Self-study
Newspaper subscriber: Arnot's editorial argues that by making certain fundamental changes in government we would virtually eliminate our most vexing social ills. ███ ███████ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The author concludes that Arnot’s conclusion is false. This is based on the fact that the argument Arnot made advocating his conclusion was based on the highly doubtful assumption that the government can be trusted to act in the interest of the public.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that the fact Arnot’s argument relied on an assumption that’s likely to be false proves that Arnot’s conclusion is wrong. But Arnot’s conclusion can still be correct, even if Arnot’s assumption is wrong.
14.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████████
a
it repudiates a █████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ███ ████ █████ ███ ██
Arnot’s argument was inadequate in that his premises didn’t prove his conclusion, because he made a dubious assumption. But the fact his argument is inadequate doesn’t justify rejecting his conclusion. The author made this very mistake, however, and rejected Arnot’s conclusion.
b
it treats a ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ██ █████████ ████ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ █ ██████ ████ ████ █████████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ██ █████ ████
The author’s position is that we cannot eliminate our most vexing social ills by making changes to government. So the author doesn’t treat government changes as enough to guarantee elimination of those social ills.
c
it fails to ████████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████
The author assumed “false assumption → false conclusion”. This overlooks that even if an ASSUMPTION is false, the conclusion can be true. (C) accuses the argument of assuming “false conclusion → false assumption.” That’s just reversing the argument’s actual assumption.
d
it distorts the ██████████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ █████████ ████████
There’s no indication that the author distorted Arnot’s argument. We don’t know what Arnot originally argued or whether the author’s description of that argument is different from what Arnot originally argued.
e
it uses the ███ ████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █ ███████ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████
The word “government” means the same thing throughout. We have no reason to think it takes on different meanings in the argument.