Self-study
Max: Although doing so would be very costly, humans already possess the technology to build colonies on the Moon. ██ ███ █████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████████ █████ ████ ██ █ ███████ ████████ █████████ ██ █████████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████ ████ ████████ ████ ██████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ██ █████ █████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that Moon colonies will almost certainly be built, which will relieve overcrowding on Earth. This is based on the fact that as the human population goes up and the space available for housing on Earth goes down, the economic incentive to make Moon colonies will grow.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that if the economic incentive for Moon colonies grows, then Moon colonies will be built. This overlooks the possibility that Moon colonies might not be built, even if there’s a growing economic incentive to build them. Having an incentive to do something merely means that you have a reason to do it. Even if that reason becomes more compelling, that doesn’t guarantee you’ll take the action.
16.
Max's argument is most vulnerable ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
a
It takes for ███████ ████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ████████████ ██ █████ ████ █ ██████ ███████ ██ ██ ███████████
If the incentive does not grow enough to cause the Moon colonies to be built, then that shows we cannot conclude the colonies will be built simply based on the incentive. So, the author does have to assume what (A) describes in order for the premise to support the conclusion.
b
It takes for ███████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ██ █████████ ██████ ████████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ █████
The author does not assume there are no other ways to relieve overcrowding on Earth. The author’s position is simply that Moon colonies will be among the methods used to relieve overcrowding, not that other methods won’t be tried.
c
It overlooks the ███████████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ █████████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████
The conclusion is that the colonies will be built, so agreeing that they’ll be built doesn’t hurt the argument. (C) could be correct if the conclusion were that the colonies will be built because of the incentive. But, the incentive part is in the premise, not the conclusion.
d
It overlooks the ███████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ██████████ ███████ ██████ ████████████
This possibility doen’t undermine the argument, becaue the conclusion only concerns overcrowding on Earth. Even if the Moon becomes overcrowded, there would still be at least some relief from overcrowding on Earth due to the Moon colonies.
e
It takes for ███████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ █████ ████ █████████ ████████████
The argument doesn’t assume anything about people’s preferences. There might be some people who prefer to live on the Moon right now, even when Earth isn’t overcrowded. That wouldn’t impact the relationship between an economic incentive and the building of the colonies.