EXERCISE 1: PREMISE AND CONCLUSION

ANALYZE THE FOLLOWING PASSAGES, IDENTIFY THE PREMISE AND THE CONCLUSION,
AND INDICATE THE SPECIAL INDICATOR THAT INTRODUCES EACH OF THEM.

1. The light that we see from distant galaxies left them millions of years ago, and in the case of the
most distant object that we have seen, the light left some eight thousand million years ago. Thus,
when we look at the universe, we are seeing it as it was in the past. [STEPHEN HAWKING, A Brief
History of Time]

2. Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. [WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Henry VI]

3. Males born into poverty are more likely to commit crimes as teenagers and adults than are more
privileged males. So a boom in births among poor mothers can be expected to exert upward
pressure on the crime rate 15 to 20 years later. [DAVID E. BLOOM and NEIL BENNETT, Future Shock]

4. It is difficult to gauge the pain felt by animals, because pain is subjective and animals cannot talk.
[THE ETHICS OF ANIMAL TESTING, The Economist, April 1984]

5. Good sense is of all things in the world the most equally distributed, for everybody thinks himself
so abundantly provided with it, that even those most difficult to please in all other matters do not
commonly desire more of it than they already possess. [RENE DESCARTES, A Discourse on Method]

6. Since the fire broke out in the bank at 1:36 in the morning, and at that time the electricity was
shut off in the building, we may conclude that the fire was not caused by an electrical malfunction.

7. Philosophy is a good subject to study, for it constitutes the intellectual foundation of Western
civilization.

8. Since the good, according to Plato, is that which furthers a person’s real interests, it follows that in
any given case when the good is known, men will seek it. [AVRUM STROLL and RICHARD POPKIN,
Philosophy and the Human Spirit]

9. Since the drive for profit underlies the very existence of business organizations, it follows that a
most important function of an accounting system is to provide information about the profitability of
a business.

10. To every existing this God will some good. Hence, since to love any thing is nothing else than to
will good to that thing, it is manifest that God loves everything that exists. [THOMAS AQUINAS,
Summa Theologica]
 EXERCISE 2: RECOGNIZING ARGUMENTS

ANALYZE THE FOLLOWING AND DETERMINE WHICH IS AN ARGUMENT AND WHICH IS NOT. IF IT IS
AN ARGUMENT INDICATE THAT IT IS SO AND IDENTIFY THE PREMISE OR PREMISES AND THE
CONCLUSION USING THE DIAGRAM METHOD. IF IT IS NOT AN ARGUMENT, INDICATE WHAT KIND
OF A NONARGUMENT IT IS.

Report
_______________ 1. The price of oil increased yesterday because of the growing tension in the Gulf.

_______________
Conditional 2. If public education fails to improve the quality of instruction in both primary
and secondary schools, then it is likely that it will lose additional students to the private sector in the
years ahead.

Recommendation 3. It is strongly recommended that your house be inspected for termite damage
_______________
at the earliest possible opportunity.

Argument
_______________ 4. Freedom of the press is the most important of our constitutionally guaranteed
freedoms. Without it, our other freedoms would be immediately threatened. Furthermore, it
provides the fulcrum for the advancement of new freedoms.

Argument
_______________ 5. All the evidence goes to show that what we regard as our mental life is bound
up with brain structure and organized bodily energy. Therefore it is rational to suppose that mental
life ceases when bodily life ends.

Argument
_______________ 6. If God exists, then the grounding reality itself is not ultimately groundless.
Why? Because God is then the primal ground of all reality.

_______________
Illustration 7. The Swiss Alps contain a number of very high peaks. Thus, the Weischorn,
Matterhorn, and Nadelhorn are all over fourteen thousand feet.

_______________
Temporal sequence 8. Since the first successful landing on the moon by Apollo astronauts there have
been numerous outer space explorations.

_______________
Expository Passage 9. A person never becomes truly self reliant. Even though he deals effectively with
things, he is necessarily dependent upon those who have taught him to do so. They have selected
the things he is dependent upon and determined the kinds and degrees of dependencies.
Statements of_______________
Belief or Opinion 10. Our overriding obligation in the month ahead is to fulfill the world's hopes by
fulfilling our own faith. That task must begin at home. For if we cannot fulfill our own ideals here, we
cannot expect others to accept them.