Self-study
Pundit: Clearly, Conclusion the two major political parties in this city have become sharply divided on the issues. ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ █ ███████ ██ ███ █████
Summarize Argument
The pundit concludes that the two major political parties in the city have become sharply divided on issues. He supports this by noting that in the last four elections, the parties were separated by less than 1% of the vote.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The pundit concludes that the parties are sharply divided simply because they were separated by less than 1% of the vote in recent elections. He assumes that a close vote indicates a sharp division but doesn’t provide evidence for this. It's possible that the close vote actually shows that the two parties have very similar views and are united.
5.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
confuses the cause ██ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ████████
The pundit actually doesn’t address any causes or effects of the sharp division, so he can’t be confusing the two. Instead, he simply argues that the close vote is evidence of a sharp division.
b
presumes, without argument, ████ █████ ████████ ██ █ ███ █████
The pundit assumes that a close vote is evidence of sharp division, but he never claims or assumes that sharp division is a bad thing.
c
has a conclusion ████ ██ ██████ █ ███████████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ████████
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of circular reasoning. The pundit doesn’t make this mistake. His premise doesn’t support his conclusion very well, but the two are distinct from one another.
d
fails to indicate ███ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ██████
The pundit is only addressing the two major political parties “in this city.” How the elections in this city compare to the elections in other cities is irrelevant.
e
takes for granted ████ ██ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ █████████ █ █████ ████████ ██ ██████
The pundit assumes that a close vote indicates a sharp division on issues, but he gives no evidence to support this assumption. It’s possible that an almost even division in votes actually indicates that the two parties are united.