• We all hope to grow old someday, and when we grow old, we will need the services of retailers, manufacturers, politicians, dentists, doctors, nurses, and many other personnel. These people will provide us with what we need, and they will help to care for us. Who will they be? Only a few, if any, will be our own children. The rest will be other people’s children. Thus, we all have a personal stake in educating other people’s children. Anyone who says, “I am willing to pay to educate my own children, but not other people’s children.” Is making a serious mistake.
• Reindeers are better than people, Sven don’t you think that’s true? Yes people will beat you and curse you and cheat you. Every one of them’s bad, except you.
• What other negative aspects of secondhand cigarette smoke do we need to discover before something is done about it? Right now, in Canada, everybody over 19 has a licence to kill. Even though they only kill us slowly, cigarette smokers are no less guilty of murder than serial killers.
• People often regard St. Francis, who lived in medieval Italy, as a particularly good person because he loved animals and left a rich family to try to help the poor. But he could have helped the poor even more if he had kept his fortune and then used it directly instead of becoming a poor man himself, and going around begging. His methods were highly inefficient and questionable. Therefore, the reputation of St. Francis is better than it deserves to be.
1. For any TWO (2) of the examples:
a. determine the conclusion
b. determine the premises
c. determine whether there are any enthymemes
d. standardize the arguments
e. diagram the arguments
2. For ONE (1) of those two examples:
a. assess whether there is any inappropriate use of language in the example
b. assess whether the premises are appropriate, or whether they are inappropriate
c. assess whether the premises are relevant to the conclusion
d. conclude by saying whether the argument is cogent and, if not, what would make it cogent.
Submit your answers to the Midterm Dropbox. Refer to guidelines for the Midterm Assignment in the Evaluation Details section of the Syllabus.