Literature

Philosophy questions

Answer these discussion questions.

3. The following story appeared in Sunday’s edition of the Ogden (UT) Standard-Examiner. It was titled: “Report Suspicious Activity.” In it there is an argument. What’s the conclusion of the argument? And what reasons lead to that conclusion?

NOTE: one or more of the premises or the conclusion may be suppressed or implicit.

4. In the following passage there is an argument. The passage is laced with emotive terminology. If you strip the passage of its words that evoke your emotions, do you think the argument is persuasive?
5. People are often genuinely confused by the distinction between semantic and syntactic ambiguity. Below is an example of a sentence that is semantically ambiguous, and it is a statement we hear often in conversation.
6. Read the following passage carefully. Determine what the conclusion of the passage is. Also, cite an unspoken assumption which a person would have to accept to find the argument cogent?
7. On which condition(s) (A, R, G) does the following argument fail and why?
8. Is the following passage an example of confirmation bias and, if so, what makes it an example of confirmation bias?
9. .Are the premises of the following argument rationally acceptable? If not, which one isn’t acceptable and explain why you say that it isn’t acceptable?
10. Write a few premises supporting the following claim: “Great national peril will result from the Obama Health Care plan.”
11. Write an argument that is an example of a categorical syllogism.
12. Sorites are a special kind of enthymeme. Using what you have read about a sorites-style argument, construct an argument to show that no person should be considered “bald.”
13. We have been supposing that there are only two truth values, true and false. But mightn’t there be an additional truth value, which we might call, for a better name, “indeterminate.” Play around with this idea. Do you think it makes sense? Why or why not? If you think it does, give an example of a sentence whose truth value is “indeterminate,” that is, neither true nor false.
14. Translate the following argument into symbolic form. Use the “v” symbol to represent (the inclusive) “or”. Then explain how you might determine whether the argument is valid or invalid. Finally, give your answer to this question (“Is the argument valid or invalid” at the end of your discussion.
15. Provide a reductio ad absurdum proof which shows whether the following argument form is valid or invalid. Note here that “not” is being symbolized by “-” and “or” is being symbolized by “v”.