Self-study
City council member: The Senior Guild has asked for a temporary exception to the ordinance prohibiting automobiles in municipal parks. █████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ █████████ ████████ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ██ ██ ███ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The council member concludes that to prevent anarchy, the council must deny the Senior Guild’s request for an exception. As support, he says that granting this exception would lead to other, undeserved exceptions and eventually to exceptions to all kinds of city ordinances.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The council member’s argument is vulnerable to criticism because he never provides evidence to support the key assumption that granting the Senior Guild’s exception would inevitably cause the council to grant undeserved exceptions to all kinds of city ordinances. Similarly, he never gives reason to believe that granting the request would cause anarchy.
8.
The city council member's argument ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██
a
distorts an argument ███ ████ ███████ ████ █████████ ████████
The council member never attacks, distorts, or even presents any argument made by the Senior Guild. Instead, he presents his own argument for why the Guild’s exception should be denied.
b
dismisses a claim ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████
This is the cookie-cutter “ad hominem” flaw. The council member doesn’t make this mistake. He argues that the Guild’s request should be denied, but he doesn’t do so by attacking the Guild itself. In fact, he concedes that the Guild deserves this exception.
c
presumes, without sufficient ████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██ █ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ██████
The council member assumes that granting the Senior Guild’s exception will lead to a particular causal sequence of events— all manner of other exceptions and anarchy. But he doesn't offer any reason to think that one will actually cause the other.
d
contains premises that ██████████ ███ ███████
The council member’s premises may not support his conclusion well, but they never contradict one another.
e
fails to make █ ██████ ███████████ ███████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ████
The council member actually does distinguish between undeserved and deserved exceptions by pointing out that the Senior Guild’s exception is deserved, while some others are not. He just fails to take that distinction into consideration in his argument.