Self-study
Principle: Support It is healthy for children to engage in an activity that promotes their intellectual development only if engaging in that activity does not detract from their social development.
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Summarize Argument
The author concludes that it’s not healthy for Megan to read as much as she does. This is based on the principle that an activity that promotes a child’s intellectual development is healthy only if it doesn’t detract from social development. And, we know that Megan’s reading stimulates her intellectually, but reduces the time she spends interacting with other people.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that if an activity reduces the amount of time Megan interacts with others, it must detract from her social development. This is the assumption that makes the author believe that Megan’s frequent reading interacts with the principle to prove that her reading isn’t healthy.
23.
The application of the principle ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
a
It misinterprets the █████████ ██ █ █████████ █████ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██ █ ████ ███████████████
The principle is not a mere generalization. It’s a conditional rule that doesn’t have exceptions. If an activity that promotes a child’s intellectual development detracts from social development, then it’s not healthy for children to engage in it.
b
It overlooks the ███████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █ █████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████
The conclusion is that Megan’s reading isn’t healthy. Whether there are benefits to reading that outweigh health effects has no impact on whether her reading isn’t healthy.
c
It misinterprets the █████████ ██ ███ ██ █████ ██ █████ █ █████ █████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██████ █ █████ █████ ████ ██ ████████
The principle is about what’s unhealthy. It tells us that if the activity that promotes intellectual development detracts from social development, then it’s not healthy for children to engage in it. So it’s not “solely” a claim about what is healthy.
d
It takes for ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████ █ █████ ██████ ███████████ ████ ██████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ██████ ████████████
The author assumes that Megan’s reading detracts from her social development because it reduces the time she spends interacting with others. This overlooks the possibility that reducing time interacting with others might not detract from her social development.
e
It takes a █████████ █████████ ███ ██ ██████████ █████ ███████ ██ █ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███ █████ ███
A necessary condition for an activity’s being healthy is that it doesn’t detract from social development. The author does not argue that an activity is healthy because it doesn’t detract from social development.