Self-study
Consumer advocate: Manufacturers of children's toys often place warnings on their products that overstate the dangers their products pose. ███████████████ ██████ ██████ █████████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████████ █████████ █████ █████████ ███████ ██████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██████████ █████████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ █████ ████████ █████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that manufacturers of children’s toys should not overstate the dangers of their toys. This is based on the principle that product-warning labels should overstate dangers only if doing so reduces injuries. But manufacturers of children’s toys overstate their products’ dangers only for the purpose of protecting themselves from lawsuits.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that if the purpose of overstating the dangers of children’s toys is to avoid lawsuits, then it cannot have the effect of reducing injuries. This overlooks the possibility that overstating the dangers could reduce injuries, even if the manufacturers’ purpose in overstating is about something else besides reducing injuries.
18.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ █████████
a
The argument confuses █ █████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ █ ███████ ████ █ ██████████ ██████████
The argument doesn’t present any necessary condition for reducing injuries. We only get a necessary condition for when product-warning labels should overstate dangers.
b
The argument overlooks ███ ███████████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ █████████
The author concludes that manufacturers should not overstate the dangers. But this conclusion isn’t based on any assumption that not overstating will reduce injuries. So it wouldn’t affect the argument if not overstating dangers doesn’t reduce injuries.
c
The argument relies ██ █ ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ███████████████
The argument isn’t based on a sample. A premise tells us what manufacturers of children’s toys do, and the conclusion concerns what those manufacturers should do.
d
The argument presumes, ███████ █████████ ██████████████ ████ ██ █ ███████ ██████████ █ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ █████████
The author assumes that if the PURPOSE of overstating a danger isn’t to reduce injuries, then it can’t reduce injuries. But the author does not assume that every warning that overstates a danger won’t prevent injuries.
e
The argument relies ██ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ███████
The author assumes that an action (overstating dangers) has an effect (reduces injuries) only if it was performed to bring about that effect. This is why the author thinks the purpose of avoiding lawsuits establishes that the manufacturers’ overstating dangers shouldn’t be done.