Self-study
Sid: The sign says "Keep off the grass.".
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Summarize Argument
Sid concludes that Micki’s statement is false because if everyone believed Micki’s statement, everyone would walk across the grass, and the grass would die.
Identify and Describe Flaw
Sid reasons that if everyone adhered to Micki’s belief, everyone would walk across the grass, and the grass would die. Therefore, Sid concludes that Micki’s statement is incorrect. However, Sid’s argument is questionable because Sid mischaracterizes Micki’s position.
Micki simply states that a single person walking across the grass wouldn’t hurt the grass. Sid then responds by explaining what he believes would happen if everyone walked across the grass, which has nothing to do with Micki’s assertion.
18.
Sid's argument is questionable in ████ ██
a
attempts to use █ █████████ █████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ █ █████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████████
Sid doesn’t attempt to use a statement about the consequences of walking across the grass to disprove a statement about the action of walking across the grass. Sid only talks about the consequences of walking across the grass, not the action of walking across the grass itself.
b
treats a statement █████ ███ ████████████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ████████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ███ █████████
This is why Sid’s argument is flawed. Sid responds to Micki’s statement about the consequences of a single person walking across the grass as though Micki was discussing the consequences of everyone believing it’s okay to walk across the grass.
c
contradicts itself by ████████ █ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ █ █████████ ████████ ██ ████████
Sid’s argument doesn’t contradict itself. Sid’s response to Micki mischaracterizes Micki’s statement, but Sid never discusses his own beliefs.
d
discounts the fact ████ █████ ███ ██ █████████████ █████ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ██ █████████
We don’t know if Sid understands that there may be situations where hurting the grass is justified. (D) has nothing to do with whether Sid is putting forth a sound argument to disprove Micki’s statement.
e
attempts to undermine █ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ █████████
This is the cookie-cutter “ad hominem” flaw, where someone attacks a person making an argument rather than attacking the argument itself. Sid doesn’t commit this flaw, as Sid never attacks Micki personally.