The Language of Argument

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c hAp tEr 9 ■ I n f e r e n c e t o t h e B e s t E x p l a n a t i o n a n d f r o m A n a l o g y

Imagine that you offer an explanation, and a critic responds in the following way.

Which virtue (explanatoriness, depth, power, falsifiability, modesty, simplicity,

or conservativeness) is your critic claiming that your explanation lacks?

1. But that won’t explain anything other than this particular case.


2. But that conflicts with everything we know about biology.


3. But you don’t have to claim all of that in order to explain what we see.


4. But that just raises new questions that you need to answer.


5. But that explains only a small part of the story.


6. But that would apply whatever happened.

For each of the following explanations, specify which standard of a good

explanation, if any, it violates. The standards require that a good explanation

be explanatory, deep, powerful, falsifiable, modest, simple, and conservative.

A single explanation might violate more than one standard.

1. Although we usually have class at this time in this room, I don’t see
   anybody in the classroom, because a wicked witch made them all
   invisible.


2. Although we usually have class at this time in this room, I don’t see
   anybody in the classroom, because they all decided to skip class today.


3. Although we usually have class at this time in this room, I don’t see
   anybody in the classroom, because it’s Columbus Day.


4. My house fell down, because it was painted red.


5. My house fell down, because of a powerful earthquake centered on my
   property that did not affect anything or anybody else.


6. My house fell down, because its boards were struck by a new kind of
   subatomic particle.


7. Although I fished here all day, I didn’t catch any fish, because there are
   no fish in this whole river.


8. Although I fished here all day, I didn’t catch any fish, because the river
   gods don’t like me.


9. Although I fished here all day, I didn’t catch any fish, because I was
   unlucky today.


10. That light far up in the night sky is moving quickly, because it is the daily
    United Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles.


11. That light far up in the night sky is moving quickly, because it is an alien
    space ship.


12. That light far up in the night sky looks like it is moving quickly, because
    there’s something wrong with my eyes right now.

Exercise I

Exercise II

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