Self-study
Legislator: Support My staff conducted a poll in which my constituents were asked whether they favor high taxes. ████ ████ ██ ███████ ████████ █████ ████████ █████ ██ ████████████ █████ ███████ ███ ████ █ ████████ ███████████ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████ ████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that her constituents would support the bill she introduced. This is because the bill reduces the corporate income tax, and, according to a poll, her constituents do not “favor high taxes.”
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that the current corporate income tax constitutes a “high tax” in a way that the constituents would not favor. This overlooks the possibility that the corporate income tax is not actually high. It also overlooks that the constituents might have been referring to high personal taxes rather than corporate taxes.
15.
The reasoning in the legislator's ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
fails to establish ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████████████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ █ █████
The author’s conclusion doesn’t extend to the population as a whole. So whether the constituents are representative of the whole population doesn’t matter.
b
fails to consider ███████ ███ ████████████ ████████████ ████████ ███ ███████ █████████ ██████ ███ █ ████ ███
If the constituents don’t consider the current corporate income tax a high tax, that raises the possibility they wouldn’t necessarily support the bill simply because it reduces the corporate income tax. The constituents might be OK with the current corporate income tax.
c
confuses an absence ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ████████████ ██████ █ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ████████████ ███████ ████ ████
The author doesn’t argue, “Because there’s no evidence my constituents oppose the bill, they must support the bill.” The author’s premise concerns a poll about high taxes; it’s not a claim about a lack of evidence.
d
draws a conclusion ████ ██████ ████████ █ █████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ██████████
(D) describes circular reasoning. The conclusion does not restate anything in the premises, which describe the results of a poll.
e
treats a result ████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ █ ████ ██ █ ██████ ████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████ ████
There is nothing that “proves” the public supports a bill. All we know from the premises concerning any kind of opinion is that the constituents are not in favor of high taxes. This doesn’t tell us whether they would support any bill.