Self-study
Attorney: I ask you to find Mr. █████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████ ████████████ █████ ████ ██ ████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ███ █ ███████ ██████████ ███ █████ █████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ █████ ███████ ████ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The attorney concludes that Mr. Smith should be found guilty of assaulting Mr. Jackson. She supports this by saying that Ms. Lopez testified that Mr. Smith loudly threatened her and he never refuted her testimony, so Mr. Smith has a violent character.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The attorney makes many unwarranted assumptions in her argument. She assumes that just because Smith loudly threatened Lopez, he must have a violent character, and that just because he has a violent character, he’s guilty of assaulting Jackson.
She also assumes that just because Smith never refuted Lopez’s claim that he threatened her, her claim must be true.
Note the questions stem: “The attorney’s argument is fallacious because it reasons that ____.” The correct answer will fill in this blank with an assumption made by the attorney.
7.
The attorney's argument is fallacious ███████ ██ ███████ ████
a
aggressive behavior is ███ █ ████ █████████ ██ █ ███████ █████████
The attorney does not reason that aggressive behavior is not a sure indicator of a violent character. Instead, she assumes that Smith’s aggressive behavior (his alleged loud threat) is a sure indicator of his violent character.
b
Smith's testimony is ██████████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ██████████
The attorney doesn’t bring up any of Smith’s testimony at all, nor does she assume that it’s unreliable.
c
since Smith never █████████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ████████ ███
This points out one of the attorney’s fallacious assumptions. She assumes that, because Smith didn’t refute Lopez’s claim, her claim must be true. She uses this to argue that Smith has a violent character and thus committed the crime.
d
Lopez's testimony is ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████
The attorney supports Lopez’s testimony by saying that it was never refuted. She doesn’t assume that Lopez’s testimony is reliable because Lopez isn’t loud or aggressive.
e
having a violent █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██████
The question stem asks for an answer in terms of what the argument reasons. In contrast to (E), “the attorney’s argument is fallacious because it reasons that” having a violent character is necessarily associated with the commission of violent crimes.