The Language of Argument

3 4 8

C H A P T E R 1 7 ■ R e f u t a t i o n

Opponent: That’s just like arguing that we should start a fire in a

house in order to bring the debate about getting a new fire engine out

into the public. (paraphrased from an actual interview on National

Public Radio)

10. King: “In your statement you asserted that our actions, even though
    peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence.
    But can this assertion be logically made? Isn’t this like condemning
    the robbed man because his possession of money precipitated
    the evil act of robbery?” (from Martin Luther King’s “Letter from
    Birmingham Jail”)


11. A: He owns a red car, so he owns a car.
    b: That’s just like arguing that he owns a toy duck, so he owns a duck.


12. A: He is holding a baby girl, so he is holding a baby.
    b: That’s just like arguing that he is driving a fire truck, so he is
    driving a fire.

For each of the following arguments, find another argument with the same

basic form in which the premise or premises are clearly true and the conclusion

is clearly false.

1. If tea is dangerous, so is coffee. Tea isn’t dangerous. So coffee isn’t either.


2. If it were about to rain, it would be cloudy. It is cloudy. So it’s about to
   rain.


3. Fred had either ice cream or cake for dessert. He had cake. So he must not
   have had ice cream.


4. You cannot pass laws against dangerous drugs, because there is no way to
   draw a sharp line between dangerous and nondangerous drugs.


5. If you have never written a novel, then you are in no position to make
   judgments about novels. So don’t presume to criticize mine.


6. Since I have written several novels, I am in a position to know which
   novels are good. So you ought to trust me when I say that this one is
   great.


7. There’s nothing wrong with smoking, since the longer you smoke, the
   longer you live.


8. If one has nothing to hide, one should not be afraid of being investigated.
   So no one should object to being investigated.


9. Radicals should not be granted freedom of speech, because they deny this
   freedom to others.


10. In nature, a species is more likely to survive when its weak members die
    out, so we should let the weak in our society die out.

Exercise VII

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