Self-study
A university psychology department received a large donation from a textbook company after agreeing to use one of the company's books for a large introductory course. ███ ██████████ █████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████ █████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ██ ████ ███████ █████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████████████ ████████ █████████ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ███████
Summarize Argument
The department chair claims that a psychology textbook was chosen for purely academic reasons, despite coming with a large donation from the publisher. Her evidence is that the department’s textbook committee gave the textbook the highest rating.
Notable Assumptions
The department chair assumes that the department’s textbook committee wasn’t affected by the donation. She also assumes that either no other textbook also received the highest rating, or else she would have to explain why this particular textbook was chosen over another textbook of comparable merit.
2.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███████ █████████
a
The members of ███ ████████ █████████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████████ █ █████ █████████
This refutes the assumption that the textbook committee's decision was truly neutral, thus undermining the claim of choosing the textbook for purely academic reasons.
b
The department has █ █████████████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███████
This still doesn't tell us whether or how the donation influenced the decision to use the textbook, or whether the committee was biased, so it's not relevant to the argument.
c
In the previous █████ █ █████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████████ ███████
This doesn't give us enough information to affect the argument. We still don't know whether this year's decision was for academic or financial reasons.
d
The department chair ██ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████
Does that mean that the committee was biased? Or did the chair and/or other members remain neutral in their decision? We don't know, which makes this irrelevant.
e
The textbook company ████ ███ █████████ ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ████ ███ ███ ██████
Regardless of the company's normal practices, they made a donation in this case. The claim that they usually don't do so makes no difference to the argument.