Self-study
Professor: A guest speaker recently delivered a talk entitled "The Functions of Democratic Governments" to a Political Ideologies class at this university. ███ ████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ████████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██████ █████████ █████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████ ████ ████████ █████ ████ ████████████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ████████████ ███████
Summarize Argument
The professor concludes that universities don’t foster fair minded and tolerant intellectual debate. As support, the professor references a recent event in which students taunted a guest speaker.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The professor makes a broad conclusion about “universities these days,” but as support, only references one incident at one university. The incident referenced does not provide enough support to make such a broad claim about universities in general.
4.
The professor's reasoning is flawed ██ ████ ██
a
draws a conclusion █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████
This is descriptively accurate, but it is not the flaw. The opinion of the majority of students at the talk is not relevant to the professor’s argument, so it is not a flaw for the professor to draw a conclusion from her own opinion rather than that of the majority of the students.
b
is inconsistent in ██████████ █████████ █████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ █████
The professor isn’t intolerant of the dissenting students’ views. Instead, the professor is opposed to the students’ behavior.
c
relies primarily on ██ █████████ ██████
This is descriptively inaccurate. The professor does provide facts (the reference to the recent event) rather than relying primarily on an emotional appeal; the flaw is that the facts aren’t enough to support her conclusion.
d
draws a general ██████████ █████ ██ ███ █████ █ ██████
This is the flaw. The conclusion is about “universities these days,” which is a super general conclusion. However, the premise is just a description of one recent event at one university. The tiny sample of one instance isn’t enough to support such a general conclusion.
e
incorrectly focuses on ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ████████
Even if the professor focused on the reasons for the students’ behavior, her argument would still be flawed because it would still be drawing a very general conclusion based on just one incident.