Self-study
Letter to the editor: When your newspaper reported the (admittedly extraordinary) claim by Mr. ██████ ████ ██ ███ ██ █████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ██ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ ████████ █ ████ ███████ ██████████ ████ █ █████ ███████ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████
Summary
Mr. Hanlon’s claim that he saw an alien spaceship was extraordinary.
The newspaper reported on this claim with a skeptical tone.
Mr. Hanlon has proved to be a trusted member of the community.
Hanlon claimed to have seen a rare natural phenomenon→ /Article would have skeptical
The newspaper exhibits unjustified bias.
Notable Valid Inferences
If the article was skeptical, then Hanlon’s claim wouldn’t have been about a rare natural phenomenon.
21.
The argument in the letter █████████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
If a claim ██ ██████████████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ █████████ ████████████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ███████████████ ████ █████████
The letter conflicts with the principle in (A), which gives sufficient conditions for the newspaper to be skeptical. Hanlon’s situation met these conditions, so the newspaper should be skeptical. Yet, the letter argues the opposite—that the newspaper should not be skeptical.
b
One should be █████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███████████ ████████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ███████
This principle does not apply. (B) discusses testimonial evidence acquired only through an intermediary source, but Hanlon’s evidence was provided directly.
c
If a media ██████ ███ ███████ █ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ███ █ ████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████
This principle does not apply. We know that Hanlon has been a trusted member of the community, but we don’t know if this newspaper has trusted Hanlon as a source in the past. We also don’t know anything about the newspaper’s reputation.
d
People who think ████ ███████ ████████████ █████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ █████████████ █████████
This principle does not apply to the letter’s argument. The argument in the letter is about the newspaper’s bias, but the principle in (D) would pertain to Hanlon’s actions.
e
A newspaper should ███ ███████ █ ██████ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ██ ███████████ ███████
This principle does not apply. (E) gives a principle for determining when a report shouldn’t be published, but the letter isn’t arguing about whether or not the report should have been published. Instead, the letter’s argument is about the newspaper’s bias.