Self-study
Finnish author Jaakko Mikkeli was accused by Norwegian author Kirsten Halden of plagiarizing a book that she had written and that had been published 20 years before Mikkeli's. ███ ███ ██████ ████████ ███ ██ █████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██████ ████ ████████████ ██ ████ ████████████ ███████████ █████████ █████████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ██████████ █ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████
Summary
Mikkeli argues that it was impossible for him to plagiarize from Halden’s book.
Why?
Because Halden’s book was published only in Norwegian, which Mikkeli doesn’t understand. In addition, reviews of Halden’s book have never been published.
Notable Assumptions
Mikkeli assumes that there was no other way to learn about the details of the plot in Halden’s book besides through reading the book or from a review of the book. This overlooks the possibility that Mikkeli might have learned the details of the plot through a conversation with someone who did read the book, for example.
3.
The argument in Mikkeli's defense ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████
a
Mikkeli has never ███ ██████
Not necessary, because even if Mikkeli has met Halden, that doesn’t suggest Mikkeli might have learned the details of the plot from Halden. Mikkeli’s defense must assume that he didn’t learn the plot directly from Halden, but that doesn’t require the two authors to have never met.
b
Halden's book did ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████
Not necessary, because Halden’s book could have become very popular, as long as the details of the plot were never communicated to Mikkeli.
c
nobody related the ████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███████ █████ ███ ████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if someone related the plot of Halden’s book in detail to Mikkeli before Mikkeli wrote his book — then it WAS possible for Mikkeli to plagiarize.
d
there is a ██████ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ████████ ██████████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████████
Not necessary, because even if there is NO common myth that both authors referred subconsciously to, that doesn’t suggest Mikkeli might have been able to learn the details of the plot of Halden’s book. Although the existence of a common myth might help Mikkeli’s defense against plagiarism, that doesn’t mean its necessary to claim that plagiarism wasn’t possible.
e
Mikkeli is not ████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ ██ █████████
Not necessary, because even if Mikkeli is familiar with Old Icelandic, we already know that Mikkeli does not understand Norwegian. So he couldn’t have read Halden’s book.