Self-study
Publishing executive: Our company must sell at least 100,000 books to make a profit this year. ████████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██████████ █ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ███████
Summarize Argument
The executive concludes that his company is unlikely to sell 100,000 books this year. Why? Because none of their individual titles will sell 100,00 copies.
Identify and Describe Flaw
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of confusing a part with the whole. Even if none of the 12 titles individually sells 100,000 copies, their combined sales could easily exceed 100,000. (If, for example, they sold 10,000 copies each.)
2.
The publishing executive's argument is ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████████ ████
a
the publishing company ████ ████ ████████████ █████ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ █████
Poor sales of the novel would support the executive’s conclusion that the company won’t sell 100,000 books, so this can’t be the flaw.
b
the publishing company ████ ███ ████ █ ██████ ████ ██ ██ █████ ████ ████ ███████ █████
The conclusion is about whether the company will sell 100,000 books, not whether it will be profitable, so this is irrelevant.
c
what is true ██ ███ ███████ █████████████ ██ █ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████████████ ██ █ ██████████ ████
The conclusion is about whether the company will sell 100,000 books, not whether it will be profitable, so this is irrelevant.
d
what is true ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ██ █ █████
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of confusing a part with the whole. The executive does this by failing to realize that the combined sales of all titles could reach 100,000, even if none do so individually.
e
the publishing company ████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ███ █████████ ███ █████ ███████████
Selling even fewer books would support the executive’s conclusion that the company won’t reach its goal, so this can’t be the flaw.