Self-study
Doctor: Support Medical researchers recently examined a large group of individuals who said that they had never experienced serious back pain. ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ █████ █████ ███████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ █████ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ █████ █████ ██████████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ██████████ ████ █████
Summarize Argument
The doctor concludes that bulging or slipped disks, which are often claimed as the causes of serious back pain, could not cause serious back pain. This is based on the observation that a significant number of individuals have bulging or slipped disks, but have never experienced serious back pain.
Identify and Describe Flaw
Because many people have bulging or slipped discs without serious back pain, the doctor concludes that these conditions cannot cause serious back pain. But just because these conditions don’t always cause serious back pain on their own, that doesn’t mean they can’t be among the causative factors of serious back pain.
19.
The reasoning in the doctor's ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████████
a
A factor that ████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ███ █ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████
The doctor isn’t making any claims about some factor that is sufficient, but not necessary, for an effect. Rather, the argument claims that slipped or bulging disks are not sufficient to cause serious back pain.
b
A factor that ██ ███ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███████ █ ███████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████ ███████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████████
The doctor concludes that, since bulging or slipped disks are not sufficient to produce serious back pain, they never cause serious back pain. This ignores that they could still be partly responsible for some instances of serious back pain, and thus still “causes.”
c
An effect that ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █ ██████████ ██████████ █████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████
The doctor doesn’t make any claims about an effect that occurs in the absence of some phenomenon. Rather, the doctor discusses how the phenomenon of a slipped or bulging disk is not always followed by the effect of back pain.
d
A characteristic found ██ ████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████████
The doctor’s argument doesn’t rely on applying sample data to the entire population. The fact that half the sample is observed to have slipped or bulging disks without serious back pain is enough to say that these conditions aren’t always sufficient to cause serious back pain.
e
A factor that ████ ███ █████ █████ █ ███████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██████
How likely bulging or slipped disks (the factor) are to accompany serious back pain (the effect) isn’t relevant to the argument. The doctor isn’t concerned with how often these two things co-occur, but with their causal relationship.