
_____ 5. Ought imperatives are statements.
_____ 6. A statement can sometime be expressed as a phrase or an incomplete clause,

rather than as a complete declarative sentence.
_____ 7. "What time is it?" is an example of a statement.
_____ 8. There are two statements in the sentence "Roses are red and violets are blue."
_____ 9. An argument is a claim put forward and defended with reasons.
_____ 10. Premises are statements that are claimed to provide evidence for another
statement, the conclusion.
_____ 11. The conclusion of an argument always occurs at the end of the argument.
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_____ 12. Indicator words are words or phrases that provide clues when premises or
conclusions are being offered.
_____ 13. Since, because, and thus are common premise indicators.
_____ 14. "That is why," "which shows that," and "for this reason" are common
conclusion indicators.
_____ 15. "In the statement "I haven't been to Disney World since I was a kid," the word
since functions as a premise indicator.
_____ 16. Many arguments do not contain any indicator words.
_____ 17. If the statement that a passage seeks to prove or explain is a matter of common
knowledge, then the passage is probably an explanation rather than an argument.
_____ 18. The following passage is an example of an argument: "If Senator Brooks is
only thirty years old, then he's not eligible to be president of the United States."
_____ 19. The following passage is an argument: "It is not true that no presidents were
born west of the Rocky Mountains. Richard Nixon, for example, was born in
California."
_____ 20. In an explanation, the statement that does the explaining is called the
explanans.
Answers
1. F 14. T
2. T 15. F
3. T 16. T
4. F 17. T
5. T 18. F
6. T 19. T
7. F 20. T
8. T
9. T
10. T
11. F
12. T
13. F
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Identifying Premises and Conclusions
Identify the premises and conclusions in the following arguments.
1. Writing is revision because excellence emerges only through many cycles of writing
and reading, performance and feedback. (Grant Wiggins, Educative Assessment:
Designing Assessments to Inform and Improve Student Performance, 1998)
2. No scientific hypothesis can be conclusively confirmed because the possibility of

someday finding evidence to the contrary can't be ruled out. (Theodore Schick, Jr. and
Lewis Vaughn, How to Think about Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age, 2nd
ed., 1999)
3. Genuine moral integrity requires intellectual character, for bona fide moral decisions
require thoughtful discrimination between what is ethically justified and what is merely
socially approved. (Richard Paul, Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Know
in a Rapidly Changing World, 1990)
4. The study of logic increases one's ability to understand, analyze, evaluate, and
construct arguments. For this reason, logic makes a vital contribution to the curriculum of
the modern university. (C. Stephen Layman, The Power of Logic, 1999)
5. Future generations of people have as much right to live a physically secure and healthy
life as those of the present generation. Each of us is therefore under an obligation not to
allow the natural environment to deteriorate to such an extent that the survival and well-
being of later human inhabitants of the Earth are jeopardized. (Paul W. Taylor, Respect
for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics, 1986)
6. Don't pick Alpine wildflowers--they really do look lovelier on the mountainsides.

(Clem Lindenmayer, Walking in Switzerland, 1996)
7. I think that the Miss USA contestant should withdraw from the contest being that she's
an adulteress. (From a newspaper call-in column)
8. The effect of crime on the quality of life cannot be measured simply in terms of the
actual incidence of crime, as the fear of crime affects far more people than are likely to
become victims and forces them to accept limitations on their freedom of action. ("Crime
and Punishment," The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed., 1990)
9. It is much to be doubted whether the manifest advantage of changing an established

law, be it ever so bad, outweighs the evil involved in the removing of it, inasmuch as a
government is a structure of various parts so closely joined together, that it is impossible
to shake one part without the whole body feeling the concussion. (Michel de Montaigne,
Essays, 1595)
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10. Do not feed honey to infants under the age of one; their systems cannot digest it, and
infant botulism may result. (Lisa Tracy, The Gradual Vegetarian, 1985)
11. Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish. (Richard
Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, 2nd ed., 1989)
12. A glance at the nutrition charts will show that the various legumes differ slightly in
their nutritional profile. It's a good idea, for that reason, to eat a wide variety of beans and
peas. (Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Bronwen Godfrey, Laurel's Kitchen, 1976)
13. The idea that something that is artificial is necessarily bad and something natural is
necessarily good is false. After all, tobacco, poison ivy, and the prickly cactus are natural,
while chemical fertilizers account for a large proportion of the food grown in the world.
(Eldon D. Enger and Bradley F. Smith, Environmental Science, 6th ed., 1998)
14. Get physical. People do better if they are touched and hugged regularly. (Edward M.
Hollowell, "When Worries Go Haywire," Reader's Digest, February 2000)
15. Arguments from authority carry little weight--"authorities" have made mistakes in the
past. They will do so again in the future. (Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, 1995)
16. [A]wareness of God is natural, widespread, and not easy to forget, ignore, or destroy.
Seventy years of determined but unsuccessful Marxist efforts to uproot Christianity in the
former Soviet Union tend to confirm this claim. (Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian
Belief, 2000)
17. People of different religions see different religious figures during [near-death
experiences], an indication that the phenomenon occurs within the mind, not without.
(Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things, 1997)
18. Pain is pain wherever it occurs. If your neighbor's causing you pain is wrong because
of the pain that is caused, we cannot rationally ignore or dismiss the moral relevance of
the pain your dog feels. (Tom Regan, "The Case for Animal Rights," 1985)
19. To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and
which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it
be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the
salutary influence of example. (Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets, 1781)
20. There should be no confusion as to the right or wrong of capital punishment. We can
not have government-mandated violence and at the same time expect that young people,
people of all ages, will be nonviolent. (Dorothy Hostler, Letter to the Editor, Wilkes-
Barre Times Leader, January 5, 2000)
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21. They that deny a God destroy man's nobility; for certainly man is kin to the beasts by
his body; and, if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.
(Francis Bacon, Essays, 1625)
22. To those who continually berate public schools and say teachers don't teach and
children don't learn, I say how come technology, medicine and the economy are so good
as compared to years ago? Who do you think did most of this? Public school students,
that's who. (From a newspaper call-in column)
23. Why go to Europe, with its high prices and strange food and incomprehensible lingos,
when, with just a little effort, you can find those things right here? (Dave Barry, Dave
Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need, 1991)
24. Suppose thou hast hitherto lived always in honors and delights, what would all this
avail thee if thou wert to die at this instant? All therefore is vanity, but to love God and
serve Him only. (Thomas á Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, c. 1460)
25. If nothing is evil which merely hurts the body or the feelings, if only that is evil
which hurts the thinking and the willing faculty in us, then it follows, in all consistency,
that neither is anything good that is pleasant to the body or joyful to the heart; for, if it
were good, the absence of it would be evil. (Felix Adler, "Marcus Aurelius," 1898)
26. The moral law demands that we pursue, and ultimately attain, moral perfection. But
we can't reasonably expect to reach moral perfection in this life. Therefore, we must
postulate, or suppose, that there is another life in which this demand of the moral law can
be met. (Tom Morris, Philosophy for Dummies, 1999 [summarizing an argument offered
by the 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant])
27. Science needs to take for granted, since it cannot prove conclusively in advance, that
there is a certain reliability or consistency to the physical activity in our universe. (John
F. Haught, Science and Religion: From Conflict to Conversation, 1995)
28. If our own sun were to "go supernova," the entire solar system would be vaporized on
the instant. Fortunately this is very unlikely. In our galaxy of a hundred billion stars, only
three supernovae have ever been recorded by astronomers: in 1054, in 1572, and in 1604.
(Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life, 1995)
29. It is said we live in a democratic society, but more accurately it should be described
as a plutocracy, or rule by and for the rich, because our nation's industrial and cultural
institutions serve the interests of the dominant owning class. (Michael Parenti,
Democracy for the Few, 4th ed., 1983)
30. Obviously, not everything can be proved, just as not everything can be defined. If
every proposition had to be proved, there would be no beginning to any proof. (Mortimer
J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, 1972)
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31. It is simply not true to say that if an activity is important thrn it is desirable for us to
have a theoretical understanding of it. Whoever seeks a theoretical understanding of
sexual love? In most cases there is no purpose that such a theory could serve, and worse,
it would get in the way, it would detract. (Bryan Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher,
1999)
32. One of the strongest reasons for believing that mediums do not talk with the dead has
always been that they never report the dead as saying anything much. Surely, if there is
life beyond the grave, and God permits contacts with the Other Side, the dead do not
become half-witted. Yet all they can say is that they are happy, that everything is
peaceful and filled with light, and so on. (Martin Gardner, Science: Good, Bad, and
Bogus, 1981)
33. Life appears abruptly and in complex forms in the fossil record, and gaps appear
systematically in the fossil record between various kinds. These facts indicate that basic
kinds of plants and animals were created. (Duane T. Gish, et. al., "Summary of Scientific
Evidence for Creation," 1981)
34. Human nature does not change, or, at any rate, history is too short for any changes to
be perceptible. The earliest known specimens of art and literature are still
comprehensible. The fact that we can understand them all and can recognize in some of
them an unsurpassed artistic excellence is proof enough that not only men's feelings and
instincts, but also their intellectual and imaginative powers, were in the remotest times
precisely what they are now. (Aldous Huxley, Collected Essays, 1958)
35. Grown men may learn from little children, for the hearts of little children are pure,
and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them things which older people miss. (Black
Elk, quoted in Melvin Morse, Closer to the Light: Learning from the Near-Death
Experiences of Children, 1990)
36. God can perform miracles but not contradictions--not because his power is limited,
but because contradictions are meaningless. (Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli,
Handbook of Christian Apologetics, 1994)
37. Suppose a man has sworn to keep the Constitution of the United States and the
Constitution is found to be wrong in certain particulars, then his oath is not morally
binding, for before his oath, by his very existence, he is morally bound to keep the law of
God as fast as he learns it. (Theodore Parker, Sermon, c. 1855, quoted in Henry Steel
Commager, Theodore Parker: Yankee Crusader, 1948)
38. Scholarly investigation, in all the disciplines, is at the very heart of academic life, and
the pursuit of knowledge must be assiduously cultivated and defended. The intellectual
excitement fueled by this quest enlivens faculty and invigorates higher learning
institutions, and in our complicated, vulnerable world, the discovery of new knowledge is
absolutely crucial. (Ernest L. Boyer, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the
Professoriate, 1990)
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39. The devil sleepeth not, neither is the flesh as yet dead; therefore cease not to prepare
thyself to the battle; for on thy right hand and on thy left are enemies who never rest.
(Thomas á Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, c. 1460)
40. A durable delusion in education policy is that there is a direct correlation between
financial inputs and cognitive outputs--increased spending produces a commensurate
improvement in a school's educational products. The public education industry subscribes
to this materialist theory. The performance of inner city Catholic schools, which do better
with fewer resources, refutes it. (George Will, "Reforming Entrenched, Inadequate
Education System Challenges Bush Plan," 2001)
41. Scholastic standards for college entrance must not be lowered merely to achieve
specific, ethnic attendance ratios; otherwise a noticeable reduction of quality in the
workplace will result. (Samuel L. Starook, Letter, U.S. News and World Report, March
18, 2002)
42. Philosophy is one of the noblest activities in which we can engage because it
promotes wisdom in our lives. (Tom Morris, Philosophy for Dummies, 1999)
43. It is useless to meet revenge with revenge. It heals nothing. (Frodo, in J.R.R.
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, 1954-55)
44. It's tough to be a teacher today. Every possible societal malfunction affects the
classroom--drugs, alcohol, divorce, gangs and poverty. (Forrest J. Troy, "The Myth of
Our Failed Education System," 1998)
45. Since the lawyers are destroying our medical care system, why can't we sue them for
depriving us of the excellent medical care that we once had. (From a newspaper call-in
column, November 30, 2001)
46. The U.S. and other wealthy nations, as well as the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund, should erase the debt of the world's 52 poorest countries. By wiping
$350 billion from their books, these countries would be free to spend money on health
care and education, rather than pay down the principal on loans floated by corrupt and
sometimes long-gone governments. (Bono, quoted in Josh Tyrangel, "Bono," Time,
March 4, 2002 [adapted])
47. It's well known that good character inspires trust. And trust is the foundation for
people to work together well. Character thus is a condition for all good collaboration.
(Tom Morris, Philosophy for Dummies, 1999)
48. Always look for whole food products rather than those that are made from refined
ingredients. Refined means only that most of the essential nutrients have been processed
out of the food, so you are wasting your money and your energy when you include
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refined products in your shopping cart. (Marilyn Diamond, The American Vegetarian
Cookbook for the Fit for Life Kitchen, 1990)
49. Is it possible for two glass beads to be absolutely identical? No, because in order to be
identical--not just very, very similar--they would have to contain exactly the same silica
molecules, atoms, quarks, neutrinos, and in exactly the same place at exactly the same
time. Of course, they cannot do so, for if that were the case, there would be only one
glass bead. (Douglas J. Soccio, Archetypes of Wisdom, 4th ed., 2001)
50. In regards to golf being a sport: Golf is not a sport, it is an activity. I golf, I enjoy it,
but the definition of sports is simple: If there is no defense, it is not a sport. (From a
newspaper call-in column, July 24, 2002)
51. I don’t think people who are HIV-positive should play competitively in contact or
collision sports, most notably basketball, football, baseball, hockey, and boxing. HIV and
AIDS are communicable diseases that are transferred by the mixing of blood. Every
football game, basketball game, hockey game, and boxing match produces blood, and
plenty of it. (Bill Walton, Nothing But Net)
52. We must all hang together, else we shall all hang separately. (Benjamin Franklin on
signing the Declaration of Independence)
53. Because legal decisions require choices from among competing values, judges and
others who analyze legal problems cannot be “objective.” (Lief H. Carter and Thomas F.
Burke, Reason in Law, 7th Edition).
54. Run during the cool of the early morning or late evening. Besides not being as hot at
these times, generally air pollution is less, too. (Bob Glover and Shelly-lynn Florence-
Glover, The Competitive Runner’s Handbook)
55. Other things being equal, an injury is a more grievous [i.e., serious] sin according as
it affects more persons; and hence it is that it is a more grievous sin to strike or injure a
person in authority than a private individual, because it conduces to the injury of the
whole community. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica)
56. The Bedouin loved horses, but in the desert the camel was his greatest friend…[I]t
could go without water five days in summer and twenty-five in winter; its udders gave
milk; its urine provided hair tonic; its dung could be burned for fuel; when it dies it made
tender meat, and its hair and hide made clothing and tents. (Will Durant, The Age of
Faith).
57. In general, it’s not a good idea to show your cards when you’ve bluffed somebody.
Doing this not only gives information about your play and the kinds of cards you are
playing, but it can also produce emotions that muddy the waters on future hands. (Larry
W. Phillips, The Tao of Poker)
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58. It seems clear that differences in heredity or congenital constitution substantially

affect the operation of environment and education; how else shall we explain the quite
diverse character and development of brothers despite the similarity of origins and
opportunities? (Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Voltaire)
59. Our generation ranks first among all industrialized nations in the number of high
school diplomas held by those between the ages of 45 and 64. Our 35-44 age group,
however, is in fifth place, and our 25-to-34-year-olds place 10th. Considering that a large
percentage of new jobs will require some level of postsecondary education, this is an
extremely troubling trend. (Lou Dobbs, “The Generation Gap?”)
60. The authority of the reporter is a true and proper reason for believing reports: and the
better this authority, the juster claim it hath to our assent: but the authority of God is on
all accounts the best: whatever therefore comes from God, it is most reasonable to
believe. (George Berkeley, Alciphron)
61. I don’t need a Ferrari to get me home from the grocery store. Ice cream doesn’t melt
that fast. (Tom Morris, Philosophy for Dummies)
62. Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead. (Scottish proverb)
63. If God ceased from his cooperation everything that he created would at once vanish
into nothing; for before things were created, before God provided his cooperation, they
were nothing. (Descartes, Letters)
64. Never hire your client’s children. If you have to fire them, you may lose a client.
(David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising)
65. Since a man lies knowingly but suffers deception unknowingly, it is obvious that in a
given instance a man who is deceived is better than a man who lies, because it is better to
suffer iniquity than to perform it. (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine)
Answers
1. Premise: Excellence emerges only through many cycles of writing and

reading, performance and feedback.
Conclusion: Writing is revision.
2. Premise: The possibility of someday finding evidence against a scientific

hypothesis can never be ruled out.
Conclusion: No scientific hypothesis can be conclusively confirmed.
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3. Premise: Bona fide moral decisions require thoughtful discrimination

between what is ethically justified and what is merely socially
approved.
Conclusion: Genuine moral integrity requires intellectual character.
4. Premise: The study of logic increases one's ability to understand, analyze,

evaluate, and construct arguments.
Conclusion: Logic makes a vital contribution to the curriculum of the modern
university.
5. Premise: Future generations of people have as much right to live a

physically secure and healthy life as those of the present
generation.
Conclusion: Each of us is under an obligation not to allow the natural
environment to deteriorate to such an extent that the survival and
well-being of later human inhabitants of the Earth are jeopardized.
6. Premise: Alpine flowers really do look lovelier on the mountainsides.

Conclusion: Don't pick alpine wildflowers.
7. Premise: The Miss USA contestant is an adulteress.

Conclusion: The Miss USA contestant should withdraw from the contest.
8. Premise: The fear of crime affects far more people than are likely to become
victims and forces them to accept limitations on their freedom of
action.
Conclusion: The effect of crime on the quality of life cannot be measured
simply in terms of the actual incidence of crime.
9. Premise: A government is a structure of various parts so closely joined

together that it is impossible to shake one part without the whole
body feeling the concussion.
Conclusion: It is much to be doubted whether the manifest advantage of
changing an established law, be it ever so bad, outweighs the evil
involved in the removing of it.
10. Premise: Their systems cannot digest it, and infant botulism may result.
Conclusion: Do not feed honey to infants under the age of one
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11. Premise: We are born selfish.

Conclusion: Let us try to teach generosity and altruism.
12. Premise: A glance at the nutrition charts will show that the various legumes
differ slightly in their nutritional profile.
Conclusion: It's a good idea to eat a wide variety of beans and peas.
13. Premise 1: Tobacco, poison ivy, and the prickly cactus are natural.
Premise 2: Chemical fertilizers account for a large proportion of the food
grown in the world.
Conclusion: The idea that something that is artificial is necessarily bad and
something natural is necessarily good is false.
14. Premise: People do better if they are touched and hugged regularly.
Conclusion: Get physical.
12. Premise 1: "Authorities" have made mistakes in the past.

Premise 2: They will do so again in the future.
Conclusion: Arguments from authority carry little weight.
16. Premise: For seventy years, Marxists tried unsuccessfully to uproot

Christianity in the former Soviet Union.
Conclusion: Awareness of God is natural, widespread, and not easy to forget,
ignore, or destroy.
17. Premise: People of different religions see different religious figures during
near-death experiences.
Conclusion: Near-death experiences occur within the mind, not without.
18. Premise: Pain is pain wherever it occurs.

Conclusion: If your neighbor's causing you pain is wrong because of the pain
that is caused, we cannot rationally ignore or dismiss the moral
relevance of the pain your dog feels.
19. Premise: Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated
only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless
it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated
calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
13
Conclusion: To be of no church is dangerous.
20. Premise: We can not have government-mandated violence and at the same
time expect that young people, people of all ages, will be
nonviolent.
Conclusion: There should be no confusion as to the right or wrong of capital
punishment. (Or: Capital punishment is unjustified.)
21. Premise 1: Certainly man is kin to the beasts by his body.

Premise 2: If he be not kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble
creature.
Conclusion: They that deny a God destroy man's nobility.
22. Premise 1: Technology, medicine and the economy are much better than they
were years ago.
Premise 2: Public school students did most of this.
Conclusion: Those who continually berate public schools and say teachers don't
teach and children don't learn are wrong.
23. Premise: With a little effort, you can find high prices, strange food, and
incomprehensible lingo right here.
Conclusion: If you're looking for high prices, strange food, and
incomprehensible lingo, there's no reason to go to Europe.
24. Premise: If you had lived always in honors and delights, this wouldn't avail
you at all if you were to die this instant.
Conclusion: All is vanity, but to love God and serve Him only.
25. Premise: If anything that is pleasant to the body or joyful to the heart was
good, then the absence of it would be evil.
Conclusion: If nothing is evil which merely hurts the body or the feelings, if
only that is evil which hurts the thinking and the willing faculty in
us, then it follows, in all consistency, that neither is anything good
that is pleasant to the body or joyful to the heart
26. Premise 1: The moral law demands that we pursue, and ultimately attain,
moral perfection.
Premise 2: We can't reasonably expect to reach moral perfection in this
life.
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Conclusion: We must postulate, or suppose, that there is another life in which

this demand of the moral law can be met.
27. Premise: Science cannot prove conclusively in advance that there is a certain
reliability or consistency to the physical activity in our universe.
Conclusion: Science needs to take for granted that there is a certain reliability
or consistency to the physical activity in our universe.
28. Premise: In our galaxy of a hundred billion stars, only three supernovae
have ever been recorded by astronomers: in 1054, in 1572, and in
1604.
Conclusion: It is very unlikely that our own sun will go supernova, causing the
entire solar system will be instantly vaporized.
29. Premise: Our nation's industrial and cultural institutions serve the interests
of the dominant owning class.
Conclusion: Although it is said we live in a democratic society, it can more
accurately be described as a plutocracy, or rule by and for the rich.
30. Premise: If every proposition had to be proved, there would be no beginning

to any proof.
Conclusion: Not everything can be proved.
31. Premise 1: No one seeks a theoretical understanding of sexual love.

Premise 2: In most cases there is no purpose such a theory could serve.
Premise 3: Worse, it would get in the way, it would detract.
Conclusion: It is simply not true to say that if an activity is important then it is
desirable for us to have a theoretical understanding of it.
32. Premise 1: Surely, if there is life beyond the grave, and God permits contacts
with the Other Side, the dead do not become half-witted.
Premise 2: Yet mediums never report the dead as saying very much: all they
say is that they are happy, that everything is peaceful and filled
with light, and so on.
Conclusion: There is strong reason to believe that mediums do not talk with the
dead.
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33. Premise 1: Life appears abruptly and in complex forms in the fossil record.
Premise 2: Gaps appear systematically in the fossil record between various
kinds.
Conclusion: Basic kinds of plants and animals were created.
34. Premise 1: We can understand the earliest known specimens of art and
literature and can recognize in some of them an unsurpassed
artistic excellence.
Premise 2 (subconclusion): Not only men's feelings and instincts, but also their
intellectual and imaginative powers were in the
remotest times precisely what they are now.
Conclusion: Human nature does not change, or, at any rate, history is too short
for any changes to be perceptible.
35. Premise 1: The hearts of little children are pure.

Premise 2 (subconclusion): The Great Spirit may show to them things which
older people miss.
Conclusion: Grown men may learn from little children.
36. Premise: Contradictions are meaningless.

Conclusion: God cannot perform miracles.
37. Premise: Before a man takes an oath to keep the Constitution of the
United States, he is morally bound, by his very existence, to keep
the law of God as fast as he learns it.
Conclusion: If a man has sworn to keep the Constitution of the United States
and the Constitution is found to be wrong in certain particulars,
then his oath is not morally binding.
38. Premise 1: The intellectual excitement fueled by this quest enlivens faculty
and invigorates higher learning institutions.
Premise 2: In our complicated, vulnerable world, the discovery of new
knowledge is absolutely crucial.
Conclusion: Scholarly investigation, in all the disciplines, is at the very heart of
academic life, and the pursuit of knowledge must be assiduously
cultivated and defended.
16
39. Premise 1: The devil sleepeth not.

Premise 2: The flesh is not dead.
Premise 3: On thy right hand and on thy left are enemies that never rest.
Conclusion: Cease not to prepare thyself to the battle.
40. Premise: Although they have fewer resources, inner city Catholic schools do
better than public schools.
Conclusion: The view, long held by the public education industry, that
there is a direct correlation between financial inputs and cognitive
outputs--increased spending produces a commensurate
improvement in a school's educational products--is false.
41. Premise: A noticeable reduction of quality in the workplace will result.

Conclusion: Scholastic standards for college entrance must not be lowered
merely to achieve specific, ethnic attendance ratios.
42. Premise: Philosophy promotes wisdom in our lives.

Conclusion: Philosophy is one of the noblest activities in which we can engage.
43. Premise: It heals nothing.

Conclusion: It is useless to meet revenge with revenge.
44. Premise: Every possible societal malfunction affects the classroom--drugs,

alcohol, divorce, gangs and poverty.
Conclusion: It's tough to be a teacher today.
45. Premise: Lawyers are destroying our medical care system.

Conclusion: We should be able to sue them for depriving us of the excellent
medical care that we once had.
46. Premise: By wiping $350 billion from their books, these countries would be
free to spend money on health care and education, rather than pay
down the principal on loans floated by corrupt and sometimes
long-gone governments.
Conclusion: The U.S. and other wealthy nations, as well as the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund, should erase the debt of the
world's 52 poorest countries.
47. Premise 1: It's well known that good character inspires trust.
Premise 2: And trust is the foundation for people to work together well.
Conclusion: Character is a condition for all good collaboration.
48. Premise 1: Refined means only that most of the essential nutrients have been
processed out of the food.
17
Premise 2 (subconclusion): You are wasting your money and your energy when
you include refined products in your shopping cart.
Conclusion: Always look for whole food products rather than those that are
made from refined ingredients.
49. Premise 1: In order to be identical--not just very, very similar--two glass

beads would have to contain exactly the same silica molecules,
atoms, quarks, neutrinos, and in exactly the same place at exactly
the same time.
Premise 2: If that were the case, there would be only one glass bead.
Premise 3 (subconclusion): No two glass beads can contain exactly the same
silica molecules, etc.
Conclusion: It is not possible for two glass beads to be absolutely identical.
50. Premise: The definition of sports is simple: If there is no defense, it is not a

sport.
Conclusion: Golf is not a sport, it is an activity.
51. Premise 1: HIV and AIDS are communicable diseases that are transferred by
the mixing of blood.
Premise 2: Every football game, basketball game, hockey game, and boxing
match produces blood, and plenty of it.
Conclusion: I don’t think people who are HIV-positive should play
competitively in contact or collision sports, most notably
basketball, football, baseball, hockey, and boxing.
52. Premise: If we do not hang together, we shall all hang separately.

Conclusion: We must all hang together.
53. Premise: Legal decisions require choices from among competing values.
Conclusion: Judges and others who analyze legal problems cannot be
“objective.”
54. Premise 1: It is not as hot in the early morning or late evening.

Premise 2: Air pollution is generally less at these times.
Conclusion: Run during the cool of the early morning or late evening.
55. Premise 1: Other things being equal, an injury is a more grievous sin
according as it affects more persons.
Premise 2: To strike or injury a person in authority conduces to the injury of
the whole community.
Conclusion: It is a more grievous sin to strike or injure a person in authority
than a private individual.
56. Premise 1: The camel could go without water five days in summer and
twenty-five in winter.
18
Premise 2: Its udders gave milk.

Premise 3: Its urine provided hair tonic.
Premise 4: Its dung could be burned for fuel.
Premise 5: When it dies it made tender meat.
Premise 6: Its hair and hide made clothing and tents.
Conclusion: In the desert the camel was the Bedouin’s greatest friend.
57. Premise 1: Showing your cards after you’ve bluffed somebody gives
information about your play and the kinds of cards you are playing.
Premise 2: It can produce emotions that muddy the waters on future hands.
Conclusion: In general, it’s not a good idea to show your cards when you’ve
bluffed somebody.
58. Premise: Brothers exhibit quite diverse characters and development despite
the similarity of origins and opportunities.
Conclusion: It seems clear that differences in heredity or congenital constitution
substantially affect the operation of environment and education
59. Premise 1: Our generation ranks first among all industrialized nations in the
number of high school diplomas held by those between the ages of
45 and 64.
Premise 2: Our 35-44 age group is in fifth place.
Premise 3: Our 25-to-34-year-olds place 10th.
Premise 4: A large percentage of new jobs will require some level of
postsecondary education.
Conclusion: This is an extremely troubling trend.
60. Premise 1: The authority of the reporter is a true and proper reason for
believing reports.
Premise 2: The better this authority, the juster claim it hath to our assent
Premise 3: The authority of God is on all accounts the best.
Conclusion: Whatever comes from God, it is most reasonable to believe.
61. Premise: Ice cream doesn’t melt that fast.

Conclusion: I don’t need a Ferrari to get me home from the grocery store.
62. Premise: You’re a long time dead.

Conclusion: Be happy while you’re living.
63. Premise: Before things were created, before God provided his cooperation,
they were nothing.
Conclusion: If God ceased from his cooperation everything that he created
would at once vanish into nothing.
64. Premise: If you have to fire your client’s children, you may lose a client.
Conclusion: Never hire your client’s children.
19
65. Premise: A man lies knowingly but suffers deception unknowingly.

Conclusion: It is obvious that in a given instance a man who is deceived is
better than a man who lies, because it is better to suffer iniquity
than to perform it.
Note: Instructors will need to be selective in using items in the next three sets. Some are
quite challenging.
Distinguishing Arguments from Explanations.
Determine whether the following arguments are best understood as arguments or

explanations.
1. My computer crashed because I spilled coffee on it.
2. My wife's towel is wet. Therefore, she must have already taken her shower this
morning.
3. The dog is barking because it is cold.
4. Young children should not be permitted to go snowboarding, because it is too

dangerous.
5. Flight 336 to Rome will be delayed due to late arrival of the aircraft.
6. Experts in any field learn new things faster than novices do, because their rich, highly
accessible background knowledge gives them a greater variety of means for capturing the
new ideas. (E.D. Hirsch, Jr., The Schools We Deserve--And Why We Don't Have Them,
1996)
7. No money spent on a good book can ever be wasted: somehow, sometime, somewhere
that book will be read, if not by you, then by your children or your friends. (Clifton
Fadiman, The Lifetime Reading Plan, 1960)
8. Since the world of tomorrow will be run by the children of today, it is vital that we
encourage young people to be concerned about the future and instill in them the idea that
they can help shape that future according to their own goals and aspirations. (Howard
Ozmon and Samuel Craver, Philosophical Foundations of Education, 5th ed., 1995)
9. Black and Hispanic students have lower than average test scores on such examinations
as the Scholastic Aptitude Test but their SAT scores cannot explain the national decline,
for Hispanic scores have risen during much of the national decline, and black scores have
20
risen still more. (Thomas Sowell, Inside American Education: The Decline, the
Deception, the Dogmas, 1993)
10. Washington is nicknamed "The Evergreen State" because it sounds better than "The
Incessant Nagging Drizzle State." (Dave Barry, Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll
Ever Need, 1991)
11. In less than a century, life expectancy in the United States has increased by three
decades, in part because of better sanitation and living standards, but in large part because
of advances in medicine realized through rigorous testing. (Marcia Angell and Jerome P.
Kassirer, "Alternative Medicine: The Risks of Untested and Unregulated Remedies,"
1999)
12. College drinking requires our attention because too many students down enough
alcohol to create problems--vandalism, fights, injuries, driving while intoxicated and
altercations with the police. Then there are the secondhand effects of non-bingeing
students, who are assaulted, whose property is vandalized, who are victims of unwanted
sexual advances or whose sleep and study time are interrupted. (Henry Wechsler, Letter
to the Editor, New York Times, October 9, 2000)
13. Our generation should be ashamed. We were raised by parents who suffered the
Depression and sacrificed at the hands of the Axis and North Korea. We are spoiled
children, Peter Pans who've replaced intimacy and spirituality with meaningless toys and
avarice. (Rich Fiegleman, Letter to the Editor, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, March 19,
1999)
14. In our list of required [college general education] readings we include Plato but not
randomly selected comic strips, because we think there is an important distinction in
quality between the two, and we think we can justify the claim that there is a distinction.
(John Searle, "Is There a Crisis in Higher Education?" 1993)
15. One reason that Americans as a people became nostalgic about the fifties more than
twenty-five years later was not so much that life was better in the fifties (though in some
ways it was), but because at the time it had been portrayed so idyllically on television.
(David Halberstam, The Fifties, 1993)
16. As a nation of immigrants, Americans have prospered because they have broken with
the past. (Louis V. Gerstner, et. al., Reinventing Education: Entrepreneurship in
America's Public Schools, 1994)
17. Don't accept the chauvinistic tradition that labels our era the age of mammals. This is
the age of arthropods. They outnumber us by any criterion--by species, by individuals, by
prospects for evolutionary continuation. Some 80 percent of all named animal species are
arthropods, the vast majority insects. (Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life, 1989)
21
18. Too many people feel insecure, threatened, and unappreciated in their jobs. As a
result, their motivation for digging deep and stretching themselves to attain the best of
which they're capable has withered. (Tom Morris, If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The
New Soul of Business, 1998)
19. The genius of Isaac Asimov or the athletic ability of a Michael Jordan is extremely
rare, but because these are socially desirable behaviors, we do not label them abnormal.
(Stuart A. Vyse, Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition, 1997)
20. We shall not solve the problems of alcoholism and juvenile delinquency by increasing
a sense of responsibility. It is the environment which is "responsible" for the
objectionable behavior, and it is the environment, not some attribute of the individual,
which must be changed. (B.F. Skinner, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, 1974)
21. Faith is a matter of the highest importance, because without it we cannot be justified
or saved. (Richard P. McBrien, Catholicism, 1981)
22. The history of education in antiquity is not without relevance to our modern culture,
for in it we can trace the direct ancestry of our own educational traditions. (H. I. Marrou,
A History of Education in Antiquity, 1956)
23. Since the early 1980s, ethnic Albanians have boycotted the state education system in
favor of their own schools funded by Albanians living abroad. As a result, many young
ethnic Albanians don't learn to speak Serbian and Serbs rarely learn Albanian. ("Kosovo's
Serbs, Ethnic Albanians Have Almost Nothing in Common," Wilkes-Barre Times Leader,
March 25, 1999)
24. Since blacks of all classes are more likely to be raised in segregated surroundings,
they grow up with less exposure to the kinds of reasoning that standardized examinations
expect. (Andrew Hacker, Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, and Unequal,
1992)
25. The reason why universal suffrage in a true democracy calls for universal public
schooling is that the former without the latter produces an ignorant electorate and
amounts to a travesty of democratic institutions and processes. (Mortimer J. Adler, The
Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto, 1982)
26. Health is a precious thing, the only thing indeed that deserves to be pursued at the
expense not only of time, sweat, labour, worldly goods, but of life itself: since without it
life becomes a burden and an affliction. (Michel de Montaigne, Essays, 1595)
27. Just as you can shoot a basketball and not score a basket, you can believe something
and not thereby have knowledge. So knowing is not the same thing as believing. (Tom
Morris, Philosophy for Dummies, 1999)
22
28. Because the social world is often irrational and unjust, because people are often
manipulated to act against their interests, because skilled thought is often used to serve
vested interest, those whose main purpose is to forward their selfish interests often
skillfully violate the common standards for good thinking. (Richard Paul, Critical
Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Know in a Rapidly Changing World, 1990)
29. Other things being equal, it is better to be smart than stupid. Intelligent beings can
solve problems better, live longer and leave more offspring. (Carl Sagan, Cosmos, 1980)
30. Confession is good for the soul not only because it performs a therapeutic cleansing
of the impurities that clog the spiritual bloodstream but because to address it in
confession immediately objectifies the evil and places one in a community outside of
oneself. (Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book, 1996)
31. Gather ye rose-buds while ye may/Old Time is still a-flying:/And this same flower
that smiles today,\To-morrow will be dying. (Robert Herrick)
32. Studies show that being rested translates into better grades. So be sure your kids
sleep well. (Lyric Wallwork Winik, "Help Kids Earn A's in Bed," Parade, September 1,
2002)
33. Many parents use the television as a babysitter with the result that preschool children
are often raised on a diet of soap operas. (Kenneth Strike & Jonas F. Soltis, The Ethics of
Teaching, 2nd ed., 1998)
34. Because states rely heavily on property taxes to fund public schools, wealthy districts
expend as much as ten times more per pupil than poorer districts. (Michael Parenti,
Democracy for the Few, 7th ed., 2002)
35. And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and
laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:7)
36. I am not the same as my body because I can imagine switching bodies with another
person, but remaining who I am. (Phil Washburn, Philosophical Dilemmas, 2nd ed.,
2001)
37. Every political community seems to need some social division of labor--different
people doing different jobs. As a result, power, privilege, and property are distributed
unequally. (Larry Arnhart, Political Questions, 1987)
38. Brisk walking is good for the heart. The heart is a muscle, after all, and anything that
makes the blood flow faster through a muscle helps keep it in shape. But regular walking
benefits the heart in other ways as well. It lowers blood pressure, which helps decrease
the stress on the arteries. It can boost the amount of HDL cholesterol (the good one) in
the blood. It even seems to make the blood less "sticky" and therefore less likely to
produce unwanted clots. (Christine Gorman, "Walk, Don't Run," Time, January 21, 2002)
23
39. Love by its very nature cannot compel, and so any God whose very essence is love
should not be expected to overwhelm the world either with a coercively directive power
or as an annihilating presence. (John F. Haught, "Evolution, Tragedy, and Hope," 1998)
40. Yankee Stadium's deep power alleys clearly hurt Joe DiMaggio, who hit 213 home
runs on the road and only 148 at home. (George F. Will, Men at Work: The Craft of
Baseball, 1990)
41. I channel surfed basic cable the other night. Here's what I saw: lots of car crashes, lots
of gun fights, slithering bodies, explosions, fist fights, murders, illicit sex, extreme
violence, lying, killing, cheating, greed, lots of commercials for food, lots of commercials
for pills because you ate too much food, self-absorbed personalities, rudeness, crudeness,
foul language, drug use, lewdness, and uninhibited partying. And we expect God to bless
our nation? Help would be more appropriate. (From a newspaper call-in column, July 21,
2002)
42. Why do Americans forbid anyone to take recreational drugs? Because Americans, at
heart, are Puritans and cannot tolerate what they regard as immorality in other people.
(Phil Washburn, Philosophical Dilemmas, 2nd ed., 2001)
43. Ford Motor Co. is recalling 640, 975 cars because a problem in the engine cooling
system can start a fire under the hood. ("Ford Recalls '95 Models," Wilkes-Barre Times
Leader, February, 13, 2002)
44. Galileo was the first to combine empirical knowledge with mathematics and is
therefore seen as the father of modern science. (Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics, 4th ed.,
1999)
45. The streets are narrow, parking is next to impossible, and nerve, skill, and
ruthlessness are required--in other words, don't drive in Paris. (Cheryl A Pientka and
Laura M. Reckford, France for Dummies, 2001)
46. Although most Japanese strongly disagree, it seems to me that the difficult decision to
drop the atomic bomb on Japan was morally justified. Much greater invasion casualties
were avoided, and the terrible evidence of atomic power has proved to be a major
deterrent to its subsequent use. (Jimmy Carter, Living Faith, 1996 [adapted])
47. Since most people are self-interested to some degree, very few of us are likely to do
everything that we ought to do. (Peter Singer, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” 1972)
48. Is much of the suffering in human history due to the misuse of free will? Most
certainly. Think of all the wars, the murders, the tortures, the mental suffering that human
beings inflict on each other. (Tom Morris, Philosophy for Dummies, 1999)
49. Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. (Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 2)
24
50. Have you ever wondered what makes Californians so calm? Besides drugs, I mean.
The answer is hot tubs. A hot tub is a redwood container filled with water that you sit in
naked with members of the opposite sex who are not necessarily your spouse. After a few
hours in the hot tub, Californians don't give a damn about earthquakes or mass murders.
They don't give a damn about anything, which is why they are able to produce "Laverne
and Shirley" week after week. (Dave Barry, The Taming of the Screw, 1983)
Answers
1. Explanation 26. Argument

2. Argument 27. Argument
3. Explanation 28. Explanation
8. Argument 33. Explanation
Distinguishing Arguments from Nonarguments
For each of the following, indicate whether the passage is best interpreted as an argument
(A), an explanation (E), or neither an argument nor an explanation (N).
1. I’m calling about all these protestors against the [second Gulf] war. Why can’t people
rally around our president and support our men? My God, Saddam Hussein kills his own
people, he has no mercy, he cares nothing about anybody but himself. Don’t people
25
realize that if you don’t stop a madman we might not have the freedom to protest or the
freedom to come and go as we please in this country? (From a newspaper call-in column,
April 6, 2003)
2. How could the average person be so gullible to throw their money away in slot
machines? Think about it. This money could be used for your family for things that they
need. (From a newspaper call-in column, April 3, 2003)
3. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think
necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone the question. . . . Does this path have a
heart? If it does, the path is good. If it doesn’t, the path is of no use. (Carlos Castaneda,
The Teachings of Don Juan, revised ed., 1985)
4. Particle physicists are completely familiar with the equivalence of mass and energy; so
familiar, in fact, that they measure the masses of particles in the corresponding energy
units. (Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics, 4th ed., 1999)
5. Ash is now the ideal wood for crafting baseball bats because it has just the right
amount of strength, resiliency and weight that a batter needs to hit the ball with authority.
(John Monteleone and Mark Gola, The Louisville Slugger Ultimate Book of Hitting,
1997)
6. Companies should investigate consumer complaints. This process encourages firms to

deal fairly with customers and to use the most effective source of product improvement:
the opinions of those who use it. (William H. Shaw, Business Ethics, 4th ed., 2002)
7. The weakened air pollution regulations that are being given to industry by the Bush
administration once again proves that we have the best president money can buy. (From a
call-in newspaper column)
8. Since stone was rare in Sumeria, it was brought up the Gulf or down the rivers, and
then through numerous canals to the quays of the cities. (Will Durant, Our Oriental
Heritage, 1935)
9. A wealthy eccentric bought a house in a neighborhood I know. The house was

surrounded by a beautiful display of grass, plants, and flowers, and it was shaded by a
huge old avocado tree. But the grass required cutting, the flowers needed tending, and the
man wanted more sun. So he cut the whole lot down and covered the yard with asphalt.
(Thomas E. Hill, “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments,”
1983)
10. Good writers assume distinct roles; in turn, perspective helps clarify what they
observe. A lover and a botanist, for example, see entirely different things in the same red
rose. (Stephen Reid, The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers, 5th ed., 2000)
26
11. The beer industry has been the target of strong criticism for several years. As a result,
Anheuser-Busch pulled its beer advertising from MTV to avoid drawing fire for
marketing to underage drinkers and moved their spots to VH-1, a similar network that
targets 25- to 49-year olds. (William Wells, et. al., Advertising Principles and Practice,
5th ed., 2000)
12. As I was desirous to recover the long lost bottom of Walden Pond, I surveyed it
carefully, before the ice broke up, early in ’46, with compass and chain and sounding
line. (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854)
13. Phrases like “maximize the overall good” and “the greatest good of the greatest
number” require some form of measurement and comparison (how else would you know
that this situation rather than another has maximized the good?) (Joseph Des Jardins, An
Introduction to Business Ethics, 2003)
14. I first saw the earth – the whole earth – from the shuttle Challenger in 1984. The view
takes your breath away and fills you with childlike wonder. That’s why every shuttle
crew has to clean noseprints off their spacecraft’s windows several times a day.”
(Kathryn Sullivan, “A Glimpse of Home,” 2002)
15. Transportation taps the energy stored in rocks, and in the air, and uses it elsewhere;
thus we fertilize the garden with nitrogen gleaned by the guano birds from the fishes of
seas on the other side of the Equator. (Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949)
16. Baths make you cleaner than showers. You can’t get rid of dead skin cells in a
shower, even when you scrub with soap and water. They must be thoroughly soaked first,
then scrubbed off. (Marilyn Vos Savant, “Ask Marilyn,” Parade magazine, February 23,
2003)
17. Why do people want to be healthy and live longer? Because health helps one enjoy
life, and a longer life means more pleasure. (Phil Washburn, Philosophical Dilemmas,
2nd. ed., 2001)
18. Truth is timeless. Truth does not differ from one age to another. Men’s ideas may
differ, men’s customs may change, men’s moral codes may vary, but the great all-
prevailing Truth stands for time and eternity. (Billy Graham, Peace with God, rev. ed.,
1984)
19.Slang metaphors usually have a short shelf life. Think of the various metaphorical
ways of describing drunkenness and how quickly they are replaced by others. (Robert J.
Fogelin and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Understanding Arguments, 6th ed., 2001)
20. Boredom . . . is a vital consideration for the moralist, since at least half the sins of
mankind are caused by fear of it. (Bertrand Russell, quoted in Tom Morris, If Aristotle
Ran General Motors, 1997)
27
21. Even if schools can improve students’ conduct while they are in school—and the
evidence shows that they can indeed do that—the likelihood of lasting impact on the
character of a child is diminished if the school’s values aren’t supported at home. For
that reason schools and families must come together in common cause. (Thomas Lickona,
Educating for Character, 1991)
22. Heavy, wet lungs with a sluggish circulation are an ideal breeding ground for
bacteria and advancing inflammation, which is why so many cardiac patients die of
pneumonia. (Sherwin B. Nuland, How We Die, 1995)
23. Cuernavaca has become a chic upper-class getaway, so rooms are chronically
overpriced. (Let’s Go Budget Guide to Mexico, 1996)
24. In walking, the will and the muscles are so accustomed to working together and
perform their task with so little expenditure of force that the intellect is left comparatively
free. (George Sheehan, George Sheehan on Running, 1975)
25. Although voters claim to resent the lifetime legislator phenomenon, they continue to
return their own incumbent to office, lest they find themselves represented by an
inexperienced junior member in an institution governed by powerful norms of seniority.
(William Eskridge, Jr. et al., Legislation and Statutory Interpretation, 2000)
26. Smoked marijuana cannot be subjected to careful, well-controlled trials, because it

does not come in a standard, reproducible formula or dose, and cannot meet the accepted
standards for drug purity, potency, and quality. (Henry I. Miller, “Reefer Medicine,”
2006)
27. The virtue of obedience is more praiseworthy than other moral virtues, seeing that by
obedience a person gives up his own will for God’s sake, and by other moral virtues
something less. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica)
28. In recent years, many people have come to realize the importance of looking within
to find their deepest resources. Because of this, busy people in many walks of life have
taken to going on personal retreats or spiritual getaways that will make this meditative
time possible. (Tom Morris, The Stoic Way of Life, 2004)
29. Does freedom seem to you good? It’s the greatest good. Is it possible then that he
who obtains the greatest good can be unhappy or fare badly? No, whoever then you see
unhappy, unfortunate, or complaining, you can judge with confidence that they are not
free. (Epictetus, Discourses)
30. Despite the vast sums we spend on our intelligence and diplomatic services,
American officials often seem clueless about the culture of our adversaries. After
Vietnam, Robert McNamara admitted that he and other war planners had never
understood Vietnamese history and culture. Our intelligence services didn’t see the
28
Iranian revolution coming, or the Soviet Union’s breakup. (Maureen Dowd, “Take Down
Saddam TV,” 2003)
31. It is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without vanity; therefore I shall be
short. (David Hume, My Own Life, 1776)
32. Tires lose about a pound of pressure each month. So check them every month with a
tire gauge and add air if they need it. (Firestone ad)
33. What intelligent designer came up with cancer and toothaches? Who “designed”
your appendix and tonsils, organs that do nothing but get infected and cause you grief?
How intelligent is the famously fragile human spine, or the narrow pelvis that makes
childbirth harder for humans than for almost any other species? There are evolutionary
explanations for all of these, but I hardly think there was much intelligence in designing
halitosis, acne or flatulence. (Lawrence Dorr, Letter to the Editor)
34. The pen is mightier than the sword, if it has been sharpened to a fine point, dipped in
deadly poison and is thrown from ten feet away. But really, you’re better off with a
sword. (Jon Stewart, et al., America (The Book), “quoting” Benjamin Franklin’s “first
draft” of Poor Richard’s Almanac)
35. There are several views and attitudes about moral propositions and moral arguments
that get in the way of good reasoning about them. These views and attitudes have in
common the idea that moral propositions are somehow radically different from other
propositions and that, as a result, our usual principles regarding truth and rationality don’t
apply to them. (Richard Feldman, Reason and Argument, 2nd ed.)
36. Schooling must be universal and compulsory because, in a democracy, all children
must be trained for citizenship. (Mortimer J. Adler, Reforming Education, 1988)
37. Look around you. Nothing is more beautiful than what you see—the morning
sunrise, the splendid sunset, the ocean, the stars, the leaves, the trees, the clouds—
everything is so beautiful. If God is not the best of all painters, how could he have
created the world as it is? (Thich Nhat Hanh, Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as
Brothers, 1999)
38. Because knowledge and understanding are valued in our culture, both for their own
sake and for what they contribute to technology and to our quality of life generally, being
educated has come to be thought of as a highly desirable state to be in—but not by
everybody. (P.H. Hirst and R.S. Peters, The Logic of Education, 1970)
39. Ethics is not first and foremost about staying out of trouble. It’s not primarily about
avoiding problems at all. Ethics is mainly about creating strength, in an individual
person, a family, a community, business relationships, and life. (Tom Morris, If Artistotle
Ran General Motors, 1997)
29
40. Some people argue that the public school has no role in character development and
moral education, because these are rooted in deeply held religious worldviews. As such,
they are out of bounds to the public school, which should concentrate on cognitive skills
exclusively, skills such as reading, writing, and application of the scientific method.
(Kevin Ryan and James M. Cooper, Those Who Can, Teach, 8th ed.)
41. Rise at a fixed and an early hour, and go to bed at a fixed and early hour also. Sitting
up late at night is injurious to the health, and not useful to the mind. (Thomas Jefferson,
Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787)
42. Because of surging economies in the developing world, and continued growth among
the industrialized nations, global energy use is climbing. As a result, supplies are tight.
Prices are rising. And energy users are calling for viable alternatives. (Energy company
ad, 2006)
43. How you relate to people in the workplace—both those above you and those below
you—is vital, because you never know who might one day be your boss. (Rick Pitino,
Success Is a Choice, 1998)
44. Almost anyone who lives in the rural Northeast can attest that the forest has
expanded its range in the past century. That is why all those stone walls—the edges of
cleared fields once upon a time—are now orphaned deep in the woods. (New York Times,
“Reforestation and Deforestation,” 2006)
45. Judges must say what the law “is” to resolve the disputes before them. A judge
cannot hear a case and then refuse to render a decision because the legal answer cannot
be determined. (Robert Paul Churchill, Logic: An Introduction, 2nd ed.)
46. People think it’s an easy thing to be a leader. It’s not. You have to earn the respect
of your teammates. You have to be willing to challenge them as well as support them.
And you have to be willing to do whatever it takes. (Larry Bird, Bird Watching, 1999)
47. Violins and pianos give out sounds because they have strings. (William James, A
Pluralistic Universe, 1999)
48. My childhood was solitary, as my brother was seven years older than I was, and I
was not sent to school. (Bertrand Russell, “My Religious Reminiscences,” 1938)
49. Because prescription fish oil is not licensed to prevent heart disease in the United
States, drug companies may not legally promote it for that purpose at conferences, in
doctors’ offices, to patients or even on the Internet. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, “In Europe It’s
Fish Oil After Heart Attack, but Not in the U.S.,” 2007)
50. A life partner can be wonderful, but it’s no guarantee of happiness or security.
Witness the number of marriages that fail and the number of households headed by single
mothers who struggle to make ends meet. (Dear Abby, August 14, 2004)
30
51. It seem clear that there are times when it is not wrong to kill another person
intentionally. For example, if that is the only way to defend oneself or to prevent a great
many deaths, then taking the life of another person seems to be morally acceptable.
(Richard Feldman, Reason and Argument, 2nd ed.)
52. A strict constructionist interprets the Constitution according to the language and
original intent of the text at the time of its writing, in much the same way as a
fundamentalist views the Bible. Fortunately, for strict constructionists, they have been
endowed by God with the super-human gift of being able to read the minds of people
who died 200 years ago. Naturally, they use this power only for good. (Jon Stewart, et
al., America (The Book), 2005)
53. Choice of a child’s school has always been an option for wealthier parents, for
families that have the financial strength and stability to move into a community where
there are “desirable” schools or to pay tuition for their child’s enrollment at a private
school. (Theodore R. Sizer, Horace’s Hope, 1996)
54. Do not remove or tear the label on the cartridge; otherwise, ink will leak. (printer
cartridge package)
55. Judges must make choices when a case pits widely shared moral values against each
other. Thus the Constitution contains language protecting the freedom of the press. It
also contains language ensuring the fairness of criminal trials. But an unrestrained press
can do much to prejudice the fairness of a trial. (Lief H. Carter and Thomas F. Burke,
Reason in Law, 7th ed., 2005)
56. Besides inaccurate information, children surfing the Web can easily run across all
sorts of inappropriate material—too vulgar, too sexually explicit, or unsuitable for other
reasons. As a result, schools and society in general are currently struggling with issues of
censorship and First Amendment rights raised by the Internet. (Kevin Ryan and James M.
Cooper, Those Who Can, Teach, 8th ed.)
57. Don’t wear running shoes to play other sports. The lateral movement of activities
such as tennis, basketball, or aerobics classes could disturb the balance of the shoe. (Bob
Glover and Shelly-lynn Florence Glover, The Competitive Runner’s Handbook, 1999)
58. If education is concerned to develop such basic human capacities as curiosity, self-
criticism, capacity for reflection, ability to form an independent judgment, sensitivity,
intellectual humility and respect for others, and to open the pupil’s mind to the great
achievements of mankind, then it must be multicultural in orientation. (B. Parekh,
Rethinking Multiculturalism, 2000)
59. Do not let the dribble beat you to the middle; force him to the sideline instead. When
you “force sideline,” you give yourself defensive help because the sideline acts as a
wall—the dribble can’t go beyond it. (Digger Phelps, Basketball for Dummies, 1997)
31
60. Just as we should desire only what is really good for us, so too we should desire the
same for other people because they are essentially no different from us. (Vincent Ryan
Ruggiero, Thinking Critically about Ethical Issues, 6th ed.)
61. At my office all the morning and all the afternoon till late at night; and so home and
to bed, my mind in good ease when I mind business, which methinks should be a good
argument to me never to do otherwise. (Samuel Pepys, Diary, March 20, 1662)
62. Education entails governance—whether of the young by the old, the ignorant by the
knowledgeable, the foolish by the wise, or the relatively powerless by the powerful,
(Amy Gutmann, “Democracy and Democratic Education,” 1993)
63. Part of the significance of philosophy is that it holds before us basic problems and
concerns which, when conscientiously explored, bring enlightenment and sensitivity.
(Michael L. Peterson, Philosophy of Education: Issues and Options, 1986)
64. In the United States there is no religious hatred because religion is universally
respected and no sect is predominant. (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America,
13th ed.)
65. Most people assume that restricting the right to have children is an unacceptable limit
on adult liberty. As a result, many children are born into awful environments and many
are born with unfavorable genes. (Christopher Jencks, “Whom Must We Treat Equally
for Educational Opportunity to be Equal?” 1988)
66. Teaching is an art and a teacher must be trained, but since the technique is one of
communicating knowledge and inculcating discipline, it is not education psychology and
courses in method and pedagogy which train a teacher, but the liberal arts. (Mortimer J.
Adler, Reforming Education, 1988)
67. Exciting art and literature are like a captivating teacher in the effect they have on
students; they too can generate a love of learning. (Arthur F. Holmes, The Idea of a
Christian College, 1975)
68. The plurality of ethnoracial groups is a deep part of the fiber of American life, so in
understanding them one gains a deeper appreciation of one’s Americanness as a social
and cultural identity. (Lawrence Blum, “The Promis of Racial Integration in a
Multicultural Age,” 2002)
69. Since all government comes from God, the civil authorities were appointed by God,
and so anyone who resists authority is rebelling against God’s decision. (Romans 13:2)
70. A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten
on the influx of better thoughts. (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854)
32
Answers
1. argument 36. argument

3. nonargument 38. explanation
4. nonargument 39. neither
5. explanation 40. neither
7. argument 42. explanation
8. explanation 43. argument
9. explanation 44. explanation
10. nonargument 45. neither
15. nonargument (illustration) 50. argument
18. nonargument (unsupported assertion) 53. neither
19. nonargument (illustration) 54. argument
20. argument 55. neither
24. neither 59. argument
30. neither 65. explanation
34. neither 69. argument
35. neither 70. neither
Multiple Choice
Select the best answer to the following multiple-choice questions by circling the
appropriate letter.
33
1. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed. (Bertrand Russell,
Autobiography, 1969)
a. nonargument; explanation
b. nonargument; unsupported assertion
c. argument; conclusion: Never try to discourage thinking.
d. argument; conclusion: You are sure to succeed.
2. Because Mars is farther from the Sun than is the Earth, its temperatures are
considerably lower. (Carl Sagan, Cosmos, 1980)
a. nonargument; report
b. argument; conclusion: Mars is farther from the Sun than is the earth.
c. nonargument; explanation
d. argument; conclusion: Its temperatures are considerably lower.
3. If you have a well-established theory which says that change does not occur in the
heavenly regions (regions of the sky more distant from the Earth than the moon), you will
rightly discount reports of observers on a particular occasion who claim to have observed
a new star to appear where there was no star before, or to have observed a comet pass
through those regions (as opposed to being a mere sublunary phenomenon). (Richard
Swinburne, Revelation: From Metaphor to Analogy, 1992)
a. nonargument; conditional statement

b. nonargument; illustration
c. argument; conclusion: You will rightly discount reports of observers on a particular
occasion who claim to have observed a new star to appear where there was no star before,
or to have observed a comet pass through those regions (as opposed to being a mere
sublunary phenomenon)
d. nonargument; unsupported assertion.
4. Official world table tennis championships were first held in 1926 under the auspices of
the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF; founded in 1926). Women's doubles
competition was added in 1929 and women's team competition in 1934. In 1980 the ITTF
first sponsored a men's World Cup competition for the top 16 ranking players; it has been
held annually since then. ("Sporting Record: Table Tennis," The New Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 15th ed., 1990)
b. nonargument; report
c. nonargument; unsupported assertion
d. argument; conclusion: It has been held annually since then.
34
5. I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people, by the people,
for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a
democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union
one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice and
humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. (William Tyler
Page, "The American's Creed," quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 12th ed., 1948)
a. nonargument; illustration
b. nonargument; conditional statement
c. nonargument; report
d. nonargument; unsupported assertion
6. When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an
unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. (Edmund Burke, "Thoughts on the Cause of
the Present Discontents," 1770)
c. argument; conclusion: Else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a
contemptible struggle.
d. argument; conclusion: When bad men combine, the good must associate.
7. Although it is high time to deal with agriculture's contribution to water pollution, the
damage is very uneven in scope and severity; it tends to occur where farming is extensive
and fresh water resources are vulnerable. Thus, blanket regulations would be unwise.
(David E. Ervin, "Shaping a Smarter Environmental Policy for Farming," 1998)
a. argument; conclusion: Blanket regulations would be unwise.

b. argument; conclusion: It tends to occur where farming is extensive and fresh water
resources are vulnerable.
c. nonargument; illustration
d. nonargument; explanation
8. Since 1950, almost every top publishing house in the United States has been issuing
books that its editors know to be occult garbage. Why? The answer is obvious. Like
worthless diet books, they make lots of money. (Martin Gardner, The New Age: Notes of
a Fringe Watcher, 1988)
a. argument; conclusion: Since 1950, almost every top publishing house in the United
States has been issuing books that its editors know to be occult garbage.
b. nonargument; explanation
d. argument; conclusion: Like worthless diet books, they make lots of money.
35
9. This is for the lady who says she wants to vote for the opposite person who is not
supported by pharmaceutical companies. Republicans support big business.
Pharmaceutical companies are very, very big business. You want to vote against them?
Vote Democratic. (From a newspaper call-in column)
a. nonargument; unsupported assertion

b. argument; conclusion: Republicans support big business.
c. argument; conclusion: If you want to vote against candidates who are not supported by
the pharmaceutical companies, vote Democratic.
d. argument; conclusion: Pharmaceutical companies are very, very big business.
10. About a century and a half ago Matthew Arnold found in the withdrawing ocean tide
a metaphor for the retreat of religious faith, and heard in the water's sound "the note of
sadness." It would be wonderful to find in the laws of nature a plan prepared by a
concerned creator in which human beings played some special role. I find sadness in
doubting that we will. (Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory, 1992)

b. argument; conclusion: I find sadness in doubting that we will.
c. argument; conclusion: It would be wonderful to find in the laws of nature a plan
prepared by a concerned creator in which human beings played some special role.
11. Life can throw us some curves at times that are not always easy to handle. We can
often feel lost, uncertain and upset. With so much to do and think about, we may become
confused; not sure how to feel or what to do with our feelings. A natural reaction to
stress, disappointment and losses in our lives is to feel down. But it's important to know
that when these feelings are severe or continue for a long time, you may be experiencing
depression--a disorder that requires professional help. (First Priority Health Brochure,
October 2000)
a. argument; conclusion: Life can throw us some curves at times that are not always easy
to handle.
b. nonargument; report or unsupported assertion
c. argument; conclusion: But it's important to know that when these feelings are severe or
continue for a long time, you may be experiencing depression--a disorder that requires
professional help.
d. nonargument; illustration
12. Dictators win the loyalty of their people because people are anxious to have someone
and something in which to believe and to whom they can give loyalty. (Peter J. Gomes,
The Good Book, 1996)
36
b. argument; conclusion: Dictators win the loyalty of their people.
13. In a thoroughly naturalistic universe, it would be hard to see how any of our gestures
toward meaning could be efficacious in any way at all. For this reason, the debate about
the existence of God is never just an intellectual controversy. (Tom Morris, Philosophy
for Dummies, 1999)
a. argument; conclusion: In a thoroughly naturalistic universe, it would be hard to see

how any of our gestures toward meaning could be efficacious in any way at all.
c. argument; conclusion: The debate about the existence of God is never just an
intellectual controversy.
d. nonargument; conditional statement
14. This is for the person who wrote in the SAYSO column that George Bush is a breath
of fresh air. I think he is an airhead. (From a newspaper call-in column)

d. argument; conclusion: I think he is an airhead.
15. To make sense of complex issues, you need to have thought critically and reasoned
analytically about them, before reaching a well-supported conclusion. (John Chaffee, The
Thinker's Way, 1998)
a. argument; conclusion: You need to have thought critically and reasoned analytically
about them.
b. argument; conclusion: Before reaching a well-supported conclusion.
16. We have five fingers because we are descended from a Devonian fish that had five
phalanges or bones in its fins. (Carl Sagan, Cosmos, 1980)

b. argument; conclusion: We have five fingers.
37
d. argument; conclusion: We are descended from a Devonian fish that had five phalanges
or bones in its fins.
17. There can be no defense of eating flesh in terms of satisfying nutritional needs, since
it has been established beyond doubt that we could satisfy our need for protein and other
essential nutrients far more efficiently with a diet that replaced animal flesh by soy beans,
or products derived from soy beans, and other high-protein vegetable products. (Peter
Singer, Animal Liberation, 1975)
b. argument; conclusion: It has been established beyond doubt that we could satisfy our
need for protein and other essential nutrients far more efficiently with a diet that replaced
animal flesh by soy beans, or products derived from soy beans, and other high-protein
vegetable products.
c. argument; conclusion: There can be no defense of eating flesh in terms of satisfying
nutritional needs.
18. If moms would stay home and be moms the way they're supposed to be instead of
trying to act like men, we wouldn't have the trouble we're having with our children today.
(From a newspaper call-in column)
a. argument; conclusion: Moms should stay home and be moms the way they're supposed
to be instead of trying to act like men.
d. argument; conclusion: We wouldn't have the trouble we're having with our children
today.
19. Astrology is having a resurgence not only because of mystical trends that ebb and
flow over the years, but also because of the superabundance of astrological material
easily accessible everywhere. (J.V. Stewart, Astrology: What's Really in the Stars? 1996)
b. argument; conclusion: There is a superabundance of astrological material everywhere.
c. argument; conclusion: Astrology is having a resurgence.
20. Be not afraid because some time thou must cease to live, but fear to have begun truly
to live. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, c. AD 180)
c. argument; conclusion: Fear to have begun truly to live.
38
d. argument; conclusion: Be not afraid because some time thou must cease to live.
21. Simple distinctions come all too easily. Frequently we open the way for later
puzzlement by restricting the options we take to be available. So, for example, in
contrasting science and religion, we often operate with a simple pair of categories. On
one side there is science, proof, and certainty; on the other, religion, conjecture, and faith.
(Philip Kitcher, Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism, 1982)

b. argument; conclusion: For example, in contrasting science and religion, we often
operate with a simple pair of categories.
c. argument; conclusion: Simple distinctions come all too easily.
d. nonargument; illustration
22. [H]e that makes use of the light and faculties God has given him and seeks sincerely
to discover truths by those helps and abilities he has, may have this satisfaction in doing
his duty as a rational creature, that, though he should miss truth, he will not miss the
reward of it. For he governs his assent right, and places it as he should, who, in any case
or matter whatsoever, believes or disbelieves, according as his reason directs him. (John
Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1690)

d. argument; conclusion: He that makes use of the light and faculties God has given him
and seeks sincerely to discover truths by those helps and abilities he has, may have this
satisfaction in doing his duty as a rational creature, that, though he should miss truth, he
will not miss the reward of it.
23. [W]ithout really knowing it, many students inwardly believe that it is possible to
acquire knowledge without thought, that it is possible to read without exerting any
intellectual energy, and that good writing is not a product of practice and hard work but
of a talent one is born with. As a result, they are not inclined to take any responsibility for
their own learning or to put any effort into learning new modes of thinking. (Foundation
for Critical Thinking, Critical Thinking: Basic Theory and Instructional Structures, 1999)
b. argument; conclusion: They are not inclined to take any responsibility for their own
learning or to put any effort into learning new modes of thinking.
39
24. We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our
historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our
upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die, nor do we choose the time or
conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we
shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in
drift. (Joseph Epstein, Ambition: The Secret Passion, 1980)
a. argument; conclusion: Within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we

shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in
drift.
d. nonargument; conditional statement
25. I would like to voice my opinion on what pet shops should sell. Cats, dogs, birds, fish
are OK, but rodents, reptiles should not be caged and should remain in their own
environment. I think that they should do something to stop them from profiting on these
creatures. (From a newspaper call-in column)
b. argument; conclusion: They should do something to stop them from profiting on these
creatures.
d. argument; conclusion: Cats, dogs, birds, fish are OK, but rodents, reptiles should not
be caged and should remain in their own environment.
26. The heavily cratered lunar highlands speak to us of an early epoch in the history of
the solar system when cratering was much more common than it is today; the present
population of interplanetary debris fails by a large factor to account for the abundance of
the highland craters. (Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science,
1979)
a. argument; conclusion: The heavily cratered lunar highlands speak to us of an early

epoch in the history of the solar system when cratering was much more common than it is
today.
b. argument; conclusion: The present population of interplanetary debris fails by a large
factor to account for the abundance of the highland craters.
27. Let's get this straight now. Guns, evil. Abortion, good. Restrictions on gun ownership.
Federal protection of abortion clinics and abortionists. Register your guns, but you don't
have to tell your parents or the father you're having an abortion. A relative handful of
40
kids tragically get killed because a few people went beserk or played with their daddy's
gun; but thousands of kids are killed every year by abortion. Guns evil? Abortion good?
There is something really, really wrong going on here. (From a newspaper call-in
column)

c. argument; conclusion: Guns are good and abortion is evil.
d. argument; conclusion; There is something really, really wrong here.
28. It is very easy for Pope John Paul II to urge Catholics to attend Sunday mass,
especially in Rome, where one can be surrounded by hundreds of priests. Out here in the
real world there is a serious shortage of male priests; those who remain increasingly
preside over lackluster liturgies. This situation could be alleviated by allowing married
priests into active ministry and by the Catholic Church's recognition of female priests.
(Mary Louise Hartman, Letter to the Editor, New York Times, July 12, 1998)
b. argument; conclusion: The Catholic Church should recognize female priests and allow
married priests into active ministry.
29. I worry that to promote science as all fun and larky and easy is to store up trouble for
the future. Real science can be hard (well, challenging to give it a more positive spin) but,
like classical literature or playing the violin, worth the struggle. If children are lured into
science, or any other worthwhile occupation, by the promise of easy fun, what are they
going to do when they finally have to confront the reality? (Richard Dawkins, Unweaving
the Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder, 1998)
a. argument; conclusion: Real science can be hard, but is worth the struggle.
c. argument; conclusion: By promoting science as all fun and larky and easy we may be
storing up trouble for the future.
d. nonargument; report
30. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their

significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory
and also of Christian baptism. (The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994)
a. argument; conclusion: We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by

recognizing their significance in Christ.
41
b. argument; conclusion: The crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory
and also of Christian baptism.
c. nonargument; illustration
31. Science cannot rule out heaven and hell because they are beyond the reach of
empirical investigation. (Chet Raymo, Skeptics and True Believers, 1998)
a. argument; conclusion: Science cannot rule out heaven and hell.

d. argument; conclusion: They are beyond the reach of empirical investigation.
32. You'd better not pout. I'm telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town! (Song:
"Santa Claus is Coming to Town")

d. argument; conclusion: You'd better not pout.
33. Since food and tools were placed in the graves, we may presume that the Sumerians
believed in an afterlife. (Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, 1935)
b. argument; conclusion: We may presume that the Sumerians believed in an afterlife.
c. nonargument; conditional statement
d. argument; conclusion: Food and tools were placed in the graves.
34. If we have a general obligation to be concerned for the well-being of those around us
and if their lives are worsened by government policies, we may have a duty to try to
change the government and its policies. (Stephen Nathanson, Should We Consent to Be
Governed? 1992)
c. argument; conclusion: We may have a duty to try to change the government and its
policies.
35. Several other common English words often are used to connect sentences in the same
way as the word "and". Thus, the word "but" often means "and on the contrary" or "on
the other hand". (Howard Kahane, Logic and Philosophy, 5th ed., 1986)
42

d. argument; conclusion: The word "but" often means "and on the contrary" or "on the
other hand".
Answers
1. c 13. c 25. c
2. c 14. a 26. a
3. a 15. c 27. d
4. b 16. c 28. b
5. d 17. c 29. c
6. d 18. b 30. c
7. a 19. d 31. a
8. b 20. b 32. d
9. c 21. d 33. b
10. a 22. d 34. b
11. b 23. a 35. a
12. d 24. c
Multiple Choice
For each of the following, indicate whether the passage is a report, an unsupported
assertion, a conditional statement, an illustration, an explanation, or an argument by
circling the appropriate letter.
1. Do not look directly at the sun. Its ultraviolet (UV) and infrared radiation can be
catastrophic--it literally can burn a hole in your retina, leading to blindness. (David H.
Levy, "Look for the Solar Eclipse," Parade Magazine, December 24, 2000)
a. argument
b. explanation
c. conditional statement
d. report
e. unsupported assertion
2. If you accept the literal truth of every word of the Bible, then the Earth must be flat.
(Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, 1995)
a. conditional statement
b. illustration
c. explanation
d. unsupported assertion
43
e. argument
3. I don't think that Americans have the right to fly other countries' flags, I really don't. If
this isn't illegal, it should be. If they want to fly another flag, let them go to live in that
country. It offends me very, very much. (From a newspaper call-in column)
a. illustration
b. explanation
c. argument
e. report
4. A good deal of conduct that is ethically immoral is not criminal. For example, there are
many situations where one has a moral duty to save another's life where it can be done
with little danger or inconvenience or expense, but failure to take action to do so is not
usually criminal. (Wayne R. LaFave and Austin W. Scott, Handbook on Criminal Law,
1972)
a. illustration
b. report
c. argument
e. conditional statement
5. If miracles are not possible, then they cannot be actual. (Peter Kreeft and Ronald K.
Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, 1994)
a. report
b. unsupported assertion
c. argument
d. explanation
6. Cells are the smallest independent units of life, and all life as we know it depends on
the many chemical activities of cells. Some of the basic functions of cells are growth,
metabolism, irritability, and reproduction. Cells vary in size from a sperm, which is about
5 micrometers (five-millionths of a meter) long, to a nerve cell with thin fibers that may
be more than a meter long. (Robert Carola, John P. Harley, and Charles R. Noback,
Human Anatomy and Physiology, 2nd ed., 1992)
a. unsupported assertion
b. argument
44
c. report
d. illustration
e. explanation
7. The tropics on both sides of the equator get more heat because the sun's rays strike
them directly from the middle of the sky. (Al Gore, Earth in the Balance, 1990)
a. report
b. argument
d. illustration
e. explanation
8. Science provides only empirical explanations of how nature works. It provides no basis
for a moral code and therefore poses no threat to Christianity. (Jay F. Storz, Letter to the
Editor, New York Times, December 3, 1999)
b. argument
c. report
d. conditional statement
e. explanation
9. According to Plato, the very essence of time is change but the very essence of
knowledge is unchanging. What is true is always true. Therefore, whatever is relative and
always changing cannot be true. (Douglas J. Soccio, Archetypes of Wisdom: An
Introduction to Philosophy, 3rd ed, 1998)
a. report
c. argument
d. explanation
10. In part because of his scientific accomplishments, at least dimly grasped by the
public; in part because of his courageous positions on social issues; and in part because of
his benign personality, Einstein was admired and revered throughout the world. (Carl
Sagan, Broca's Brain, 1979)
a. report
b. illustration
c. argument
d. explanation
45
11. If elections are to be a means of popular control over public policy, voters must be
reasonably well informed about policy issues and must hold opinions about them.
(Thomas R. Dye and Harmon Ziegler, The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon
Introduction to American Politics, 8th ed., 1990)
a. argument
b. conditional statement
c. unsupported assertion
d. explanation
e. report
12. Mahatma Gandhi walked barefoot everywhere, to the point that his feet became quite
thick and hard. He also was quite a spiritual person. Even when not on a hunger strike, he
did not eat much and became quite thin and frail. Furthermore, due to his diet, he ended
up with very bad breath. Therefore, he came to be known as a "super callused fragile
mystic plagued with halitosis." (Internet joke)
a. argument
b. explanation
c. report
e. illustration
13. Large-scale reductions in class size will likely lower the average quality of teachers:
first, because to hire additional teachers school districts must reach into the lower-quality
segment of the teacher pool; and, second, because a given budget will be spread among a
higher number of teachers, thereby limiting potential increases in teacher salaries. (Jane
Hannaway and Robert I. Lerman, Letter to the Editor, The New Republic, November 6,
2000)
b. report
d. argument
e. explanation
14. AARP is greatly feared in Washington, D.C., because of the fierce way it lobbies for
issues of concern to senior citizens, such as Social Security, Medicare, and the
constitutional right to drive without any clue where the actual road is. (Dave Barry, Dave
Barry Turns 50, 1998)
46
b. argument
c. illustration
e. explanation
15. Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot
make yourself as you wish to be. (Thomas á Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, c. 1460)
a. argument
b. illustration
c. explanation
d. report
16. There are many areas where we automatically acknowledge that science is right and
our intuitions are wrong when the two are in conflict. Thus, we all believe that the earth
is round, even though it looks flat to us. (Barry Singer, "To Believe or Not to Believe,"
1981)
a. argument
b. explanation
c. report
e. illustration
17. All organisms that have ever lived--every animal and plant, every bacteria and all
fungi, every creeping thing, and all readers of this book--can look back at their ancestors
and make the following proud claim: not a single one of our ancestors died in infancy.
They all reached adulthood, and every single one was capable of finding at least one
heterosexual partner and of successfully copulating. (Richard Dawkins, River Out of
Eden, 1995)
b. report or unsupported assertion
c. argument
d. explanation
e. illustration
18. Besides thinking and writing, most of my effort has involved reading materials new to
me. As a consequence, the citations I provide are primarily to sources I have read
recently. (Kent Greenawalt, Law and Objectivity, 1992)
b. explanation
47
c. illustration
e. argument
19. If personal life is doomed to irreversible destruction, so are all the fruits of human
creativity, whether material or spiritual, and it does not matter how long we, or our
performances, may last. (Leszek Kolakowski, Religion, 1982)
b. report
c. illustration
e. argument
20. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
(Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, 1757)
b. argument
c. explanation
d. report
e. illustration
21. Rather than really looking at things, people often skimp, fudge, or fake it--think of the
detective who doesn't really want to know who committed the crime, just to collect
enough evidence to get a conviction, or the academic who is less concerned to find the
cause of racial disharmony than to get a large grant for investigating the matter. (Susan
Haack, "A Fallibilist among the Skeptics," 1999)
a. illustration
b. argument
c. report
e. explanation
22. If we want our children to possess the traits of character we most admire, we need to
teach them what those traits are and why they deserve both admiration and allegiance.
(William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues, 1993)
a. argument
b. explanation
c. report
48
23. A NATO aircraft bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade because the military
command mistakenly believed it was a headquarters for a Yugoslav arms agency.
("NATO Says It Thought Embassy Was Weapons Depot," New York Times, May 9,
1999)
a. explanation
c. report
e. argument
24. Banning sweets from your household doesn't necessarily mean your child will grow
up shunning sugary treats. Just the opposite is true, in fact: In a recent study, children
who had just eaten a full meal were put in a room with a table piled with sweets. Even
though they weren't hungry, children who were not usually allowed to have such treats
gorged on the cakes and cookies, says researcher Leann Birch, Ph.D., professor of human
development at Pennsylvania State University of Health and Human Development.
Meanwhile, those kids whose parents regularly permitted such sweets in moderation
hardly touched them. (Laura Flynn McCarthy, "Six Nutrition Rules Even Smart Moms
Don't Know," 2000)
a. report
b. explanation
c. argument
25. If the play of the world is produced and directed by an omnipotent and omniscient
God, does it not follow that every evil that is perpetuated is God's doing? (Carl Sagan,
Broca's Brain, 1979)
a. illustration
b. report
d. argument
e. explanation
26. For six months after Pearl Harbor, nearly everything in the Pacific went Japan's way.
Britain's supposedly impregnable colony at Singapore fell easily. American naval
49
garrisons in the Philippines and on Guam and Wake Islands were overwhelmed, and
American and Filipino armies were forced to surrender at Bataan and Corregidor in the
Philippines. Other Japanese forces steamed southward to menace Australia. Then the tide
turned. (John M. Murrin, et. al., Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American
People, 2nd ed., 1999)
b. report
c. argument
e. explanation
27. Medieval painting had presented life as an allegory; the Renaissance preferred
realism. The Medieval painters posed their figures frontally, impersonally; the
Renaissance developed psychological characterization and the art of portraiture.
Medieval painting dealt in stereotypes; the Renaissance concerned itself with individuals.
Space in medieval painting was organized in a succession of planes over which the eye
traveled as over a series of episodes. The Renaissance created unified space and the
simultaneous seeing of the whole. It discovered landscape, created the illusion of
distance, and opened up endless vistas upon the physical loveliness of the world. (Joseph
Machlis and Kristine Forney, The Enjoyment of Music: An Introduction to Perceptive
Listening, 7th ed., 1995)
a. illustration
b. argument
e. report
28. If science is by definition the search for an intelligible network of natural cause-and-
effect relationships, then it cannot admit to the possibility of a supernatural cause
influencing the network in any way. (James E. Hutchingson, "Introduction: The Two-
Storied Universe," in James E. Hutchingson, ed., Religion and the Natural Sciences: The
Range of Engagement, 1993)
c. argument
d. explanation
e. illustration
29. In early society, because of hunting and war, the life of the male is more violent and
dangerous and the death rate of men is higher than that of women. (Will Durant, Our
Oriental Heritage, 1935)
50
a. report
b. explanation
e. argument
30. The standard medical research institutions and journals require placebo-controlled
trials because they know that sugar pills yield better results than no pills at all. (Melvin
Konner, "Faith Healers," New York Times Book Review, April 11, 1999)
a. explanation
b. report
d. argument
31. People often express the opinion that specific traits of members of certain groups are
responsible for their disadvantaged situation. Thus in South Africa it is common for
whites to assert that blacks are not ready for full citizenship because they remain childlike
and simple. (William Kornblum, Sociology in a Changing World, 1994)
a. explanation
b. report
c. illustration
d. argument
32. Human life means to me the life of beings for whom the leisured activities of thought,
art, literature, conversation are the end, and the preservation and propagation of life
merely the means. That is why education seems to me so important: it actualizes the
potential for leisure, if you like for amateurishness, which is man's prerogative. (C.S.
Lewis, Rehabilitations and Other Essays, 1939)
a. report
b. explanation
c. argument
33. The caller says, "Why would I go out in the cold and watch the Veteran's Day Parade
when the media lets us watch it from our warm homes? Because they went out into worse
than cold for you and me. They went out into war, death, fighting, guns, unspeakable
51
conditions, and yes, while they were cold and wet a lot of times. (From a newspaper call-
in column)
a. explanation
b. report
e. argument
34. Because narcotics are highly addictive and potentially harmful, they are usually either
regulated by prescription or banned outright. (Robert J. Sternberg, Pathways to
Psychology, 1997)
a. argument
d. explanation
e. illustration
35. If it be true Christianity to dive with a passionate charity into the darkest recesses of
misery and vice, to irrigate every quarter of the earth with the feritilising stream of an
almost boundless benevolence, and to include all the sections of humanity in the circle of
an intense and efficacious sympathy; if it be true Christianity to destroy or weaken the
barriers which had separated class from class and nation from nation, to free war from its
harshest elements, and to make a consciousness of essential equality and of genuine
fraternity dominate over all accidental differences; if it be, above all, true Christianity to
cultivate a love of truth for its own sake, a spirit of candour and of tolerance towards
those with whom we differ--if these be the marks of a true and healthy Christianity, then
never since the days of the Apostles has it been so vigorous as at present. (W. E. H.
Lecky, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, 1865)
a. report
c. argument
d. explanation
36. Farmers recognize more than anyone that healthy growing environments define their
future. Thus, they always seek better ways to control weeds with the least toxic
herbicides available that do not damage crops. (International Food Information Council,
"Food Biotechnology and the Environment," 1998)
a. report
52
b. illustration
d. argument
e. explanation
37. If I understood all things in the world and were not in charity, what would that help
me in the sight of God, who will judge me according to my deeds? (Thomas á Kempis,
The Imitation of Christ, c. 1460)
a. argument
c. explanation
d. illustration
38. The California Psychological Inventory (CPI) was initially developed and first
published by Harrison Gough in 1957. Thirty years later Gough revised his inventory by
adding several new scales and revamping or eliminating a number of dated, sexist, or
difficult to read items. The current version of the CPI contains 462 true-false items
designed to measure various facets of the normal personality. It is intended to be used
with both adolescents and adults to predict how individuals will behave and react in a
variety of interpersonal situations. (Kevin R. Murphy and Charles O. Davidshofer,
Psychological Testing: Principles and Applications, 4th ed., 1998 (references omitted))
a. illustration
b. report
c. argument
d. explanation
39. The minority population of the public schools is growing because the minority
population of the United States is growing. (Arthea J. S. Reed and Verna E. Bergemann,
In the Classroom: An Introduction to Education, 2nd ed., 1995)
a. report
c. argument
d. explanation
53
40. If we want our children to have a good grasp of science, we need to help teachers,
parents, school administrators, and policy-makers understand both evolution and the
nature of science. (National Academy of Sciences, Teaching about Evolution and the
Nature of Science, 1998)
b. report
d. explanation
e. argument
Answers
1. a 21. a
2. a 22. d
3. d 23. a
4. a 24. c
5. e 25. c
6. c 26. b
7. e 27. e
8. b 28. a
9. a 29. b
10. d 30. a
11. b 31. c
12. b 32. c
13. d 33. e
14. e 34. d
15. a 35. b
16. e 36. e
17. b 37. a
18. b 38. b
19. a 39. d
20. b 40. a
54
Chapter 3: Basic Logical Concepts
True/False
Indicate in the space provided whether the following statements are true (T) of false (F).
_____ 1. If an argument contains the indictor words “probably” or “likely” it is probably

an inductive argument.
_____ 2. Deductive arguments always proceed from the general to the particular.
_____ 3. A geometrical proof is an example of an inductive argument.
_____ 4. In a deductive argument the conclusion is claimed to follow necessarily from

the premises.
_____ 5. No inductive argument provides logically conclusive support for its conclusion.
_____ 6. Every hypothetical syllogism has two premises and a conclusion.
_____ 7. If there is doubt about whether an argument is deductive or inductive, one

should always interpret the argument in the way most favorable to the arguer.
_____ 8. Most arguments from analogy are deductive.
_____ 9. All arguments that contain predictions are inductive arguments.
_____ 10. Most causal arguments are inductive.
_____ 11. No argument that has false premises is valid.
_____ 12. Any inductive argument with false premises is weak.
_____ 13. If an argument is strong, then it is inductive.
_____ 14. No sound argument has false premises.
_____ 15. No inductive argument is valid.
_____ 16. A strong argument may have one or more false premises.
_____ 17. Every sound argument has a true conclusion.
_____ 18. Some arguments, while not completely valid, are almost valid.
_____ 19. No cogent argument has false premises.

55
_____ 20. A cogent argument may have a probably false conclusion.
Answers
1. T 11. F
2. F 12. F
3. F 13. T
4. T 14. T
5. T 15. T
6. T 16. T
7. T 17. T
8. F 18. F
9. F 19. T
10. T 20. F
Multiple Choice
Select the best answer to the following multiple-choice questions by circling the
appropriate letter.
1. Arguments that try to prove their conclusions with rigorous, inescapable logic are
a. logically reliable.
b. inductive.
c. abductive.
d. deductive.
2. An argument in which the conclusion is claimed to follow probably from the premises
is
a. implicative.
b. inductive.
c. deductive.
d. none of the above
3. Which of the following is not a common induction indicator word or phrase?
a. it logically follows that

b. likely
c. chances are that
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4. If an argument contains the words “it must be the case that,” then it is certain that the
argument is
a. inductive.
b. deductive.
c. logically reliable.
5. If the conclusion of an argument follows with strict logical necessity from its premises,
then the argument should be regarded as
a. inductive.
b. deductive.
c. both a and b
d. neither a nor b
6. The principle that in interpreting an unclear argument or passage, we should always

give the speaker or writer the benefit of the doubt is called
a. the fairness principle.

b. the benefit of doubt principle.
c. the principle of charity.
d. the interpretive principle.
7. Which of the following is not a common pattern of deductive reasoning?
a. statistical argument
b. categorical syllogism
c. argument from elimination
d. argument by definition
8. Which of the following is not a logically reliable pattern of deductive reasoning?
a. modus ponens
b. chain argument
c. affirming the consequent
d. modus tollens
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9. Denying the antecedent arguments have the following pattern:
a. If A then B; if B then C; so, if A then C.

b. If A then B; not A; so, not B.
c. If A the B; not B; so, not A.
d. If not A, then not B; not A; so, not B.
10. The argument “If I want to improve my thinking skills, I better study critical thinking;
I do want to improve my thinking skills; therefore, I better study critical thinking” is an
example of
a. an argument by elimination.
b. a hypothetical syllogism.
c. a chain argument.
d. a categorical syllogism.
11. The argument “No rappers are opera singers; no opera singers are professional
wrestlers; so, no rappers are professional wrestlers” is an example of
a. a categorical syllogism.
b. an argument from definition.
c. a hypothetical syllogism.
d. a chain argument.
12. The argument “Either I can fix you the same-old potatoes or I can fix you some
delicious fried okra; I know you don’t want to have the same-old potatoes; so, I’ll fix you
some delicious fried okra” is an example of
a. a hypothetical syllogism.
b. a categorical syllogism.
c. a chain argument.
d. an argument by elimination.
13. The argument “Kyle is a father; it follows that Kyle has a child” is an example of
a. a chain argument.
b. a modus tollens argument.
c. a hypothetical syllogism.
d. an argument by definition.
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14. A valid argument must
a. be a deductive argument.
b. have all true premises.
c. have a true conclusion.
d. all of the above
15. A valid argument may have
a. false premises and a false conclusion.

b. false premises and a true conclusion.
c. true premises and a true conclusion.
d. all of the above
16. If a deductive argument has true premises and a false conclusion, then the argument is
a. weak.
b. uncogent.
c. strong but not necessarily uncogent.
d. invalid.
17. An inductive argument that is strong and has all true premises is
a. sound.
b. cogent.
c. valid.
d. valid but not necessarily sound.
18. A strong argument must have
a. probably true premises.

b. a probably true conclusion.
c. both a and b
19. If an inductive argument has a false premise, then the argument is
a. unsound.
b. weak.
c. uncogent.
d. all of the above
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20. A weak inductive argument necessarily has
a. one or more false premises.

b. a false conclusion.
c. both a and b
d. neither a nor b
21. The argument “All cars are trucks; all Toyota Camrys are cars; so, all Toyota Camrys
are trucks” is
a. weak and uncogent.

b. valid and unsound.
c. weak and unsound.
d. strong and invalid.
22. The argument “If Atlanta is in Georgia, then Atlanta is in the South; Atlanta is in
Georgia; so, Atlanta is in the South” is
a. valid and sound.

b. sound and invalid.
c. cogent and sound.
d. strong and sound.
23. The argument “Most adult Americans own at least one television set; Brad Pitt, the
famous actor, is an adult American; so, Brad Pitt owns at least one television set” is

b. valid and cogent.
c. strong and cogent.
d. valid and sound.
24. The argument “It has snowed every winter in Miami, Florida every year since records
have been kept; so, it will probably snow next winter in Miami, Florida” is
a. strong and invalid.

b. weak but not necessarily uncogent.
c. strong and uncogent.
d. valid and sound.
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25. The argument “If Gore is president, then a Southerner is president; a Southerner is
president; so, Gore is president" is

b. invalid and unsound.
c. weak and unsound.
d. valid and unsound.
Answers
1. d 14. a
2. b 15. d
3. a 16. d
4. d 17. b
5. b 18. d
6. c 19. c
7. a 20. d
8. c 21. b
9. b 22. a
10. b 23. c
11. a 24. c
12. d 25. b
13. d
Distinguishing Deductive Arguments from Inductive Arguments
For each of the following arguments, indicate whether it is best interpreted as deductive
(D) or inductive (I) by circling the appropriate letter.
1. Most days in the year are weekdays (as opposed to weekends). There will come a day
when a huge asteroid strikes the earth. Thus, the day a huge asteroid strikes the earth will
likely be a weekday. (D/I)
2.That Delbert Johnson is not a singer follows from the following facts: (a) all singers can
carry a tune, and (b) Delbert Johnson cannot carry a tune. (D/I)
3. So far, no one has ever swum the Atlantic Ocean non-stop—or even come remotely
close to doing so. It is unlikely in the extreme, therefore, that anyone taking this test will
swim the Atlantic Ocean non-stop. (D/I)
4. Dudley expects to get thirty miles to a gallon from the car he bought last week, but
that’s crazy. The car is a 1975 Belchfire with twelve cylinders and a 480 horsepower
engine, and it needs a tune-up. (D/I)
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5. If a person’s destiny were determined by the astrological sign under which he or she is
born, then all persons born under a particular sign would have the same destiny. But
homeless persons and millionaires, paupers and presidents are born under the same
sign—i.e., people born under the same sign have strikingly different destinies. It follows
that a person’s destiny is not determined by the astrological sign under which he or she is
born. (D/I)
6. Leon and Leslie have five children, all boys. It is almost certain, therefore, that the
child they are now expecting will be a girl. (D/I)
7. Dusty Rhode drives a beat-up old Volkswagen, lives in a cheap apartment, and wears
shabby, threadbare clothes. It’s a good bet that Dusty does not have much money. (D/I)
8. The Eiffel Tower is in London. London is in Germany, which is north of the Arctic
Circle. It follows that the Eiffel Tower is north of the Arctic Circle. (D/I)
9. All cobras are poisonous snakes, and all poisonous snakes are dangerous. It follows
that all cobras are dangerous. (D/I)
10. The human mind has no size, no shape, and no spatial location. The human brain has
size, shape, and spatial location. Two entities are identical only if they have all properties
in common. Therefore, the human mind and the human brain are not identical. (D/I)
Answers
1. inductive
2. deductive
3. inductive
4. inductive
5. deductive
6. inductive
7. inductive
8. deductive
9. deductive
10. deductive
62
Chapter 4: Language
Vagueness, Ambiguity, and Overgenerality
Identify problems of vagueness, overgenerality, and ambiguity in the following passages.
1. Headline: Stolen Painting Found by Tree
2. Dorm noise policy: Excessive noise is not permitted in the residence halls between the
hours of 8:00 P.M. to 10:00 A.M.
3. Mother: Joey, how were your grades this semester?
Joey: I didn’t make even one B.
4. Jim said Mac stopped at a fork in the road. I guess Mac must have a special interest in
silverware.
5. School dress code: Clothing that is suggestive, revealing or in poor taste is prohibited.
6. Headline: Hospital Sued by Seven Foot Doctors.
7. Ad: Savings up to 70 percent on selected items throughout the store.
8. Vern was shellacked this weekend.
9. Psychic: If you bet your life savings in Las Vegas this weekend, a great
deal of money will change hands.
Gambler: Hot dog! I'm taking the next plane to Vegas!
10. Student handbook policy on hate speech: The College will not tolerate actions or
language that stigmatize or victimize an individual or group on the basis of gender, race,
ethnicity or national origin, religion or creed, sexual orientation, age, or handicap.
11. Store Sign: Our bikinis are exciting. They are simply the tops.
12. Student Code of Conduct: Smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages, illegal drug use,
and sexual impropriety are prohibited.
13. Ellie: What’s the high temperature supposed to be today?
Ira: Somewhere between the annual mean temperature of Pluto and the annual
mean temperature of Venus.
63
Ellie: Thanks a lot.
14. The judge sanctioned the firm’s criminal misconduct.
15. Headline: Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half.
Answers
1. Ambiguous. Was the stolen painting found next to the tree, or did the tree find the
stolen painting?
2. Vague. Excessive noise has no clear, determinate boundaries.
3. Overgeneral. Joey should be more specific. It is unclear from his answer whether he
got good grades or bad grades.
4. Ambiguous. Does fork mean a divergence in the road—or, as Jim implausibly assumes,
the pronged utensil used for eating?
5. Vague. The terms suggestive, revealing, and in poor taste all have fuzzy, unclear
boundaries.
6. Ambiguous. Was the hospital sued by seven podiatrists (foot doctors), or was it sued by
doctors that were seven-feet-tall? (Because there is no hyphen between seven and foot,
only the first reading is strictly permitted.)
7. Overgeneral. More specific information is needed to determine whether the sale is any
good or not. For example: How many items are on sale? What sorts of items are on sale?
Are many items deeply discounted, or only a few?
8. Ambiguous. Many readings are possible. Was Vern drunk? Badly beaten in an athletic
contest or a fight? Or was he perhaps literally varnished?
9. Vague, ambiguous and overgeneral. How much is a “great deal of money?” Whose
money will change hands—the gambler’s or the casino’s?
10. Vague. Several terms in the policy (e.g., stigmatize, victimize, sexual orientation,)
have no clear, precisely definable meaning.
11. Ambiguous. Does tops mean the best, or does it refer to bikini tops?
12. Vague. What counts, exactly, as sexual impropriety?
13. Overgeneral. The answer, while it has definite clear boundaries (and hence is not
vague), is not specific enough to be helpful in this context.
64
14. Ambiguous. Did the judge punish the firm’s criminal misconduct, or approve of it?
15. Ambiguous. Was the rate of high school dropouts cut in half, or were the dropouts
themselves cut in half?
Ambiguous Announcements from Church Bulletins
The following supposedly authentic announcements have been circulating on the Internet
for some time. Whether or not they are real, they provide some comical examples of
ambiguity. Explain the ambiguity in each of the following.
1. Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa will be speaking tonight at Calvary

Memorial Church in Racine. Come tonight and hear Bertha Belch all the way
from Africa.
2. Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation

hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.
3. Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious
pleasure to the congregation.
4. Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not
worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands.
5. Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can
get.
6. Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community.
7. Don't let worry kill you off --let the Church help.
8. Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So
ends a friendship that began in their school days.
9. Eight new choir robes are currently needed, due to the addition of several new
members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
10. For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery
downstairs.
11. Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person(s) you
want remembered.
65
12. The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen
in the basement on Friday afternoon.
13. Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10. All ladies are invited to
lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B.S. is done.
14. The eighth graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church
basement Friday at 7 P.M. The Congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
15. The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last
Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours."
Types of Definitions
Determine whether the following are stipulative definitions, persuasive definitions,

lexical definitions, or precising definitions.
1. Choking chicken means the annoying sound a computer makes when it connects
with the Internet.
2. Barn means a building for storing hay, grain, etc., and often for housing livestock.
3. Affirmative action means a policy or practice that advantages women and/or

minorities and unjustly discriminates against white males.
4. An arid region, for purposes of this meteorological study, is any region that
receives on average less than 15 inches of rain a year.
5. A cereal offender means someone who mixes yogurt, marshmallows, or other

foreign substances with their breakfast cereal.
6. Grizzler means a man who shaves only every three or four days or so.
7. Disaffected means dissatisfied, bored, resentful or discontented, usually against

authority or against someone or something normally respected.
8. Alcohol means a dangerous and destructive potion that can ruin individuals' lives
and those of their families.
9. Homophobe means a person who has an irrational hatred or fear of

homosexuality.
10. Blanker means someone who sends holiday cards without signatures or
personalized messages.
66
11. Postmodern means a chaotic and confusing mishmash of images and references
that leave readers and viewers longing for the days of a good, well-told story.
12. No-fly zone means an area off-limits to aircraft or unapproved aircraft.
13. Larceny, in legal terms, means the crime of taking the goods of another person
without permission, with the intent of keeping them.
14. Wine means a delectable drink, made from fermented grapes, that elevates the
mind, frees the tongue, and warms the heart.
15. A near midair collision, commonly called a near miss, means, according to the U.
S. Department of Transportation, “an incident associated with the operation of an
aircraft in which a possibility of collision occurs as a result of proximity of less
than 500 feet to another aircraft, or a report is received from a pilot or flight crew
member stating that a collision hazard existed between two or more aircraft.”
16. Tragedy, in literary terms, means a serious drama that usually ends in disaster
and that focuses on a single character who experiences unexpected reversals in
fate, often falling from a position of authority and power because of an
unrecognized flaw or misguided action.
17. Waggler means a golfer who spends an inordinate amount of time addressing the
ball.
18. Alcohol abuser means someone who consumes on average four or more alcoholic
drinks a day.
19. Serrated means having a notched edge or sawlike teeth.
20. Beauty pageant means a demeaning competition in which fluffhead women or

girls compete to be judged "most beautiful" according to stereotypical male
standards of beauty.
Answers
1. stipulative 10. stipulative

2. lexical 11. persuasive
3. persuasive 12. lexical (was precising not so long ago)
4. precising 13. precising
5. stipulative 14. persuasive
6. stipulative 15. precising
7. lexical 16. lexical
8. persuasive 17. lexical
9. lexical 18. precising
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19. lexical 20. persuasive

Strategies for Defining
Determine whether the following are ostensive definitions, enumerative definitions,

definitions by subclass, etymological definitions, synonymous definitions, or definitions
by genus and difference.
1. Ivy League University means Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and those sorts of colleges.
2. Diurnal means daily.
3. Ram means male sheep.
4. Communication, from the Latin communis, meaning common, means to make our
thoughts known to others, or, in other words, to make them common.
5. Fruit means orange, banana, pear, plum, and so forth.
6. Mother means female parent.
7. Pal means friend.
8. Ampersand means this: &
9. Politician means someone such as George W. Bush, Howard Dean, or Dick Cheney.
10. Pilfer means steal.
11. Spinster means unmarried woman.
12. Ornithology, a term that derives from ornis, the Greek word for bird, means the
scientific study of birds.
13. Jackknife means this (as you jump off the diving board, creating a large splash).
14. Vehicle means car, bus, train, motorcycle, etc.
15. Fidelity means faithfulness.
16. Foal means young horse.
17. Vertebrate means mammal, bird, reptile, fish, etc.
18. Passion derives from the Greek pathos, meaning emotion.

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19. ["Scragged means] something in this way, old feller," said Charley. As he said it,
Master Bates caught up an end of his neckerchief and, holding it erect in the air,
dropped his head on his shoulders and jerked a curious sound through his teeth,
thereby indicating, by a lively pantomimic representation, that scragging and hanging
were one and the same thing. (Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, 1838)
20. Canonical Gospel means the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John.
Answers
1. enumerative definition
2. synonymous definition
3. definition by genus and difference
4. etymological definition
5. definition by subclass
8. ostensive definition
Rules for Evaluating Lexical Definitions
Each of the following lexical definitions is defective in some way. Determine whether the
definition is too broad, too narrow, lacking in context, figurative, slanted, obscure,
circular, or fails to capture the essential meaning of the word.
1. Bicycle means a two-wheeled vehicle.
2. Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that studies aesthetic qualities.

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3. Capitalism means an exploitative economic system in which ownership of the means

of production lies chiefly in the hands of private individuals, and workers are deprived of
a just share of what they produce.
4. Eagle means a score of two below par on any hole.
5. Music means rap, rock, or hip hop.
6. Cartographer means someone who specializes in the art of cartography.
7. Donut means a deep-fried orbicular-shaped cake made of rich, light dough with an
aperture in the center.
8. Baseball means the popular American game reputedly invented by Abner Doubleday.
9. Dribble means to advance or keep control of the ball by bouncing it with one hand.
10. Vegetarian means a animal-loving health nut who refuses to eat real food.
11. By philosophy, I mean thinking about life's problems philosophically.
12. Cod means a saltwater fish.
13. God means a circle whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is
nowhere. (adapted from Sam Keen)
14. Mosaic means a decorative surface for a floor or wall made of small pieces of glass.
15. School vouchers are government-issued certificates, providing a credit against future
educational expenses, that will introduce badly-needed competition into America's
calcified public education system and provide equal educational opportunities for all.
16. Ball means a pitch which does not enter the strike zone in flight and is not struck at
by the batter.
17. Fairy tale means a story about fairies.
18. Squirrel means any of the numerous arboreal, bushy-tailed rodentia of the genus
sciurus and the family sciuridae.
19. Contraceptive means a device or technique that illicitly frustrates the natural end of
the sexual act by preventing conception or impregnation.
20. Coffee means the principal beverage sold at Starbucks.

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Answers
1. too broad
2. circular
3. slanted
4. lacks context
5. too narrow
6. circular
7. obscure
8. fails to capture essential meaning
9. lacks context (basketball)
10. slanted
11. circular
12. too broad
13. figurative
14. too narrow
15. slanted
16. lacks context
17. too narrow
18. obscure
19. slanted
20. fails to capture essential meaning
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Chapter 5: Logical Fallacies--1
Assessing Relevance
Determine whether the premises in the following arguments are positively relevant,
negatively relevant, or irrelevant to the conclusion.
1. Felix is a parrot. So Felix has feathers.
2. Halle is fifteen-years-old. So, Halle is a senior in high school.
3. Figure X is a triangle. So, figure X is a square.
4. Mel's nickname is Slim. So, Mel has a slender build.
5. Pete is an accountant. So, Pete was born in January.
6. Brad voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election. So, Brad is a
Republican.
7. Laura is left-handed. So, Laura aced her calculus test.
8. Ho is Korean. So, Ho has brown eyes.
9. Stan speaks Polish. So, Stan speaks German.
10. Joe has flipped this coin three times, and each time it has come up heads. So, the next
time Joe flips this coin it will come up tails.
Answers
1. positively relevant
2. negatively relevant
3. negatively relevant
5. irrelevant
7. irrelevant
9. positively relevant (Due to Poland's proximity to Germany, a higher percentage of
Polish-speakers speak German than do non-Polish-speakers.)
10. irrelevant (No matter what has happened in the past, the odds of a true coin coming
up heads are always 50/50. To think otherwise is to commit the "gambler's fallacy".)
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True/False
Indicate in the space provide whether the following statements are true (T) of false (F).
______ 1. A fallacy is an argument that contains at least one false premise.
______ 2. Fallacies of relevance are fallacies that occur because the premises, though
logically relevant to the conclusion, fail to provide sufficient evidence for the
conclusion.
______ 3. A statement is positively relevant to another statement if it counts in favor of

that statement.
_____ 4. A statement is negatively relevant to another statement if it counts neither for

nor against that statement.
______ 5. The statement "Josie is a woman" is negatively relevant to the statement "Josie
plays professional football."
______ 6. The fallacy of begging the question is committed when an arguer states or
assumes as a premise the very thing he or she is trying to prove as a conclusion.
______ 7. Emotional appeals are not always fallacious.
______ 8. The following argument is a bandwagon argument: "All the cool kids at
Middletown Elementary School drink Fizzy soda pop, so you should too."
______ 9. The fallacy of equivocation is committed when an arguer uses a key word in
an argument in two or more different senses.
______ 10. An arguer commits the red herring fallacy when he or she misrepresents
another person's position in order to make it easier to attack.
______ 11. The following argument commits the two wrongs make a right fallacy:
"Mom, who are you to tell me not to spend so much time on the phone? You
spend hours every night in Internet chat rooms."
______ 12. The fallacy of scare tactics need not involve a threat of physical force.
______ 13. The fallacy of personal attack is committed when an arguer criticizes a
person's motivation for offering a particular argument or claim, rather than
examining the worth of the argument or claim itself.
______ 14. The following argument commits the fallacy of begging the question:
"Socrates must be mortal, because all men are mortal, and Socrates is a man."
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______ 15. It is not a fallacy simply to change the subject or evade an issue.
Answers
1. F 9. T
2. F 10. F
3. T 11. F
4. F 12. T
5. T 13. F
6. T 14. F
7. T 15. T
8. T
Identifying Fallacies
Identify the fallacies of relevance committed in the following passages. If no fallacy is

committed, write "no fallacy."
1. Gambling is wrong, because it's wrong to play at games of chance for stakes.
2. It would be a mistake to appoint Pete Dobson as Superintendent of Schools. Mr.

Dobson has twice been convicted of child endangerment and he was recently charged
with embezzlement.
3. In a recent issue of Stogey magazine, Julio Fumar argues that Honduran cigars are
better than Cuban cigars. But Fumar's argument isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
Fumar is biased against Cuba because the Castro regime imprisoned his parents.
4. Ricky Henderson, the Hall of Fame baseball player, stole many bases. Stealing is a
crime. So, Ricky Henderson committed many crimes.
5. Bruno: I'm sure that you will want to buy my company's fire-detection system for
your business.
Sam: I don't think so. One of your competitors offers the same level of
protection for less money.
Bruno: Well, as they say, it's a free country. But before you make a final decision,
keep this in mind: Every business that decided not to buy our system was
very quickly plagued with fires and other acts of vandalism.
6. Tom: I can lick you.
Huck: What makes you think you can lick me?

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Tom: Because I'm tougher than you are.
Huck: What makes you think you're tougher than I am?
Tom: Because I can lick you.
7. Billy-Ray Hoggerty's book Stoned in Muskogee should be awarded this year's Pulitzer
Prize for literature. Billy-Ray, as you know, recently lost both his parents, and his
favorite coon-dog got run over by a hay-bailer.
8. Mom: Annie, did you break your brother's model airplane?
Annie: Well, he put chewing gum in my dolly's hair.
9. All the cool kids at Middletown Elementary School drink Fizzy soda pop. So you
should too.
10. Sneaker City has accused our company of exploitative labor practices. But Sneaker
City's labor practices are much more exploitative than ours are. I happen to know they
regularly employ children as young as nine in their overseas factories. Clearly, these
accusations are groundless.
11. Sandy Beach has argued for bilingual education. But who is Sandy Beach? Is she a
trained educator? No, she's a high-school dropout who once served time for drug
possession. Her argument, therefore, is worthless.
12. Dipsy O'Neill has recently argued that drinking a little red wine with dinner is good
for one's health. But no one should accept O'Neill's argument. O'Neill, as you know, is
the owner of O'Neill's Wines and Spirits. Naturally she'd love to see people buy more
wine.
13. Police officer: Sir, if you don't put your clothes on and stop screaming
obscenities in public, I'll be forced to arrest you for
disorderly conduct.
Drunk N. Disorderly: Blank you, you blankety-blank!
Police officer: That does it. You're going to jail.
14. In a recent judicial decision, District Court Judge Lemuel Featherstone argued that
bazookas and flamethrowers are not protected by the Second Amendment. Apparently,
Judge Featherstone believes that the U.S. Constitution is obsolete and should be repealed
by judicial fiat. But the rights protected in the Constitution lie at the very core of
America's values and traditions. All true Americans must hope that Judge Featherstone's
ruling is swiftly overturned.
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15. Everybody is reading Joey Potboiler's's new novel, Fighting Vixens of Cell Block D. It
must be good.
16. We can never be justified in believing that a miracle has occurred, for proof of a
miracle requires very strong evidence. But the only evidence we have is the testimony of
witnesses; and their testimony is worthless because they believe in such preposterous
things as miracles.
17. Almost all members of the U.S. Congress are opposed to term limits. Well, naturally
they are opposed! They do not want to be barred from being returned to office as long as
they care to run. But since they are the beneficiaries of the status quo, their arguments
against term limits can be dismissed as so much self-serving drivel.
18. Professor Stanton M. Buttersworth conducted extensive and long-term studies of the
television-watching habits of school children. On the basis of these studies, Professor
Buttersworth has concluded that children who watch more than two hours of television a
day do not perform as well in school as those who watch less than two hours a day. But
Professor Buttersworth must be wrong about that. Television is a source of news,
entertainment, and information--and all for an extremely modest cost. Life would be
much less interesting without television.
19. Dad, I can't believe you won't let me get "I Love Spike" tattooed on my left buttocks.
After all, I'm sixteen years old, and you told me you and Mom both got your first tattoo
when you were sixteen.
20. Many new software programs have bugs in them. Bugs are insects. So, many new
software programs have insects in them.
21. Ferdie: You shouldn't step in the bucket when you swing that baseball bat.
You lose all your power that way.
Casey: What would you know about baseball, squirt? A scrawny geek like
you couldn't hit a baseball if it was sitting on a tee. Why don't you
go play with your pocket calculator or something?
22. Bob: I notice you drink a lot of coffee in Styrofoam cups. Each year Americans
throw away 25 billion Styrofoam cups, and they're not biodegradable.
Have you ever considered switching to a reusable coffee mug?
Joan: Don't give me that! If you’re so keen on saving the earth, why don’t you
recycle all those aluminum cans you drink from?
23. Teacher: Diana’s mother called the other day and complained about the
three hours of homework Diana is required to do each night.
Apparently, Diana’s mother believes that schoolchildren should
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spend all their time talking on the phone, surfing the Net, and
hanging out at the mall. Some parents can be so unreasonable.
24. David Trimble has argued that it’s more expensive to live in New York than it is to
live in Chicago. But New York is a great place to live. It has great restaurants, museums,
and nightspots. I just don’t buy David’s argument at all.
25. Mo: Tiger Woods, the professional golfer, must be an animal-hater.
Curly: Why do you say that?
Mo: He’s shot a lot of birdies in his career, hasn’t he?
Curly: Sure.
Mo: Well, anyone who would shoot a defenseless little birdie must be an
animal-hater.
26. The Time Is Out of Joint: Confessions of a Shakespeare-Loving Pot–Head has sold
100,000 copies in just two months. You should read it; it must be a great book.
27. Senator Trenton has argued strenuously against weakening provisions of the Clean
water Act, claiming that many our lakes and streams are becoming dangerously polluted.
But the senator is obviously wrong about that. Water is one of the most common
substances on earth. Upwards of 80 percent of the surface of our planet is covered with
water, and massive amounts of frozen water cover both poles. If these ice caps were ever
to melt, ocean levels would rise several feet and coastal areas all over the world would be
flooded.
28. Mr. Editor, I’m sure that you will not want to run a story in your paper about my
arrest for drunk driving. The company I own spends thousands of dollars every year for
advertisements in your paper. Think hard about that before you print the story about my
misadventure.
29. Fern: Children should be raised to respect rules and the rights of other persons.
And when they don’t, they should receive appropriate discipline.
Vern: I strongly disagree with your callous—even sadistic—view. It is

absolutely sickening to read stories of children who suffer broken bones from
parental beatings and who are burned with cigarettes by psychotic parents.
30. The program chairman of the Caribou Lodge wrote to the president of the local
college about getting a speaker from the college to address the Lodge. “Please do not
send us anything lower than a dean, requested the program chairman. The college
president replied: “There isn’t anything lower than a dean.”
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Answers
1. begging the question 16. begging the question

2. no fallacy 17. attacking the motive
3. attacking the motive 18. red herring
4. equivocation 19. look who's talking
5. scare tactics 20. equivocation
6. begging the question 21. personal attack
7. appeal to pity 22. look who's talking
8. two wrongs make a right 23. straw man
9. bandwagon argument 24. red herring
10. look who's talking 25. equivocation
11. personal attack 26. bandwagon
12. attacking the motive 27. red herring
13. no fallacy 28. scare tactics
14. straw man 29. straw man
15. bandwagon argument 30. equivocation
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Chapter 6: Logical Fallacies--2
True/False
Indicate in the space provided whether the following statements are true (T) of false (F).
______ 1. Critical thinkers never accept a claim on the mere say-so of another.
______ 2. If a person accepts a claim on the say-so of an alleged witness or authority, and
there is good reason to believe that the alleged witness or authority is biased, then
the person commits the fallacy of inappropriate appeal to authority.
______ 3. If a person cites a source in support of a conclusion and there is good reason to
believe that the source has been cited incorrectly, then the person commits the
fallacy of inappropriate appeal to authority.
______ 4. Some claims are so inherently controversial that they cannot be settled by
appeals to expert opinion.
______ 5. The following argument commits the fallacy of appeal to ignorance: "No one
has ever seen Billie Jenkins ride his bike to school. So, probably Billy Jenkins
rarely if ever rides his bike to school."
______ 6. The fallacy of false alternatives need not be explicitly expressed in

"either…or" form.
______ 7. If a person poses a false choice between two options, A and B, then she
commits the fallacy of false alternatives, even if she doesn't put forward an
argument that includes the false choice.
______ 8. The following passage illustrates the fallacy of false alternatives: "No one
really knows for sure what happens to us when we die. But there is one thing we
do know for sure: Either there is a life after death or there is not a life after death."
______ 9. If an arguer asks a question that contains an assumption, then he commits the
fallacy of loaded question, even if the assumption is entirely warranted.
______ 10. The post hoc fallacy is one common variety of the questionable cause fallacy.
______ 11. The following argument illustrates the questionable cause fallacy: "Many
students high school students sleep through first period. Clearly, many high
school students stay up too late chatting with their friends and surfing the
Internet."
______ 12. The following statement is a generalization: "Most Americans are concerned
about the environment."
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______ 13. Every argument that jumps to a conclusion is a hasty generalization.
______ 14. Some slippery slope arguments are not fallacious.
______15. If an arguer asserts a premise that is inconsistent with her conclusion, then she
commits the fallacy of inconsistency.
Answers
1. F 9. F
2. T 10. T
3. T 11. T
4. T 12. T
5. F 13. F
6. T 14. T
7. F 15. T
8. F
Identifying Fallacies
Identify the fallacies of insufficient evidence committed in the following passages. If no

fallacy is committed, write "no fallacy."
1. Giving half your money to charity is either morally obligatory or morally prohibited.
But giving half your money to charity is not morally prohibited. In fact, it would be
highly praiseworthy. Therefore, giving half your money to charity is morally obligatory.
2. IRS agent: Mr. Peckinsniff, there is nothing in these documents that proves
that you haven't been cheating on your taxes. Therefore, I must
assume that you have been cheating on your taxes.
3. Kids play too many video games. That's why there's so much juvenile crime today.
4. The famous novelist Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World and other great works
of fiction, held that near-sightedness can be corrected by eye exercises. Given the opinion
of so eminent a person as Huxley, we may be confident that near-sightedness can indeed
be corrected by eye exercises.
5. From a student e-mail: Dear Professor Lott: I can't believe you took off points
from my paper because it contained numerous spelling
errors. You sea, I always spell-check whatever I right, so I
no my writings contain know spelling errors.
80
6. Legislators in Texas want to make it a criminal offense for citizens not to use seat belts
when they drive. Mark my words: If they get away with this, it won't be long before they
ban beer drinking and cigarette smoking. Then they will restrict our intake of cholesterol,
perhaps setting up cholesterol testing sites along major highways. We must not let this
infringement of our liberties get started, or there will be no stopping it.
7. No one objects to a lawyer looking up a legal case during a trial. Why, then, shouldn't
students be permitted to look up an answer during an exam?
8. Most Hollywood movie stars believe in reincarnation. I know because I heard it on the
Jerry Springer show.
9. Herbie: Are you still reading that wacky New Age magazine?
Alice: Yes.
Herbie: Well, at least you admit it's wacky.
10. Either you favor unrestricted abortion on demand or you favor a constitutional
amendment banning all abortions. I know you don't favor unrestricted abortion on
demand. Therefore, you favor a constitutional amendment banning all abortions.
11. It rains a lot in San Diego during the summer. I know because I spent two weekends
in San Diego last summer, and both times it rained like cats and dogs.
12. An extensive, diligent search of the zoo failed to find any trace of the missing gorilla.
Therefore, the gorilla probably isn't in the zoo. It must have escaped.
13. Billy, I know you want to go to school today, but you have the flu and you should
stay home. If you go to school, you might give the flu to some of your friends and
classmates. They, in turn, might give it to their friends and classmates. Eventually, the flu
might spread throughout the school.
14. Green tea is leafy, green, aromatic, and tastes great as an iced or hot beverage.
Marijuana is also leafy, green, and aromatic. Therefore, marijuana tastes great as an iced
or hot beverage, too.
15. All workers deserve to be treated with respect and paid a decent wage. That's why I
pay all the employees at my chicken processing plant at least a nickel above the
minimum wage and give them a half-day off for Christmas.
16. Professor Gene Poole, the distinguished microbiologist, has argued that using animals
in medical and scientific experiments is morally wrong. Given Professor Poole's
impressive credentials, we should conclude that using animals in medical and scientific
experiments is morally wrong.
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17. Immediately after the governor spoke at the outdoor rally, a bolt of lightning struck
City Hall, injuring several people. For the safety of all the residents of this city, it is
imperative that the governor not be asked to speak here again.
18. Two years ago I drank a Pond Water Lite beer, and the beer was watery and tasteless.
Six months ago I drank a Pond Water Lite beer, and the beer was watery and tasteless.
Two weeks ago I drank a Pond Water Lite beer, and the beer was watery and tasteless. I
guess all Pond Water Lite beers are watery and tasteless.
19. Tabloid headline: UFOs: Extraterrestrials or Demons?
20. No one has proved that the lost continent of Atlantis doesn't exist. Therefore, the lost
continent of Atlantis probably does exist.
21. Your accusation that I am verbose, voluble, long-winded, and loquacious is

completely unfounded. I've never uttered a sentence in my life that contained more than
twelve words.
22. 90-year-old Bill Tucker has asked that he be released from prison because he is old,
infirm, and dying of brain cancer. Unfortunately, Mr. Tucker's request will have to be
denied. If we release Mr. Tucker, we would have to release prisoners that are even less
deserving than he is. Eventually, any prisoner with a hangnail or a stubbed toe could
successfully petition for early release.
23. Every time I've gone to the concession stand for a beer the basketball team has gone
on a scoring streak. Hmm, two minutes to go and the team is trailing by six. I guess it's
about time for a beer.
24. On Monday I wore my favorite blue jeans, my homemade skunk-oil hair tonic, and
was turned down by Angie for a date. On Tuesday I wore my favorite blue jeans, my
homemade skunk-oil hair tonic, and was turned down by Hazel a date. On Friday I wore
my favorite blue jeans, my homemade skunk-oil hair tonic, and was turned down by Iris
for a date. I guess if I want a date, I'm going to have to stop wearing my favorite blue
jeans.
25. Some people advocate lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen. I
oppose that. If we lower the drinking age to eighteen, why not sixteen? And if sixteen,
why not twelve? Pretty soon, we would have a roomful of drunks in third grade!
26. Larry said State is now ahead 18-14 in the football game, but that can’t be right. Two
minutes ago, the score was tied 14-14, and it’s not possible for a team to score 4 points in
football. In football, you can only score in increments of 1 (with an extra point), 3 (with a
field goal), 6 (with a touchdown), 7 (with a touchdown and extra point), and 8 (with a
touchdown and a two-point conversion). Obviously, Larry is mistaken.
82
27. Officer, I admit I was driving 140 mph on this congested highway, but I don’t deserve
a speeding ticket. There is no speed limit on this highway, and the law requires only that
vehicles be driven “at a safe speed,” which, for me, is well over 140 mph. Also, I
apologize for not pulling over sooner. I was talking on my cell phone and didn’t hear
your siren.
28. I was six years old and an only child, and I yearned to have a dog for a pet. My
parents got me a cocker spaniel. I was happy beyond words. I named the dog Pooch, but
as it turned out, I should have called him Lout, Thug, or Stinker. That dog was perfectly
awful—vicious, disobedient, pathologically territorial, and it refused to be housebroken. I
learned my lesson the hard way: cocker spaniels make dreadful pets. Don’t even think
about getting one.
29. A couple of weeks ago, I received a chain letter that said bad luck would come my
way if I did not send the letter on to at least 10 people I knew. I mumbled something
about superstitious nonsense and threw the letter away. Bad move! The very next day I
was attacked by a Rottweiler, got dumped by my girl friend, and was fired from my job.
Once is enough. You can bet that next time I get a chain letter, I will do exactly what it
says.
30. My wife is blonde, attractive, and appreciates it when I give her sexy lingerie for
Valentine's Day. My secretary is also blonde and attractive. Therefore, she would
appreciate it if I gave her sexy lingerie for Valentine's Day.
Answers
1. false alternatives 17. questionable cause

2. appeal to ignorance 18. no fallacy
3. questionable cause 19. no fallacy (No argument is given.)
4. inappropriate appeal to authority 20. appeal to ignorance
5. inconsistency 21. inconsistency
6. slippery slope 22. slippery slope
7. weak analogy 23. questionable cause
8. inappropriate appeal to authority 24. questionable cause
9. loaded question 25. slippery slope
10. false alternatives 26. false alternatives (2 points can
11. hasty generalization scored by a safety.)
12. no fallacy 27. inconsistency
13. no fallacy 28. hasty generalization
14. weak analogy 29. questionable cause
15. inconsistency 30. weak analogy
16. inappropriate appeal to authority
83
Chapter 7: Analyzing Arguments
Note: Some of the diagramming exercises below are quite difficult. Selectivity is advised.
Diagramming Arguments
Diagram the following arguments.
1. If we're in Boise, then we're in Idaho. Hence, since we're not in Idaho, we're not in
Boise.
2. Emily deserves to be promoted to vice president, because she's the most qualified
candidate and the CEO promised her the job.
3. Either this is a Firebird or it's a Camaro. It's a Firebird only if it's a Pontiac. But it's not
a Pontiac. Hence, it's not a Firebird. Hence, it's a Camaro.
4. Practices that inflict suffering on sentient beings without good reason are morally
wrong. For humans to kill and eat sentient animals inflicts suffering on them without
good reason. Therefore, it is wrong for humans to kill and eat sentient animals. Moreover,
a vegetarian diet is healthier than a meat-based diet. For these reasons, people should
become vegetarians.
5. The 49ers will make the playoffs only if the Cowboys win. If the 49ers make the
playoffs, then they will play the Redskins. If the Redskins win, they will be in the Super
Bowl. But the Cowboys won't win. Their top two quarterbacks are hurt, and their defense
has decimated by injuries. Therefore, the 49ers will not make the playoffs.
6. Meg detests Ted Kennedy and Al Gore. She loves conservative talk-show host Rush
Limbaugh. She strongly opposes abortion rights for women. She's also a big baseball fan.
Therefore, Meg probably is not a Democrat.
7. Sturdley is either at the library or he's at the pool hall. But Sturdley never reads
anything but comic books. Therefore, he's probably not at the library. Moreover today is
Saturday, and Sturdley goes to the pool hall almost every Saturday. Therefore, Sturdley is
probably at the pool hall.
8. This car looks exactly like my car, but is it? If this is my car, there should be a pair of
fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror, and there aren't any. Moreover, if this is my
car, my key should fit it in the lock, and it doesn't. So, this isn't my car.
9. If the weather is nice, the picnic will be outdoors. If it rains, the picnic will be in the
gym. If the picnic is outdoors, I'll need to bring the softball equipment. If the picnic is in
the gym, I'll need to bring the volleyball equipment. But it looks like the weather will be
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nice. The National Weather Service says it will be warm and sunny. So, the picnic will
most likely be outdoors. Therefore, I will need to bring the softball equipment.
10. The angels of God have no knowledge of sin, hence also they have no knowledge of
forgiveness, hence again they have no knowledge of that tender love that is formed by
forgiveness. (Abraham Kuyper, To Be Near Unto God, 1925)
11. In America the Constitution rules both legislators and simple citizens. It is therefore
the primary law and cannot be modified by a law. Hence it is right that the courts should
obey the Constitution rather than all the laws. (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in
America, 13th ed., 1850)
12. Scientific hypotheses are empirical statements--those whose truth can be confirmed
by observation of the world. So scientific studies concern themselves with matters of
empirical fact, not of value. Thus the results (the empirical findings) of medical studies
can tell you what the facts are--not what to do about them. (Theodore Schick, Jr. and
Lewis Vaughn, How to Think about Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age, 2nd
ed., 1999)
13. Christians need to know Christian doctrine. Christ and his apostles were preachers of
doctrine (Mark 4:2; Acts 2:42; 2 Tim. 3:10), and we are exhorted to preach doctrine (2
Tim. 4:2; Titus 1:9). Believers who are thoroughly indoctrinated with the word of God
will be able to be effective Christian workers and staunch defenders of the faith. Only as
we know what we believe will we be able to withstand the attacks of the evil one and
move forward in the victory provided for us in Christ. (Henry C. Thiessen, Lectures in
Systematic Theology, rev. ed., 1979)
14. The evils of the world are due to moral defects quite as much as to lack of
intelligence. But the human race has not hitherto discovered any method of eradicating
moral defects. . . . Intelligence, on the contrary, is easily improved by methods known to
every competent educator. Therefore, until some method of teaching virtue has been
discovered, progress will have to be sought by improvement of intelligence rather than of
morals. (Bertrand Russell, Skeptical Essays, 1928)
15. For this year's accomplishments include [in your yearly performance review]
everything you did last year and everything you plan to do next year. Bosses don't have a
keen grasp of time. If they did, they wouldn't ask you to do six months of work in two
weeks. (Scott Adams, The Dilbert Principle, 1996)
16. The [designated hitter rule in baseball] diminished strategy. If the fifth hitter gets on
base, the sixth hitter must move him over so the seventh hitter will have a chance to drive
him in. Otherwise the opposing team will pitch around the eighth hitter to get to the
pitcher. So there is more emphasis on scoring one run at a time. (George Will, Men at
Work: The Craft of Baseball, 1990 [slightly adapted])
85
17. The worst time to drink water--or any other fluid for that matter--is with your meals.
Water taken with food cuts down on saliva production. It also washes down the food
prematurely, before it has been adequately chewed, and adequate chewing is critical to
complete and efficient digestion. Water with food also dilutes the digestive enzymes in
the mouth and stomach, interfering with starch and protein digestion and causing
fermentation and gas in the digestive tract. (Marilyn Diamond, The American Vegetarian
Cookbook for the Fit for Life Kitchen, 1990)
18. Quality family planning and reproductive health services, mother and child health,
women's rights, and women's education--this four-point program is the best way to
achieve a rapid slowdown in population growth. It can improve the quality of life
directly, through health and education benefits, and it improves the status of women. It
creates a healthy and educated work force. It gives people the knowledge with which they
can fight for their own rights. It might also help to raise incomes, and it will certainly
help to slow environmental damage. (Paul Harrison, "Sex and the Single Planet: Needs,
Greed and Earthly Limits," 1994)
19. Recycling makes good sense. It conserves scarce landfill space, it reduces
environmental damage from activities such as strip mining and clear-cutting, it conserves
energy, reduces pollution, and minimizes solid waste in manufacturing new products.
(Adapted from Richard A. Denison and John F. Ruston, "Recycling Is Not Garbage,"
1997)
20. Never date or flirt with current students. Period. . . .No matter how old, wise, or
experienced a student is, he or she is still less powerful than you are. Merely suggesting a
flirtation is enough to make some students uncomfortable. Further, no matter how much
you and your "special friend" try to separate your personal relationship from your
student-teacher one, other students will believe that you are being soft on the object of
your affection. If you compensate by being "extra tough," you are depriving your special
friend of fair treatment. Further, the mere fact that you are dating a student will probably
increase student cynicism and distrust. Lastly, asking a student out or flirting is a prima
facie case of sexual harassment. (Douglas J. Soccio, Instructor's Manual for Archetypes
of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy, 3rd ed., 1998)
21. If there is no God, then God is incalculably the single greatest creation of the human
imagination. No other creation of the imagination has been so fertile of ideas, so great an
inspiration to philosophy, to literature, to painting, sculpture, architecture, and drama; no
other creation of the imagination has done so much to stir human beings to deeds of
horror and nobility, or to set them to lives of austerity or endeavour. (Anthony Kenny,
The Metaphysics of Mind, 1989)
22. It is no accident that the nation's most toxic sites are surrounded by black and Latino
communities. Most minority communities in the United States are poor, and low income
people can't vote with their feet and move wherever they choose. Nor do the poor have
the political clout to challenge the local zoning boards that protect wealthy communities.
(Ruth Rosen, "Who Gets Polluted?" 1994)
86
23. If souls die, they must die either by decomposing or by annihilation. But what is not
composed cannot decompose. And souls are not composed. Therefore souls cannot
decompose. And nothing is annihilated as a whole. Therefore souls are not annihilated as
a whole. Thus souls do not die either by decomposition or annihilation. Thus souls do not
die. (Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, 1994)
24. Someone who, through no fault of her own, could not help breaking the law should
not be punished. If determinism is true, then every event occurs under conditions that
make it causally impossible for that event not to occur. Thus if determinism is true, then
every choice an agent makes is made under conditions that make it causally impossible
for that choice not to have been made. Thus if determinism is true, no one who acted in a
certain way could have helped herself. If determinism is true, therefore, no one should be
punished for anything she does. (Stated but not endorsed in Michael L. Corrado,
"Excuses in the Criminal Law," reprinted in David M. Adams, ed., Philosophical
Problems in the Law, 3rd ed., 2000)
25. It is our moral duty to promote the highest good. This highest good must be attainable
since "ought" implies "can." But finite humans lack the power to achieve it. They can
achieve virtue, but they cannot ensure that happiness will be added to virtue, which is
what the highest good requires. That requirement can only be met by postulating a
rational and moral Being who, as Creator and sustainer of the world, has the necessary
power to make happiness proportional to virtue. (John Hedley Brooke, Science and
Religion: Some Historical Perspectives, 1991 [summarizing an argument by the
eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant])
26. Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible explanations for the
origins of living things. Organisms either appeared on the earth fully developed or they
did not. If they did not, they must have developed from preexisting species by some
process of modification. If they did appear in a fully developed state, they must indeed
have been created by some omnipotent intelligence, for no natural process could possibly
form inanimate molecules into an elephant or a redwood tree in one step. (Douglas J.
Futuyma, Science on Trial: The Case for Evolution, 1983)
27. If there is to be personal survival after death, then a personal self must live beyond
the destruction of the body. But a surviving self has got to be in some way self-conscious,
and without a brain there can be no self-consciousness. At death the brain ceases to
function and, in a very short time, ceases to be. So there can be no survival of bodily
death. (Stated but not endorsed in Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of
Christian Apologetics, 1994)
28. Either you will eat an apple at lunch tomorrow, or you will not. If you will eat an
apple at lunch tomorrow, then nothing you do between now and then will stop you from
having that apple at lunch. If you will not eat an apple at lunch tomorrow, then any effort
you make between now and then to eat such an apple will be, literally, fruitless.
Therefore, you do not have two equally available options to eat or not to eat the apple.
87
Thus, you are not really free concerning whether you will or will not eat an apple at lunch
time tomorrow. (Tom Morris, Philosophy for Dummies, 1999 [slightly adapted])
29. If man is a real teacher, he must teach the truth. But whoever teaches the truth
enlightens the mind, for truth is the light of the mind. If, therefore, man does teach, he
enlightens the mind. But this is false, for in the Gospel according to John (1:19) we see
that it is God who "enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world." Therefore, one
man cannot really teach another. (Stated but not endorsed in St. Thomas Aquinas, Truth,
1256-1259)
30. If life after death is to have real personal meaning, each disembodied soul must have
its own identity and there must be some way in which any two souls can be distinguished.
But we use bodily criteria to identify (and so to distinguish) human persons, and these
criteria cannot apply to a disembodied soul. Therefore we have no means of
distinguishing one disembodied soul from another. Now if disembodied souls cannot be
distinguished, they cannot be identified. Since personal identity is essential to life after
death, the question is: can there be such a life? The problem of identifying disembodied
souls casts serious doubt on it s possibility. (Stated but not endorsed in Peter Kreeft and
Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, 1994 [slightly adapted])
31. If ethics were just a matter of rules, we'd need rules for the interpretation of the rules.
But then, these rules would need interpreting also, and so on, and on and on. So if ethics
were nothing but rules, we'd need infinitely many rules, and that's absurd. So there has to
be more to ethics than just lots of rules. (Tom Morris, If Aristotle Ran General Motors,
1997 [adapted])
32. Anyone who thinks Ted Williams in 1957 was a better player than Mickey Mantle is
a lunatic. You've got a huge difference in defensive value, you've got Mantle drawing
146 walks and driving in and scoring more runs than Williams, you've got all the
difference in the world in baserunning speed, you've got the difference between Fenway
Park and Yankee Stadium, and there's the fact that the Yankees won the pennant. (Bill
James, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, 1986)
33. Many (if not most) of the fundamental concepts in marketing are based on the
practitioner's ability to know people. After all, if we don't understand why people behave
as they do, how can we identify their needs? If we can't identify their needs, how can we
satisfy their needs? If we can't satisfy people's needs, we don't have a marketing concept,
so we might as well fold our tents and go home! (Michael R. Solomon, Consumer
Behavior, 4th ed., 1999)
34. Since God at all times knows all truths, he knows our decisions and actions before
they occur. But if God knows what will occur before it happens, what occurs cannot be
different from what God knows. Otherwise God would hold a false belief, which is
impossible because it contradicts his omniscience. But if we cannot do anything other
than God knows, we are not free. Thus, divine foreknowledge is inconsistent with human
88
freedom. (Stated but not endorsed in Bruce Reichenbach, "God Limits His Freedom,"
1986)
35. If governments are legitimate, then they have a right to issue laws and commands and
people have a moral duty to obey these commands. However, every person is morally
responsible for his own actions and has a moral duty to make up his own mind about
what is the best thing to do and then to act on that judgment. Governments, however,
claim that they have a right to tell us what to do, irrespective of what we think is best.
Therefore, governments do not have a right to issue commands that people have a moral
duty to obey. Therefore, governments are not legitimate. (Stated but not endorsed in
Stephen Nathanson, Should We Consent to Be Governed? 1992)
Answers
1.  If we're in Boise, then we're in Idaho. Hence,  since we're not in Idaho,  we're
not in Boise.
2.  Emily deserves to be promoted to vice president, because  she's the most qualified
candidate and  the CEO promised her the job.
3.  Either this is a Firebird or it's a Camaro.  It's a Firebird only if it's a Pontiac. But
 it's not a Pontiac. Hence,  it's not a Firebird. Hence,  it's a Camaro.
89
4.  Practices that inflict suffering on sentient beings without good reason are morally
wrong.  For humans to kill and eat sentient animals inflicts suffering on them without
good reason. Therefore,  it is wrong for humans to kill and eat sentient animals.
Moreover,  a vegetarian diet is healthier than a meat-based diet. For these reasons,
 people should become vegetarians.
5.  The 49ers will make the playoffs only if the Cowboys win.  If the 49ers make the
playoffs, then they will play the Redskins.  If the Redskins win, they will be in the
Super Bowl.  But the Cowboys won't win.  Their top two quarterbacks are hurt, and
 their defense has been decimated by injuries. Therefore,  the 49ers will not make the
playoffs.
6.  Meg detests Ted Kennedy and Al Gore.  She loves conservative talk-show host
Rush Limbaugh.  She strongly opposes abortion rights for women.  She's also a big
baseball fan. Therefore,  Meg probably is not a Democrat.
90
7.  Sturdley is either at the library or he's at the pool hall. But  Sturdley never reads
anything but comic books. Therefore,  he's probably not at the library. Moreover
 today is Saturday, and  Sturdley goes to the pool hall almost every Saturday.
Therefore,  Sturdley is probably at the pool hall.
8.  This car looks exactly like my car, but is it?  If this is my car, there should be a
pair of fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror, and  there aren't any. Moreover,
 if this is my car, my key should fit it in the lock, and  it doesn't. So,  this isn't my
car.
9.  If the weather is nice, the picnic will be outdoors.  If it rains, the picnic will be in
the gym.  If the picnic is outdoors, I'll need to bring the softball equipment.  If the
picnic is in the gym, I'll need to bring the volleyball equipment. But  it looks like the
weather will be nice.  The National Weather Service says it will be warm and sunny.
So,  the picnic will most likely be outdoors. Therefore,  I will need to bring the
softball equipment.
91
10.  The angels of God have no knowledge of sin, hence  also they have no
knowledge of forgiveness, hence again  they have no knowledge of that tender love
that is formed by forgiveness.
11.  In America the Constitution rules both legislators and simple citizens.  It is
therefore the primary law and cannot be modified by a law. Hence  it is right that the
courts should obey the Constitution rather than all the laws.
12.  Christians need to know Christian doctrine.  Christ and his apostles were
preachers of doctrine (Mark 4:2; Acts 2:42; 2 Tim. 3:10), and  we are exhorted to
preach doctrine (2 Tim. 4:2; Titus 1:9).  Believers who are thoroughly indoctrinated
with the word of God will be able to be effective Christian workers and staunch
defenders of the faith.  Only as we know what we believe will we be able to withstand
the attacks of the evil one and move forward in the victory provided for us in Christ.
92
13.  Scientific hypotheses are empirical statements—those whose truth can be

confirmed by observation of the world. So  scientific studies concern themselves with
matters of empirical fact, not of value. Thus  the results (the empirical findings) of
medical studies can tell you what the facts are—not what to do about them.
14.  The evils of the world are due to moral defects quite as much as to lack of
intelligence. But  the human race has not hitherto discovered any method of eradicating
moral defects. . . .  Intelligence, on the contrary, is easily improved by methods known
to every competent educator. Therefore,  until some method of teaching virtue has been
discovered, progress will have to be sought by improvement of intelligence rather than of
morals.
15.  For this year's accomplishments include [in your yearly performance review]
everything you did last year and everything you plan to do next year.  Bosses don't
have a keen grasp of time.  If they did, they wouldn't ask you to do six months of work
in two weeks.
93
16.  The [designated hitter rule in baseball] diminished strategy.  If the fifth hitter
gets on base, the sixth hitter must move him over so the seventh hitter will have a chance
to drive him in. Otherwise  the opposing team will pitch around the eighth hitter to get
to the pitcher. So  there is more emphasis on scoring one run at a time.
17.  Quality family planning and reproductive health services, mother and child health,
women's rights, and women's education—this four-point program is the best way to
achieve a rapid slowdown in population growth.  It can improve the quality of life
directly, through health and education benefits, and  it improves the status of women.
 It creates a healthy and educated work force.  It gives people the knowledge with
which they can fight for their own rights.  It might also help to raise incomes, and  it
will certainly help to slow environmental damage.
18.  The worst time to drink water—or any other fluid for that matter—is with your
meals.  Water taken with food cuts down on saliva production.  It also washes down
the food prematurely, before it has been adequately chewed, and  adequate chewing is
critical to complete and efficient digestion.  Water with food also dilutes the digestive
enzymes in the mouth and stomach, interfering with starch and protein digestion and
causing fermentation and gas in the digestive tract.
94
19.  Recycling makes good sense.  It conserves scarce landfill space,  it reduces
environmental damage from activities such as strip mining and clear-cutting,  it
conserves energy,  reduces pollution, and  minimizes solid waste in manufacturing
new products.
20.  Never date or flirt with current students. Period. . . . No matter how old, wise, or
experienced a student is, he or she is still less powerful than you are.  Merely
suggesting a flirtation is enough to make some students uncomfortable. Further,  no
matter how much you and your "special friend" try to separate your personal relationship
from your student-teacher one, other students will believe that you are being soft on the
object of your affection.  If you compensate by being "extra tough," you are depriving
your special friend of fair treatment. Further,  the mere fact that you are dating a
student will probably increase student cynicism and distrust. Lastly,  asking a student
out or flirting is a prima facie case of sexual harassment.
21.  If there is no God, then God is incalculably the single greatest creation of the
human imagination.  No other creation of the imagination has been so fertile of ideas,
so great an inspiration to philosophy, to literature, to painting, sculpture, architecture, and
drama;  no other creation of the imagination has done so much to stir human beings to
deeds of horror and nobility, or to set them to lives of austerity or endeavour.
22.  It is no accident that the nation's most toxic sites are surrounded by black and
Latino communities.  Most minority communities in the United States are poor, and
 low income people can't vote with their feet and move wherever they choose. Nor 
do the poor have the political clout to challenge the local zoning boards that protect
wealthy communities.
95
23.  If souls die, they must die either by decomposing or by annihilation. But  what is
not composed cannot decompose. And  souls are not composed. Therefore  souls
cannot decompose. And  nothing is annihilated as a whole. Therefore  souls are not
annihilated as a whole. Thus  souls do not die either by decomposition or annihilation.
Thus  souls do not die.
24.  Someone who, through no fault of her own, could not help breaking the law should
not be punished.  If determinism is true, then every event occurs under conditions that
make it causally impossible for that event not to occur. Thus  if determinism is true,
then every choice an agent makes is made under conditions that make it causally
impossible for that choice not to have been made. Thus  if determinism is true, no one
who acted in a certain way could have helped herself.  If determinism is true, therefore,
no one should be punished for anything she does.
96
25.  It is our moral duty to promote the highest good.  This highest good must be
attainable since  "ought" implies "can." But  finite humans lack the power to achieve
it.  They can achieve virtue, but they cannot ensure that happiness will be added to
virtue, which is what the highest good requires.  That requirement can only be met by
postulating a rational and moral Being who, as Creator and sustainer of the world, has the
necessary power to make happiness proportional to virtue.
26.  Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible explanations for the
origins of living things.  Organisms either appeared on the earth fully developed or
they did not.  If they did not, they must have developed from preexisting species by
some process of modification.  If they did appear in a fully developed state, they must
indeed have been created by some omnipotent intelligence, for  no natural process
could possibly form inanimate molecules into an elephant or a redwood tree in one step.
27.  If there is to be personal survival after death, then a personal self must live beyond
the destruction of the body. But  a surviving self has got to be in some way self-
conscious, and  without a brain there can be no self-consciousness.  At death the
brain ceases to function and, in a very short time, ceases to be. So  there can be no
survival of bodily death.
97
28.  Either you will eat an apple at lunch tomorrow, or you will not.  If you will eat
an apple at lunch tomorrow, then nothing you do between now and then will stop you
from having that apple at lunch.  If you will not eat an apple at lunch tomorrow, then
any effort you make between now and then to eat such an apple will be, literally,
fruitless. Therefore,  you do not have two equally available options to eat or not to eat
the apple. Thus,  you are not really free concerning whether you will or will not eat an
apple at lunch time tomorrow.
29.  If man is a real teacher, he must teach the truth. But  whoever teaches the truth
enlightens the mind, for  truth is the light of the mind.  If, therefore, man does teach,
he enlightens the mind. But  this is false, for  in the Gospel according to John (1:19)
we see that it is God who "enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world."
Therefore,  one man cannot really teach another.
98
30.  If life after death is to have real personal meaning, each disembodied soul must
have its own identity and there must be some way in which any two souls can be
distinguished. But  we use bodily criteria to identify (and so to distinguish) human
persons, and  these criteria cannot apply to a disembodied soul. Therefore  we have
no means of distinguishing one disembodied soul from another. Now  if disembodied
souls cannot be distinguished, they cannot be identified. Since  personal identity is
essential to life after death, the question is: can there be such a life?  The problem of
identifying disembodied souls casts serious doubt on its possibility.
31.  If ethics were just a matter of rules, we'd need rules for the interpretation of the
rules. But then,  these rules would need interpreting also, and so on, and on and on. So
if  ethics were nothing but rules, we'd need infinitely many rules, and  that's absurd.
So  there has to be more to ethics than just lots of rules.
32.  Anyone who thinks Ted Williams in 1957 was a better player than Mickey Mantle
is a lunatic.  You've got a huge difference in defensive value,  you've got Mantle
drawing 146 walks and driving in and scoring more runs than Williams,  you've got all
the difference in the world in baserunning speed,  you've got the difference between
Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium, and  there's the fact that the Yankees won the
pennant.
99
33.  Many (if not most) of the fundamental concepts in marketing are based on the
practitioner's ability to know people. After all,  if we don't understand why people
behave as they do, how can we identify their needs?  If we can't identify their needs,
how can we satisfy their needs?  If we can't satisfy people's needs, we don't have a
marketing concept, so we might as well fold our tents and go home!
34. Since  God at all times knows all truths,  he knows our decisions and actions
before they occur. But  if God knows what will occur before it happens, what occurs
cannot be different from what God knows. Otherwise  God would hold a false belief,
 which is impossible because  it contradicts his omniscience. But  if we cannot do
anything other than God knows, we are not free. Thus,  divine foreknowledge is
inconsistent with human freedom.
35.  If governments are legitimate, then they have a right to issue laws and commands
and people have a moral duty to obey these commands. However,  every person is
morally responsible for his own actions and has a moral duty to make up his own mind
about what is the best thing to do and then to act on that judgment.  Governments,
however, claim that they have a right to tell us what to do, irrespective of what we think
is best. Therefore,  governments do not have a right to issue commands that people
have a moral duty to obey. Therefore,  governments are not legitimate.
100
Diagramming. The following arguments are taken from the writings of St. Thomas
Aquinas (1225-1274), a master of concise, logical argumentation. Number the premises,
then diagram the arguments using the method presented in Chapter 7.
1. It would seem that God cannot be loved wholly. For love follows knowledge. Now
God cannot be wholly known by us, since this would imply comprehension of Him.
Therefore He cannot be wholly loved by us. (stated but not endorsed)
2. One who exercises public authority may lawfully put to death an evildoer, since he
can pass judgment on him. But no man is judge of himself. Wherefore it is not lawful
for one who exercises public authority to put himself to death for any sin whatever:
although he may lawfully commit himself to the judgment of others.
3. Every virtue is either theological, or intellectual, or moral…. Now it is evident that

religion is not an intellectual virtue, because its perfection does not depend on the
consideration of truth: nor is it a moral virtue, which consists properly in observing the
mean between too much and too little; for one cannot worship God too much… Therefore
it remains that it is a theological virtue.
4. It would seem that it is not always a mortal sin to give false evidence. For a person
may happen to give false evidence, through ignorance of fact. Now such ignorance
excuses from mortal sin. Therefore the giving of false evidence is not always a mortal
sin.
5. The perfection of virtue and grace presupposes the perfection of nature. But
happiness is the perfection of virtue and grace. Now the soul, without the body, has not
the perfection of nature; since it is naturally a part of human nature, and every part is
imperfect when separated from its whole. Therefore the soul cannot be happy without
the body. (not endorsed)
6. It would seem that restitution need not always be made to the person from whom a
thing has been taken. for it is not lawful to injure anyone. Now it would sometimes be
injurious to the man himself, or to others, were one to restore to him what has been taken
from him; if, for instance, one were to return a madman his sword. Therefore restitution
need not always be made to the person from whom a thing has been taken.
7. It would seem unlawful for a man to possess a thing as his own. For whatever is
contrary to the natural law is unlawful. Now according to the natural law all things are
common property: and the possession of property is contrary to this community of goods.
Therefore it is unlawful for any man to appropriate any external thing to himself. (not
endorsed)
8. Murder is a more grievous sin than fornication or adultery. Now nobody may lawfully
commit simple fornication or adultery or any other mortal sin in order to save his own
life; since the spiritual life is to be preferred to the life of the body. Therefore no man
may lawfully take another’s life in self-defense in order to save his own. (not endorsed)
101
9. It would seem that justice does not stand foremost among all the moral virtues.
Because it belongs to justice to render to each what is his, whereas it belongs to liberality
to give of one’s own, and this is more virtuous. Therefore liberality is a greater virtue
than justice. (not endorsed)
10. It is by no means lawful to induce a man to sin, yet it is lawful to make use of
another’s sin for a good end, since even God uses all sin for some good, since He draws
some good from every evil.
11. It would seem that discord is not a sin. For to disaccord with man is to sever oneself
from another’s will. But this does not seem to be a sin, because God’s will alone, and not
our neighbor’s, is the rule of our own life. Therefore discord is not a sin. (not endorsed)
12. That which is the greatest good cannot be made better by addition. But pleasure is
made better by addition; since pleasure together with virtue is better than pleasure
without virtue. Therefore pleasure is not the greatest good. (not endorsed)
13. It would seem that God cannot be feared. for the object of fear is a future evil….
But God is free of all evil, since He is goodness itself. Therefore God cannot be feared.
(not endorsed)
14. It is impossible for any created good to constitute man’s happiness. For happiness is
the perfect good, which lulls the appetite altogether; else it would not be the last end if
something remained to be desired. Now the object of the will, i.e., of man’s appetite, is
the universal good… Hence it is evident that naught can lull man’s will save the
universal good. This is to be found, not in any creature, but in God alone; because every
creature has goodness by participation. Wherefore only God can satisfy the will of
man… Therefore God alone constitutes man’s happiness.
15. It would seem that the actions of the first man were less meritorious than ours are.
For grace s given to us through the mercy of God, who succors most those who are most
in need. Now we are more in need of grace than was man in the state of innocence.
Therefore grace is more copiously poured out upon us; and since grace is the source of
merit, our actions are more meritorious. (not endorsed)
16. Since science is certain knowledge, one receives science from him whose words give
him certainty. However, hearing a man speak does not give anyone certainty. Otherwise,
anything that one person says to another would of necessity be clearly certain. Now, one
reaches certitude only when one hears the truth speaking within him. And to be certain,
he takes counsel with his interior voice even about those things which he hears from men.
Therefore, not man but the truth speaking within, which is God, teaches.
Answers
102
1.  It would seem that God cannot be loved wholly.  For love follows knowledge.
Now  God cannot be wholly known by us, since  this would imply comprehension of
Him. Therefore  He cannot be wholly loved by us. (stated but not endorsed)
2.  One who exercises public authority may lawfully put to death an evildoer, since 
he can pass judgment on him. But  no man is judge of himself. Wherefore  it is not
lawful for one who exercises public authority to put himself to death for any sin
whatever: although he may lawfully commit himself to the judgment of others.
3.  Every virtue is either theological, or intellectual, or moral…. Now it is evident that

 religion is not an intellectual virtue, because  its perfection does not depend on the
consideration of truth:  nor is it a moral virtue,  which consists properly in observing
the mean between too much and too little; for  one cannot worship God too much…
Therefore  it remains that it is a theological virtue.
103
4.  It would seem that it is not always a mortal sin to give false evidence. For  a
person may happen to give false evidence, through ignorance of fact. Now  such
ignorance excuses from mortal sin. Therefore  the giving of false evidence is not
always a mortal sin.
5.  The perfection of virtue and grace presupposes the perfection of nature. But 
happiness is the perfection of virtue and grace. Now  the soul, without the body, has
not the perfection of nature; since  it is naturally a part of human nature, and  every
part is imperfect when separated from its whole. Therefore  the soul cannot be happy
without the body. (not endorsed)
6.  It would seem that restitution need not always be made to the person from whom a
thing has been taken. For  it is not lawful to injure anyone. Now  it would
sometimes be injurious to the man himself, or to others, were one to restore to him what
has been taken from him;  if, for instance, one were to return a madman his sword.
Therefore  restitution need not always be made to the person from whom a thing has
been taken.
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7.  It would seem unlawful for a man to possess a thing as his own. For  whatever is
contrary to the natural law is unlawful. Now  according to the natural law all things are
common property: and  the possession of property is contrary to this community of
goods. Therefore  it is unlawful for any man to appropriate any external thing to
himself. (not endorsed)
8.  Murder is a more grievous sin than fornication or adultery. Now  nobody may
lawfully commit simple fornication or adultery or any other mortal sin in order to save
his own life; since  the spiritual life is to be preferred to the life of the body. Therefore
 no man may lawfully take another’s life in self-defense in order to save his own. (not
endorsed)
9.  It would seem that justice does not stand foremost among all the moral virtues.
Because  it belongs to justice to render to each what is his, whereas  it belongs to
liberality to give of one’s own, and  this is more virtuous. Therefore  liberality is a
greater virtue than justice. (not endorsed)
105
10.  It is by no means lawful to induce a man to sin, yet  it is lawful to make use of
another’s sin for a good end, since  even God uses all sin for some good, since  He
draws some good from every evil.
11.  It would seem that discord is not a sin. For  to disaccord with man is to sever
oneself from another’s will. But  this does not seem to be a sin, because  God’s will
alone, and not our neighbor’s, is the rule of our own life. Therefore  discord is not a
sin. (not endorsed)
12.  That which is the greatest good cannot be made better by addition. But 
pleasure is made better by addition; since  pleasure together with virtue is better than
pleasure without virtue. Therefore  pleasure is not the greatest good. (not endorsed)
106
13.  It would seem that God cannot be feared. For  the object of fear is a future
evil…. But  God is free of all evil, since  He is goodness itself. Therefore  God
cannot be feared. (not endorsed)
14.  It is impossible for any created good to constitute man’s happiness. For 
happiness is the perfect good, which lulls the appetite altogether;  else it would not be
the last end if something remained to be desired. Now  the object of the will, i.e., of
man’s appetite, is the universal good… Hence it is evident that  naught can lull man’s
will save the universal good.  This is to be found, not in any creature, but in God
alone; because  every creature has goodness by participation. Wherefore  only God
can satisfy the will of man… Therefore  God alone constitutes man’s happiness.
107
15.  It would seem that the actions of the first man were less meritorious than ours are.
For  grace is given to us through the mercy of God, who succors most those who are
most in need. Now  we are more in need of grace than was man in the state of
innocence. Therefore  grace is more copiously poured out upon us; and since  grace
is the source of merit,  our actions are more meritorious. (not endorsed)
16.  Since science is certain knowledge,  one receives science from him whose
words give him certainty. However,  hearing a man speak does not give anyone
certainty.  Otherwise, anything that one person says to another would of necessity be
clearly certain. Now,  one reaches certitude only when one hears the truth speaking
within him. And  to be certain, he takes counsel with his interior voice even about
those things which he hears from men. Therefore,  not man but the truth speaking
within, which is God, teaches.
108
Diagramming. Diagram the following argument using the method presented in Chapter
7.
1. Under any plausible approach to statutory interpretation, the text is very important. It
is what legislators have enacted. It is what is most easily available to those who must
decide how to act in respect to subjects the statute regulated. It is the most
straightforward evidence of what legislators were seeking to accomplish. (Kent
Greenawalt, Statutory Interpretation: Twenty Questions, 1999)
2. Doing all of your runs on a track isn’t ideal. The boredom of going in circles can
make it hard to stay motivated, and the flat surface won’t develop leg strength as well as
running on hills. Running exclusively on a track also increases your risk of injury
because the constant turning puts extra stress on the inside knee and hip. (Jeff Galloway,
“The Starting Line,” 2005)
3. Success in the pursuit of happiness cannot be equated with success in the

accumulation of a vast amount of worldly goods. All that a man needs to lead a god life
is a moderate amount of wealth. To have more than one needs is to have an excess that
puts a great strain upon one’s moral virtue, for it permits one to gratify wants that may
not be innocuous and so may interfere with one’s attainment of the real good that one
needs. (Mortimer J. Adler, “Education and the Pursuit of Happiness,” 1976)
4. Proving yourself is a dangerous trap. It takes an enormous amount of energy to be

continuously pointing out your accomplishments, bragging, or trying to convince others
of your worth as a human being. Bragging actually dilutes the positive feelings you
receive from an accomplishment or something you are proud of. To make matters worse,
the more you try to prove yourself, the more others will avoid you, talk behind your back
about your insecure need to brag, and perhaps even resent you. (Richard Carlson, Don’t
Sweat the Small Stuff…And It’s All Small Stuff, 1997)
5. Shop at the farmer’s market. You’ll begin to eat food in season, when they are at the
peak of their nutritional value and flavor, and you’ll cook, because you won’t find
anything processed or microwaveable. You’ll also be supporting farmers in your
community, helping defend the countryside from sprawl, saving oil by eating food
produced nearby and teaching your children that a carrot is a root, not a machine-lathed
orange bullet that comes in a plastic bag. (Michael Pollan, “Six Rules for Eating Wisely,”
2006)
6. If God will save non-Christians, then why the worry about missionary work, about
“preaching the gospel to all nations”? Partly because it is always better to know the truth
than to be in darkness, partly because someone who is working under the handicap of
ignorance or false ideas is less effective in doing God’s work. But most of all because
Christians have orders from their master to preach and baptize. (Richard L. Purtill, C. S.
Lewis’s Case for the Christian Faith, 2nd ed.)
7. The authority of the reporter is a true and proper reason for believing reports: and the
better this authority, the juster claim it hath to our assent: but the authority of God is on
109
all accounts the best: whatever therefore comes from God, it is most reasonable to
believe. (George Berkeley, Alciphron, 1732)
8. Since natural needs, based on our common human capacities and tendencies, are the
same in all human beings, what is really good for any one person is really good for any
other. That is why human happiness is the same for all human beings: it consists in the
possession of all things that are really good for a person to have, accumulated not at one
time but in the course of a lifetime. And that is why the one right plan for living well is
the same for all human beings. (Mortimer J. Adler, Aristotle for Everybody, 1978)
9. If there is to be personal survival after death, then a personal self must life beyond the
destruction of the body. But a surviving self has got to be in some way self-conscious,
and without a brain there can be no self-consciousness. At death the brain ceases to
function and, in a very short time, ceases altogether to be. So there can be no survival of
bodily death. (Peter Kreeft and Donald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics,
1994) (not endorsed)
10. We know…that genes have some influence on academic achievement. We also

know that academic achievement has some effect on adults’ socioeconomic position,
independent of everything else we have been able to measure. Logic therefore suggest
that a child’s genes must have some influence on his or her adult socioeconomic position.
If that is so, adults in different socioeconomic positions must differ genetically. it
follows that their children must also differ genetically. (Christopher Jencks, “Whom Must
We Treat Equally for Educational Opportunity to Be Equal?” 1988)
Answers
1.  Under any plausible approach to statutory interpretation, the text is very important.
 It is what legislators have enacted.  It is what is most easily available to those who
must decide how to act in respect to subjects the statute regulated.  It is the most
straightforward evidence of what legislators were seeking to accomplish. (Kent
Greenawalt, Statutory Interpretation: Twenty Questions, 1999)
110
2.  Doing all of your runs on a track isn’t ideal.  The boredom of going in circles
can make it hard to stay motivated, and  the flat surface won’t develop leg strength as
well as running on hills.  Running exclusively on a track also increases your risk of
injury because  the constant turning puts extra stress on the inside knee and hip. (Jeff
Galloway, “The Starting Line,” 2005)
3.  Success in the pursuit of happiness cannot be equated with success in the

accumulation of a vast amount of worldly goods.  All that a man needs to lead a god
life is a moderate amount of wealth.  To have more than one needs is to have an excess
that puts a great strain upon one’s moral virtue, for  it permits one to gratify wants that
may not be innocuous and so  may interfere with one’s attainment of the real good that
one needs. (Mortimer J. Adler, “Education and the Pursuit of Happiness,” 1976)
111
4.  Proving yourself is a dangerous trap.  It takes an enormous amount of energy to

be continuously pointing out your accomplishments, bragging, or trying to convince
others of your worth as a human being.  Bragging actually dilutes the positive feelings
you receive from an accomplishment or something you are proud of. To make matters
worse,  the more you try to prove yourself, the more others will avoid you, talk behind
your back about your insecure need to brag, and perhaps even resent you. (Richard
Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…And It’s All Small Stuff, 1997)
5.  Shop at the farmer’s market.  You’ll begin to eat food in season, when they are
at the peak of their nutritional value and flavor, and  you’ll cook, because  you won’t
find anything processed or microwaveable.  You’ll also be supporting farmers in your
community,  helping defend the countryside from sprawl,  saving oil by eating food
produced nearby and  teaching your children that a carrot is a root, not a machine-
lathed orange bullet that comes in a plastic bag. (Michael Pollan, “Six Rules for Eating
Wisely,” 2006)
112
6.  If God will save non-Christians, then why the worry about missionary work, about
“preaching the gospel to all nations”? Partly because  it is always better to know the
truth than to be in darkness, partly because  someone who is working under the
handicap of ignorance or false ideas is less effective in doing God’s work. But most of
all because  Christians have orders from their master to preach and baptize. (Richard L.
Purtill, C. S. Lewis’s Case for the Christian Faith, 2nd ed.)
7.  The authority of the reporter is a true and proper reason for believing reports: and
 the better this authority, the juster claim it hath to our assent: but  the authority of
God is on all accounts the best:  whatever therefore comes from God, it is most
reasonable to believe. (George Berkeley, Alciphron, 1732)
8.  Since natural needs, based on our common human capacities and tendencies, are
the same in all human beings,  what is really good for any one person is really good for
any other. That is why  human happiness is the same for all human beings:  it
consists in the possession of all things that are really good for a person to have,
accumulated not at one time but in the course of a lifetime. And that is why  the one
right plan for living well is the same for all human beings. (Mortimer J. Adler, Aristotle
for Everybody, 1978)
113
9.  If there is to be personal survival after death, then a personal self must life beyond
the destruction of the body. But  a surviving self has got to be in some way self-
conscious, and  without a brain there can be no self-consciousness.  At death the
brain ceases to function and, in a very short time, ceases altogether to be. So  there can
be no survival of bodily death. (Peter Kreeft and Donald K. Tacelli, Handbook of
Christian Apologetics, 1994) (not endorsed)
10.  We know…that genes have some influence on academic achievement.  We also

know that academic achievement has some effect on adults’ socioeconomic position,
independent of everything else we have been able to measure. Logic therefore suggest
that  a child’s genes must have some influence on his or her adult socioeconomic
position.  If that is so, adults in different socioeconomic positions must differ
genetically. it follows that  their children must also differ genetically. (Christopher
Jencks, “Whom Must We Treat Equally for Educational Opportunity to Be Equal?”
1988)
Directions: Diagram the following arguments using the method learned in class.
Easy
1.  It would seem that God cannot be feared. For  the object of fear is a future
evil…But  God is free of all evil, since  He is goodness itself. Therefore
 God cannot be feared. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica)
2.  There are good reasons why everyone places a high value on freedom. First, all of
us value and desire many things. Second, freedom is simply the ability to act to achieve
goals and satisfy our desires. So  anyone who wants anything at all will want the
freedom to try to obtain it. (Stephen Nathanson, Should We Consent to Be Governed?
1991)
114
3.  Everything eternal is necessary. But  whatever God wills, He wills from eternity,
for otherwise His will would be mutable. Therefore  whatever he wills, He wills
necessarily. (Stated but not endorsed in Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica)
4.  He that comforts my wife is the cherisher of my flesh and blood;  he that

cherishes my flesh and blood loves my flesh and blood; he that loves my flesh and
blood is my friend: ergo,  he that kisses my wife is my friend. (The Clown in
Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well)
5.  It would seem that despair is not the greatest of sin. For there can be despair
without unbelief….But  unbelief is the greatest of sins, because  it overthrows the
foundation of the spiritual edifice. Therefore  despair is not the greatest of sins. (stated
but not endorsed in Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica)
6.  The government not only fails to stop environmental damage, it actively contributes
to it.  In 1992, the Department of the Interior announced it would open millions of
acres of national parks and forests to strip-mining.The Army Corps of Engineers
opened 60 million acres of wetlands to private developers.  The Corps has spent more
than $25 billion in this century building dams and levees that have left a bleak legacy of
ecologically ravaged rivers, silted lakes thick with dead fish, and destruction of wildlife
and plant habitats. (Michael Parenti, Democracy for the Few, 7th ed.)
7.  Batting left-handed is a major advantage. For one thing,  the left-handed batter at
the end of his swing is two steps closer to first base and moving in the right direction. For
another thing,  most pitchers—about 75 percent of them in the majors—are right-
handed, and  it is a fundamental law of baseball that left-handed batters have a better
shot at right-handed pitchers. (Leonard Koppett, The New Thinking Man’s Guide to
Baseball (slightly adapted))
8. Logic! Why don’t they teach logic at these schools?  There are only three
possibilities.  Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth.
 You know she doesn’t tell lies and  it is obvious that she is not mad.  For the
moment then and unless any future evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling
the truth. (The Professor in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe)
9.  Trees produce oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from the air, helping keep our
planet’s atmosphere in balance.  Well-tended trees can increase the value of your home
up to 15% or more.  Trees that shade your home from harsh winter winds bring energy
costs down.  They also provide food, shelter, and nesting sites for songbirds. So 
plant a tree today. (Adapted from a National Arbor Day Foundation ad)
10.  We can clearly imagine a super computer in the future, utilizing the ultimate in
parallel processing, along with the right sorts of sensors, mimicking the human brain to
such an extent that its behavior is indistinguishable form a highly intelligent human being
with conscious experience.  The computer will obviously be a merely physical entity.
115
Therefore, because  we exhibit all the same “mental” traits,  we must be merely
physical entities as well. (Stated but not endorsed in Tom Morris, Philosophy for
Dummies, 1999)
11.  I should quit smoking.  My health will improve.  I’ll respect myself.  I’ll
have greater self-discipline.  I’ll reduce my risk of cancer.  My breath will be fresh.
 I’ll have extra spending money.  And I won’t expose others to second-hand smoke.
(Adapted from David D. Burns, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy)
12.  A miracle is by definition a rare occurrence.  Natural law is by definition a

description of regular occurrence.  The evidence for the regular is always greater than
that for the rare.  A wise man always bases his belief on the greater evidence.
Therefore,  a wise man should never believe in miracles. (Stated but not endorsed in
Norman L. Geisler, “Miracles and the Modern Mind”)
13.  A man cannot search either for what he knows or for what he does not know. 
He cannot search for what he knows --  since he knows it, there is no need to search –
 nor for what he does not know, for  he does not know what to look for. (Plato, Meno
(not endorsed))
14.  Christ claimed to be God.  Either he was telling the truth, or he was insane, or he
was a liar.  Christ was not insane.  He was not a liar. Therefore,  his claims must
be truth. (Richard L. Purtill, C.S. Lewis’ Case for the Christian Faith, 2d ed.)
15.  November is the toughest month for any college basketball team.  The
excitement of starting practice on October 15 has worn off, and  practice has become a
drudgery.  There are no games to prepare for or get excited about.  There is no crowd
to provide electricity or support.  There is just day after day of practice – the same
faces, the same coaches, the same drills, the same teammates. (John Feinstein, A Season
on the Brink)
16.  Decapitation is not a necessary condition for death.  If decapitation were a

necessary condition of death we could assert that you will die only if you are decapitated,
 which obviously is not the case, for  there are many other causes of death. (Wesley
C. Salmon, Logic, 2nd ed. (slightly adapted))
17.  Wealth is not sought except for the sake of something else, because  of itself it
brings us no good, but only when we use it, whether for the support of the body or for
some similar purpose. Now  the highest good is sought for its own, and not for
another’s sake. Therefore  wealth is not man’s highest good. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Contra Gentiles)
18.  Legal philosophy can be one of the most exciting areas of philosophy for an
undergraduate to study.  It raises and examines problems of deep and abiding
human concern.  It intersects with history and politics, art and science.  It
treats questions that resonate with today’s headlines but that also reach back to the
116
roots of civilization. And  developments in the field over the past twenty yeas
have provoked vigorous debate and controversy. (Andrew Altman, Arguing about
Law, 2nd ed.)
19.  If there is development, rather than 100 acres cut up with 100 homes, create a
neighborhood with a larger green area set aside and a cluster of homes on small
acreage.  That way, neighborhoods retain play space for families and inspiring
views for neighborhoods.  Forests are protected.  Waterways are sheltered. 
Wildlife is not uprooted. And,  it’s cheaper for the developer.  There is less
infrastructure – pipes, lines, roads to build and maintain. (Christopher Miller,
“Smart Communities key to Smart Growth)
20.  Guys accuse me of constantly singing the praises of Duke’s men’s basketball
program. Well, what is there not to like?  You go there and it has everything
you dream about in college basketball.  Guys play hard.  They go to class. 
They do things the right way.  They have discipline.  They go out and win.
 The crowd is behind them. (Dick Vitale, Campus Chaos)
Moderately Difficult
1.  So far as we are able to determine, every high complex object with intricate moving
parts is a product of intelligent design.  The universe is a highly complex object with
intricate moving parts. Therefore, probably,  the universe is a product of intelligent
design.  No one could have designed a universe but God…Therefore, probably, there
is a God. (Stated but not endorsed in Tom Morris, Philosophy for Dummies)
2.  What is natural to a thing is always in it. But it is natural for the angels to be
moved by the movement of love towards God. Therefore  such love cannot be
withdrawn from them. But  in loving God they do not sin. Consequently  the angels
cannot sin. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica)
3.  Miracles, by definition, are events which violate genuine laws of nature.. If a

generalization is violated by an event, then it cannot be a genuine law of nature. Thus, 
it is impossible for a genuine law of nature to be violated by any event. Hence,  it is
impossible for any event to be a miracle. (Stated but not endorsed in Theodore M.
Drange, “Science and Miracles”)
4.  We can see something only after it has happened.  Future events, however, have
not yet happened. So  seeing a future event seems to imply bother that it has and has
not happened, and  that’s logically impossible. Therefore,  it is impossible to foresee
future events. (Theodore Schick, Jr., “Fate, Freedom, and Foreknowledge,” (slightly
adapted))
5.  It would seem that angels do not assume bodies.  For there is nothing superfluous
in the work of an angel, as there is nothing of the kind in the work of nature. But  it
would be superfluous for the angels to assume bodies, because  an angel has no need
117
for a body, since  his own power exceeds all bodily power. Therefore  an angel does
not assume a body. (Stated but not endorsed in Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica)
6.  Since faith is meritorious or praiseworthy, and since  faith essentially involves

belief that certain propositions are truth, then  it might seem that faith requires some
sort of meritorious or praiseworthy believing.  Merit and praise, however, presuppose
responsibility, and  responsibility presupposes voluntariness. Hence,  for believing to
be meritorious or praiseworthy it must be voluntary, and so  faith requires voluntary
belief. (Adapted from Scott MacDonald, “Christian Faith”)
7.  If governments are legitimate, then they have a right to issue laws or commands and
people have a moral duty to obey these commands. However,  every person is morally
responsible for his own actions and has a moral duty to make up his own mind about
what is the best thing to do and then to act on that judgment.  governments, however,
claim that they have a right to tell us what to do, irrespective of what we think is best.
Therefore,  governments do not have a right to issue commands that people have a
moral duty to obey. Therefore,  governments are not legitimate. (Stated but not
endorsed in Stephen Nathanson, Should We Consent to Be Governed?)
8.  Natural desire cannot be empty, since  nature does nothing in vain. But 
nature’s desire would be empty if it could never be fulfilled. Therefore  man’s natural
desire can be fulfilled.  But not in this life….Therefore  it must be fulfilled after this
life. Therefore  man’s ultimate happiness is after this life. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Contra Gentiles)
9.  We believe that we have a moral obligation to pay our income tax.  We

nevertheless dislike paying it a great deal.  We believe that we have a moral obligation
to grade our students fairly, that is, to give them what they deserve. We would prefer to
give them all A’s.  Moral judgments are not, therefore, statements of preference or
taste. (Kenneth Strike and Jonas F. Soltis, The Ethics of Teaching, 3d ed.)
10.  If God foreknows some future event, then His foreknowledge of it is already past.
 The foreknowledge entails the occurrence of the future event. But  the
foreknowledge, because  it is in the past, is now necessary and fixed. So  the future
event is also necessary and fixed. Therefore,  if God foreknows all future events, then
all future events are necessary and fixed. And so,  if God has foreknowledge, there is
no contingency or freedom with respect to the future. (George I. Mavrodes, “Is the Past
Unpreventable?”)
11.  Religion, it is evident, implies the worship of a God,  which worship supposeth
rewards and punishments  which suppose merits and demerits,  actions good and
evil, and  these suppose human liberty,  a thing impossible: and, consequently,  a
religion… must be an unreasonable and absurd thing. (George Berkeley, Alciphron (not
endorsed))
12.  Don’t try to save money on shoes….  Good shoes do at least three things that
118
inadequate ones don’t. Because  they fit right, they minimize blisters. Because 
they’re properly padded,.  they cushion shocks. Because  they have a stable heel, 
they keep lateral sway to a minimum and reduce wear and tea on leg muscles. (Jim Fixx,
The Complete Book of Running)
13.  There is no place at all left for hatred. For  no one except the greatest of fools
would hate good men. And  there is no reason at all for hating the bad. For  just as
weakness is a disease of the body, so wickedness is a disease of the mind. And  if this
is so, since  we think of people who are sick in body as deserving sympathy rather than
hatred,  much more so do they deserve pity rather than blame who suffer an evil more
severe than any physical illness. (Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy)
14.  If anything comes to be, then it comes either out of being or out of not-being.  If
the former, then it already is--  in which case it does not come to be;  if the latter,
then it is nothing, since  out of nothing comes nothing.  Becoming is, then, an
illusion. (Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, Vol. 1 (not endorsed))
15.  If anything moves, either it moves in the place where it is, or where it is not; but 
it moves neither in the place where it is (for  it would remain there)  nor where it is
not ( for how could anything be active in a place where it does not even exist to begin
with?); therefore  nothing moves. (Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism)
Difficult
1.  Sociological knowledge is useful, and in certain cases factually necessary, to the

task of the interpreter of revelation for at least four reasons. First,  revealed
texts are composed of language, and  language is a cultural phenomenon for the
knowledge of which we need to take into account the society that produces it.
Second,  the very concepts expressed by revealed texts are developed by, or at
least based on, widely accepted concepts current in the societies in which the
authors of the text lived, so that  in order to grasp them one must in some cases
grasp the social conditions under which they arose. Third,  social factors do
influence, and often determine, the views authors express in texts, and therefore,
 knowledge of them can aid in understanding those views. And finally, 
certain sociological research can provide evidence for what an author knew or
could have known and thus.  help to explain gaps in a text. (Jorge J.E. Gracia,
How Can We Know What God Means?)
2.  A man…has the duty of loving God, his last end. Now,  a man cannot love God
unless he loves those that God loves, i.e., all men. Therefore,  a man must love
all his fellowmen. But  a man cannot love his fellowmen…except by the love of
benevolence. Hence  a man must love his fellowmen by the love o benevolence.
But  the love of benevolence consists precisely in the wish and will for goods
profitable to one’s fellowmen in their work of attaining their last end, that is, in
such goods as a man must rationally wish to himself. Therefore,  a man must
love his neighbor as himself. (Paul J. Glenn, Ethics)
119
3.  How could reason itself be validated?  There are only three possibilities: (1)  by
something subrational, like animal instinct (  which is obviously absurd: How
can the inferior validate the superior?); or (2)  by something rational, by a piece
of reasoning ( which is absurd: How can the part justify the whole? All reason
is on trial: how dare the one piece of reasoning you use to justify all reasoning be
exempt from trial?); or (3)  by something superrational, by faith in God (
which is the only possibility left). (Peter Kreeft, Christianity for Modern Pagans)
Answers
Easy
1.
2.
120
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
121
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
122
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
123
Moderately Difficult
1.
2.
3.
4.
124
5.
6.
7.
125
8.
9.
10.
11.
126
12.
13.
14.
15.
127
Difficult
1.
2.
3.
128
129
Chapter 9: A Little Categorical Logic
Translating into Standard Categorical Form
Translate the following sentences into the appropriate standard categorical form: All S are
P, No S are P, Some S are P, or Some S are not P. Write out the sentences; do not use
symbols. The first exercise is done as an example.
1. Tomatoes are fruits.
Sample translation: All tomatoes are fruits.
2. Many high school teachers are education majors.
3. Politicians are not always liars.
4. You can't win if you don't play.
5. Anything that is a prime number is divisible only by itself and one.
6. Not all desserts are fattening.
7. The only jellybeans she will eat are licorice ones.
8. There are mice that are not nocturnal.
9. Every student should be treated with respect.
10. Only college graduates will be considered for the position.
11. Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.
12. Madison will walk to the game only if Brianna walks to the game.
13. Senators are not always wealthy.
14. George is clueless.
15. A few European countries are not members of NATO.
16. None of the guests are nonmembers.
17. Street shoes are not permitted on the gym floor.
18. Good things come to those who wait.

130
19. Every one can master a grief but he that has it. (Shakespeare)
20. Thunder only happens when it's raining. (Fleetwood Mac)
21. Doing good is the only investment that never fails. (Thoreau)
22. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. (Shakespeare)
23. No evil can happen to a good man. (Socrates)
24. You are not allowed to enter here unless you know geometry. (sign over entrance to
Plato's Academy)
25. Apart from man, no being wonders at his own existence. (Arthur Schopenhauer)
26. All things are common among friends. (Diogenes Laertius)
27. Needless were none of the deeds of Gandalf in life. (Galadriel, in Tolkien's The Lord
of the Rings)
28. They're only truly great who are truly good. (George Chapman)
29. It is only the ignorant who despise education. (Publilius Syrus)
30. I do love nothing in the world so well as you. (Shakespeare)
Answers
1. All tomatoes are fruits.
2. Some high school teachers are education majors.
3. Some politicians are not liars.
4. All persons that win are persons that play.
5. All prime numbers are numbers that are divisible only by themselves and one.
6. Some desserts are not fattening deserts.
7. All jellybeans that she will eat are licorice jellybeans.
8. Some mice are not nocturnal animals.
9. All students are persons that should be treated with respect.

131
10. All persons that will be considered for the position are college graduates.
11. No things are things that can travel faster than the speed of light.
12. All persons identical to Madison are persons that will walk to the game only if
Brianna walks to the game.
13. Some senators are not wealthy persons.
14. All persons identical to George are persons that are clueless.
15. Some European countries are not members of NATO.
16. All guests are members.
17. No street shoes are things permitted on the gym floor.
18. Some good things are things that come only to those who wait.
19. All persons that can master a grief are persons that don't have the grief.
20. All times when it thunders are times when it is raining.
5. All investments that never fail are acts of doing good.
22. All persons that wear crowns are persons whose heads rest uneasy.
23. No things that are evil are things that happen to a good man.
24. All persons allowed to enter here are persons that know geometry.
25. All beings that wonder at their own existence are human beings.
26. All persons that are friends with one another are persons that share all things in
common.
27. No deeds of Gandalf are needless deeds.
28. All persons that are truly great are persons that are truly good.
29. All persons that despise education are ignorant persons.
30. No things are things I love as well as you.

132
Translate the following sentences into standard categorical form.
1. He who has no virtue, is not truly wise. (Benjamin Franklin)
2. There was never any great man who was not an industrious man. (Cicero).
3. Where your treasure is, thee will your heart be also. (Jesus)
4. It never rains but it pours. (proverb)
5. Only the wise can achieve their desire. (Plato)
6. Every age is not as good as every other (A.P. Sertillanges)
7. Great men are almost always bad men. (Lord Acton)
8. If any man will not work, neither let him eat. (St. Paul)
9. All services not available in all areas. (cable ad)
10. The poor ye have always with you. (Jesus)
11. What is not a thing is nothing at all. (Augustine)
12. Not every reader need read every page.
13. There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. (Hamlet)
14. Whatever is, is in God. (Spinoza)
15. Except ye believe, ye shall not understand. (Isaiah 7:9)
16. While there’s life there’s hope (Cicero –and Bungo Baggins)
17. Neither can live while the other survives. (J.K. Rowling)
18. A God comprehended is no God at all. (Gerhart Tersteegen)
19. Most of the time we think we’re sick it’s all in the mind. (Thomas Wolfe)
20. No other love is eternal than spiritual love. (Spinoza)
21. There is a sin which is not mortal. (I John 5:17)
22. It’s always darkest before the dawn.

133
23. There are few people who are willing to say all they believe. (Descartes)
24. I can speak but of what I find in myself. (John Locke)
25. There are far, far worse things in the living world than the dying. (Albus
Dumbledore)
26. There is nothing entirely in our power except our thoughts. (Descartes)
27. There is no good in this life but in the hope of another. (Pascal)
28. No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven. (John 3:27)
29. Wrongdoing always brings its own punishment. (Louisa May Alcott)
30. There never was a young woman so beloved as you are by everybody that knows you.
(Jane Austen)
31. A law against natural justice is no law at all. (James Otis)
32. That we are good and others evil is never true. (William Graham Sumner)
33. Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.
(Winston Churchill)
34. You’re not hard core unless you live hard core. (Jack Black)
35. The course of true love never did run smooth. (proverb)
36. It is unfitting to think of certain things. (Aristotle)
37. There ain’t nothing bout you that don’t do something for me. (Brooks and Dunn)
38. Out of every hundred physicians, ninety-eight are charlatans. (Voltaire)
39. There is no need for everybody to study metaphysics. (Kant)
40. We have no king but Caesar. (John 19:15)
41. The valiant in spirit glory in fighting alone. (Gandhi)
42. The only way to lose is if you don’t try your best. (Mike Krzyzewski)
43. Every sentence is not a proposition. (Aristotle)
44. Hardly anything worth doing is easy. (Tom Morris)

134
45. The aims of battle and the fruits of conquest are never the same. (E.M. Forster)
46. None but the virtuous are truly worthy of honor. (Aristotle)
47. An animal will eat nothing but what is good for it. (C.S. Lewis)
48. A belief is reasonable only if there is evidence for its truth. (James Rachels)
49. Not all tears are evil (Gandalf)
50. He whom love touches not walks in darkness. (Plato)
Answers
1. All truly wise persons are virtuous persons.
2. All great persons are industrious persons.
3. All places where your treasure is are places where your heart is.
4. Some times when the soul exists are not times when the soul thinks.
5. All persons who achieve their desire are wise persons.
6. Some ages are ages that are better than others.
7. Some great men are bad men.
8. All persons who will not work are persons who should not be allowed to eat.
9. Some areas are areas without certain services.
10. All times are times when the poor are with you.
11. All non-things are things that are nothing at all.
12. Some readers are persons who need not read every page.
13. All things that are good or bad are things that thinking makes good or bad.
14. All things that are things in God.
15. All things you understand are things that you believe.
16. All times when there is life are times when there is hope.
135
17. No times are times when both survive.
18. No comprehended Gods are Gods.
19. Some times when we think we are sick are times when it’s all in our minds.
20. All eternal loves are spiritual loves.
21. Some sins are not mortal ones.
22. All persons in the university should be persons in the pursuit-of-truth business.
23. Some persons are persons who are willing to say all they believe.
24. All things that I can speak are things that I find in myself.
25. Some things in the living world are things far, far worse than dying.
26. All things entirely in our power are our thoughts.
27. All things that are good in this life are things that give us hope of another.
28. All things that a person receives are things given him from heaven.
29. All acts of wrongdoing are acts that bring their own punishment.
30. No young women are young women who are so beloved as you are by everybody that
knows you.
31. No laws against natural justice are laws.
32. No times are times when we are good and others evil.
33. No times in human conflict are times when so much has been owed by so many to so
few.
34. All person who are hard core are persons who live hard core.
35. No courses of true love are courses that run smooth.
36. Some things are things that it is unfitting to think of.
37. All things about you are things that do something for me.
38. Some physicians are charlatans.

136
39. Some persons are persons who need not study metaphysics.
40. All persons identical to Caesar are persons who are our only king.
41. All persons valiant in spirit are persons that glory in fighting alone.
42. All persons who lose are persons who don’t try their best.
43. Some sentences are not propositions.
44. Some things worth doing are things that are not easy.
45. No aims of battle are fruits of conquest.
46. All persons truly worthy of honor are persons who are virtuous.
47. All things that an animal will eat are things that are good for it.
48. All reasonable beliefs are beliefs that have evidence for their truth.
49. Some tears are not evil things.
50. All persons not touched by love are persons who walk in darkness.
Venn Diagrams
Use Venn diagrams to test the validity of the following arguments.
1. No anteaters are birds. All cranes are birds. So, no cranes are anteaters.
2. All albatrosses are birds. Some birds are crows. So, some crows are albatrosses.
3. All auks are birds. No cheetahs are birds. So, no cheetahs are auks.
4. No aardvarks are birds. Hence, no chickadees are aardvarks, since all chickadees are
birds.
5. All animal-lovers are caring, because all animal-lovers are benevolent and all caring
persons are benevolent.
6. All ales are beers. Hence, since some chardonnays are not ales, some chardonnays are
not beers.
7. Only beers are ales. Some beers are not champagnes. So, some champagnes are not
ales.
137
8. Not a single apricot is a berry. Cherries are berries. So, not a single apricot is a cherry.
9. Some apples are not bananas. Hence, since some apples are crunchy, some bananas are
crunchy.
10. Anyone that is an archbishop is not a barroom brawler. Some cross-country skiers are
archbishops. So, some cross-country skiers are not barroom brawlers.
11. One is addlepated only if one is bemused. If one is a casuist, then one is not bemused.
Hence, if one is a casuist, then one is not addlepated.
12. No one that is an admiral is a blackguard. Many blackguards are chain-smokers. So,
many chain-smokers are not admirals.
13. Some aviators are Buddhists. All Buddhists are compassionate. So, some
compassionate persons are aviators.
14. All alcoholics are boozers. Hence, since all carousers are boozers, all carousers are
alcoholics.
15. A few acupuncturists are Benedictines. There are caddies that are acupuncturists. So,
there are caddies that are Benedictines.
16. Not all Aquarians are Bedouins. Only a few Bedouins are cell-phone users. So, only a
few Aquarians are cell-phone users.
17. All astrologers are befuddled. Chumpley is not an astrologer. So, Chumpley is not
befuddled.
18. No bungee-jumpers are Confucianists. Hence, since no account managers are bungee-
jumpers, no account managers are Confucianists.
19. All adventurers are brave. No one that is brave is craven. So, no one that is a craven is
an adventurer.
20. Not a single ambassador is a biochemist. Some ambassadors are closet-heavy metal
fans. So, some closet-heavy metal fans are not biochemists.
Answers
1. No anteaters are birds.

All cranes are birds.
So, no cranes are anteaters.
138
2. All albatrosses are birds.

Some birds are crows.
So, some crows are albatrosses.
3. All auks are birds.

No cheetahs are birds.
So, no cheetahs are auks.
4. No aardvarks are birds.

All chickadees are birds.
Hence, no chickadees are aardvarks.
139
5. All animal-lovers are benevolent persons.

All caring persons are benevolent.
So, all animal-lovers are caring persons.
6. All ales are beers.

Some chardonnays are not beers.
Hence, some chardonnays are not ales.
7. All ales are beers.

Some beers are not champagnes.
So, some champagnes are not ales.
140
8. No apricots are berries.

All cherries are berries.
So, no apricots are cherries.
9. Some apples are not bananas.

Some apples are crunchy things.
Hence, some bananas are crunchy things.
10. No archbishops are barroom brawlers.

Some cross-country skiers are archbishops.
So, some cross-country skiers are not barroom brawlers.
141
11. All addlepated persons are bemused persons.

No casuists are bemused persons.
Hence, no casuists are addlepated persons.
12. No admirals are blackguards.

Some blackguards are chain-smokers.
So, some chain-smokers are not admirals.
13. Some aviators are Buddhists.

All Buddhists are compassionate persons.
142
So, some compassionate persons are aviators.
14. All alcoholics are boozers.

All carousers are boozers.
So, all carousers are alcoholics.
15. Some acupuncturists are Benedictines.

Some caddies are acupuncturists.
So, some caddies are Benedictines.
16. Some Aquarians are not Bedouins.

Some Bedouins are cell-phone users.
So, some Aquarians are cell-phone users.
143
17. All astrologers are befuddled persons.

No persons identical to Chumpley are astrologers.
So, no persons identical to Chumpley are befuddled persons.
18. No bungee-jumpers are Confucianists.

No account managers are bungee-jumpers.
So, no account managers are Confucianists.
19. All adventurers are brave persons.

No brave persons are craven persons.
144
So, no craven persons are adventurers.
20. No ambassadors are biochemists.

Some ambassadors are closet heavy-metal fans.
So, some closet heavy-metal fans are not biochemists.
145
Chapter 10: A Little Propositional Logic
Determining Truth Values
Assume a, b, and c are true, and x, y, and z are false. Determine whether each of the
following is true or false.
1. a v c 11. ~z  c
2. z  x 12. ~ (y  ~a)
3. ~ (~x & b) 13. (z  a) v ~ (b v x)
4. c & ~y 14. ~(y & c) v (z v b)
5. c  ~ y 15. (x & a)  ~ (x  c)
6. ~ (c & y) 16. (x & a)  (c v a)
7. (a & x) v (~b v z) 17. (x  b)  (z v x)
8. ~(c & ~b)  (~b v x) 18. (c  b)  (x & c)
9. c  z 19. [(a  b)  (c & x)]  (a v y)
10. a  z 20. ~ [(a  b)  (z & x)]
Answers
1. T 11. T
2. T 12. F
3. F 13. T
4. T 14. T
5. T 15. T
6. T 16. T
7. F 17. F
8. F 18. F
9. F 19. T
10. F 20. T
Truth Tables
Use truth tables to determine whether the following argument forms are valid.
1.
(p v q)
q&r
.. . p
146
2.
pq
qr
.. . r
Answers
1.
2.
Truth Tables
Put the following arguments in symbolic form. Then test them for validity using a truth
table.
1. If it rains you need an umbrella. You do not need an umbrella. So, it is not raining.
147
2. It’s not the case that Mugsy robbed the bank or held up the liquor store. If Mugsy
didn’t rob the bank then he has been wrongly prosecuted. So, Mugsy has been wrongly
prosecuted.
Answers
1.
ru
~u
... ~r
2.
~(b v l)
~b  w
.. . w
148
Chapter 11: Inductive Reasoning
True/False
Indicate in the space provide whether the following statements are true T) or false (F).
______ 1. An inductive argument claims no necessary connections between the truth of

its premises and the truth of its conclusion.
______ 2. Betting on a horse at the racetrack exemplifies the concept of a priori

probability.
______ 3. The gambler's fallacy is committed when people believe past events have
some impact on a current random event.
______ 4. An inductive argument can guarantee the truth of its conclusion.
______ 5. An inductive argument in which the reasoning is strong and the premises are
true is called a cogent argument.
Answers
1. T
2. F
3. T
4. F
5. T
Multiple Choice
Select the best answers to the following multiple choice questions by circling the
appropriate letter.
1.Which of the following is an indicator word or phrase for an inductive argument:
a. definitely
b. certainly
c. likely
d. conclusively
149
2. Which of the following is an example of epistemic probability:
a. the chances of the Dallas Cowboys winning the Super Bowl.

b. the chances of picking the winning numbers in your state lottery.
c. the chances of a random freshman getting all As in his/her first semester.
d. none of the above.
3. Which of the following is an example of a priori probability:
a. the chances of the number 28 coming in on a roulette wheel.

b. the chances of surviving for more than ten years after a heart transplant.
c. the chances of Al Gore running for president in 2004.
d. all of the above.
4. Which of the following is not a type of inductive argument :
a. argument from analogy

b. statistical argument
c. mathematical argument
d. causal argument
5. Which of the following has nothing to do with individual preferences:
a. relative value
b. a priori value
c. diminishing marginal value
d. all of the above
Answers
1. c
2. a
3. c
4. c
5. b
150
Statistical Arguments
For each of the following statistical arguments, determine whether the argument is: (a)
weak, (b) strong but unreliable, or (c) strong and reliable. Circle the correct answer.
1. Only 11 percent of registered Democrats voted for the Republican candidate in the
last presidential election.
Larry is a registered Democrat.
So, Larry probably did not vote for the Republican candidate in the last presidential
election.
a. weak
b. strong but unreliable
c. strong and reliable
2. 51 percent of independent voters voted for the Democratic candidate in the last
presidential election.
Lisa is an independent voter.
So, Lisa probably did not vote for the Democratic candidate in the last presidential
election.
a. weak
3. Eight percent of the students at State College graduate Summa Cum Laude.
Sam is a student in at State College.
So, Sam probably graduated Summa Cum Laude.
a. weak
Answers
1. (c) strong and reliable

2. (a) weak
3. (a) weak
151
Short Answer
Briefly answer the following questions.
1. Explain the concepts of, and interrelations between, expected value, relative value, and
diminishing marginal value.
2. What affect can changing a reference class have on a statistical argument? What does
this tell us about adding new information to an inductive argument? Give an example.
Answers
1. Expected value is mathematically determined and is essentially the payoff or loss you
can expect from making a bet. Relative value depends on and varies with an individual’s
needs, wants, and preferences. The concept of diminishing marginal value suggests that
as quantity increases relative value tends to decrease.
2. Changing the reference class can change the strength of an argument. Adding new
information to an inductive argument can change it from strong to weak or weak to
strong.

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Chapter 2: Recognizing Arguments

Determine whether, in typical contexts, the following sentences are statements or

1. What time is the concert tonight?

1. Nonstatement (question) 13. Statement (rhetorical question)

_____ 2. Rhetorical questions are statements.

_____ 4. Commands are statements.

_____ 5. Ought imperatives are statements.

_____ 6. A statement can sometime be expressed as a phrase or an incomplete clause,

_____ 7. "What time is it?" is an example of a statement.

_____ 9. An argument is a claim put forward and defended with reasons.

_____ 16. Many arguments do not contain any indicator words.

Identifying Premises and Conclusions

Identify the premises and conclusions in the following arguments.

2. No scientific hypothesis can be conclusively confirmed because the possibility of

6. Don't pick Alpine wildflowers--they really do look lovelier on the mountainsides.

9. It is much to be doubted whether the manifest advantage of changing an established

58. It seems clear that differences in heredity or congenital constitution substantially

1. Premise: Excellence emerges only through many cycles of writing and

2. Premise: The possibility of someday finding evidence against a scientific

3. Premise: Bona fide moral decisions require thoughtful discrimination

4. Premise: The study of logic increases one's ability to understand, analyze,

5. Premise: Future generations of people have as much right to live a

6. Premise: Alpine flowers really do look lovelier on the mountainsides.

7. Premise: The Miss USA contestant is an adulteress.

9. Premise: A government is a structure of various parts so closely joined

11. Premise: We are born selfish.

12. Premise 1: "Authorities" have made mistakes in the past.

16. Premise: For seventy years, Marxists tried unsuccessfully to uproot

18. Premise: Pain is pain wherever it occurs.

Conclusion: To be of no church is dangerous.

21. Premise 1: Certainly man is kin to the beasts by his body.

Conclusion: We must postulate, or suppose, that there is another life in which

30. Premise: If every proposition had to be proved, there would be no beginning

31. Premise 1: No one seeks a theoretical understanding of sexual love.

35. Premise 1: The hearts of little children are pure.

36. Premise: Contradictions are meaningless.

39. Premise 1: The devil sleepeth not.

41. Premise: A noticeable reduction of quality in the workplace will result.

42. Premise: Philosophy promotes wisdom in our lives.

43. Premise: It heals nothing.

44. Premise: Every possible societal malfunction affects the classroom--drugs,

45. Premise: Lawyers are destroying our medical care system.

49. Premise 1: In order to be identical--not just very, very similar--two glass

50. Premise: The definition of sports is simple: If there is no defense, it is not a

52. Premise: If we do not hang together, we shall all hang separately.

54. Premise 1: It is not as hot in the early morning or late evening.

Premise 2: Its udders gave milk.

61. Premise: Ice cream doesn’t melt that fast.

62. Premise: You’re a long time dead.

65. Premise: A man lies knowingly but suffers deception unknowingly.

Distinguishing Arguments from Explanations.

Determine whether the following arguments are best understood as arguments or

1. My computer crashed because I spilled coffee on it.

3. The dog is barking because it is cold.

4. Young children should not be permitted to go snowboarding, because it is too

1. Explanation 26. Argument

Distinguishing Arguments from Nonarguments

6. Companies should investigate consumer complaints. This process encourages firms to

9. A wealthy eccentric bought a house in a neighborhood I know. The house was

26. Smoked marijuana cannot be subjected to careful, well-controlled trials, because it

1. argument 36. argument

a. nonargument; conditional statement