Self-study
Mayor: There has been a long debate in city council about how to accommodate projected increases in automobile traffic. ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ██ █████ █ ███ ███████████ ██ ██ ██ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ █ ██████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ █████ █████ ████ █ ████████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██████ █████████ █████ ██ █████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the city council should adopt the mayor’s plan. This is based on the assertion that there are only two options: either the council adopts the mayor’s plan, or they do nothing. And, doing nothing isn’t a viable option.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author presents a false dichotomy between adopting the mayor’s plan and doing nothing. Why can’t the city council do something else besides the mayor’s plan and nothing? Maybe there’s a different strategy that could be used. The author doesn’t provide any reason to think the city council’s options are limited to the two described.
1.
The reasoning in the mayor's ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
It bases a ██████████ ████ ██ ████████████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███████████ █ █████ █████ ██ ██████████
There’s nothing flawed about basing a projection only on conservative estimates. Conservative estimates are less extreme; if less conservative estimates were used, we have no reason to think that gridlock wouldn’t occur as quickly.
b
It takes for ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████ ██████████
The two options are mutually exclusive — doing nothing, by definition, cannot happen at the same time as adopting the mayor’s plan. So the author isn’t assuming the options are mutually exclusive.
c
It fails to ████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ █████ ███ ██████
The author never made any predictions about what occurs after ten years. So this possibility isn’t something that undermines the author’s argument.
d
It fails to ███████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████
The argument concerns how to accommodate projected increases in automobile traffic. The author never cited to economic concerns or reached a conclusion about economic concerns. So the failure to address the cost of traffic gridlock is irrelevant.
e
It presents a ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████████ ███ █████ ████████
The author presents only two choices — adopting the mayor’s plan or doing nothing. But there was no reason given for why these are the only two options. This presents a false dichotomy.