Self-study
CEO: Conclusion We have been falsely criticized for not being an environmentally responsible corporation. ███████████████ ███████████ ████████████ ███ ████████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ █████████████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ███ █████ █████████ ███ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The CEO concludes the corporation has been falsely criticized for not being environmentally responsible. She supports this with the following premises:
(1) Environmentally responsible corporations do all they can to pollute less.
(2) The corporation’s new production methods pollute less than the old ones.
(3) No methods exist that produce no pollution at all.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The CEO assumes that the corporation is doing all that it can to pollute less. But just because their new methods are better than their old ones, doesn’t necessarily mean that the corporation is doing all that it can. What if there are other methods that would allow it to pollute even less than it does now? In that case, the corporation isn’t doing all that it can and so it isn’t environmentally responsible.
9.
The reasoning in the CEO's ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ██
a
takes for granted ████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ██████ ██ █████████
It doesn't matter whether production methods that do not produce pollution can be developed in the future. Because there are currently no methods that do not produce pollution, the corporation might be doing all that it can now, even if better methods are developed later.
b
fails to take ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████ █████████ ██████ ███ ████ ███████ ███████
The CEO’s argument doesn't rely on causal reasoning. Instead, the CEO assumes that her corporation is doing all it can to reduce pollution.
c
generalizes too hastily ████ ███ ███████████████ ██ █ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████████ ██ █ █████ ██ ██████████
The CEO only addresses the specific criticism that her corporation is not environmentally responsible. She argues that this criticism is false, but never generalizes about any other criticisms.
d
takes for granted ████ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ █████████
The CEO doesn’t assume that the corporation has succeeded in reducing the amount of pollution it produces, she explicitly states that it has. She says, “Our current production methods pollute significantly less than our old methods did.” So the corporation did succeed.
e
ignores the possibility ████ █████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ███
To be environmentally responsible, the corporation must be doing all that it can to pollute less. If there are production methods that would allow the corporation to produce less pollution than it does now, then it isn’t doing all it can and it isn’t environmentally responsible.