Humans are supposedly rational: in other words, they have a capacity for well-considered thinking and behavior. ████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ███ ██████ █████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ █████ █████ █████ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ████████
The author concludes that humans are not superior to animals. This is based on a subsidiary conclusion that humans are not rational. The author supports this sub-conclusion with the fact that humans knowingly pollute the world’s air and water, and engage in farming practices that hurt the soil. To the author, this behavior doesn’t meet the definition of “rational,” which is “the capacity for well-considered thinkiong and behavior.”
The author assumes that knowingly damaging the environment is not well-considered thinking and behavior. The author also assumes that engaging in behavior that isn’t well-considered implies the lack of ability (capacity) to engage in such behavior. This overlooks the possibility that humans have the ability to be well-considered, even if they don’t always act that way.
The reasoning above is flawed ██ ████ ██
relies crucially on ██ ██████████ █████████████ ██████████ ██ ███████████
takes for granted ████ ██████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ██████████
neglects to show ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ███████████ ██ █████ ███████
presumes, without offering ██████████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███████
fails to recognize ████ ██████ ███ ███████ █ ████████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ██ █ █████ ████████