Identifying and Classifying Arguments – Homework Sets I & II

Homework Set I: For each of the following passages, indicate whether it is an argument or not an argument.

1. Since Tuesday, John has believed in a new world order.

2. Four out of five dentists surveyed recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum. The other one recommends that you chew gum with sugar in it. He also recommends that you eat as much of this sugary gum as you possibly can and that you refrain from brushing your teeth or flossing. Finally, he urges you to avoid bathing.

3. Four out of five dentists surveyed recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum. But I don’t chew gum, so presumably, they wouldn’t recommend sugarless gum for me.

4. Imitation butter is better than real butter, because it spreads very evenly over popcorn.

5. Imitation butter is very dear to me. Indeed, I often spread it over my entire body and muse, “You are the only one for me. You are my lotion, my oil, my destiny.”

6. Real butter is very bad for you, but imitation butter is good for you.

7. If marijuana isn’t any stronger than alcohol, then it shouldn’t be illegal.

8. If marijuana isn’t any stronger than alcohol, then it shouldn’t be illegal. But it isn’t any stronger than alcohol.

9. Abortion should be illegal. It’s selfish, immoral, and when you get right down to it, a form of murder.

10. Abortion is a form of murder and should not be legal.

11. Because the work is starting to pile up, we shouldn’t do any of it.

Homework Set II: Indicate whether each of the following arguments is inductive or deductive.

1. My mother is insane, so your mother probably is too.

2. I have been exposed to asbestos, so there’s a pretty good chance that I am going to die of cancer.

3. All cats are republicans, and all republicans are chickens. Therefore, all cats are chickens.

4. In this study, we examined hundreds of different samples of lettuce, and for each of these samples, we found that it was mostly water—indeed, they were all 96% water. Therefore, we conclude that this is simply the nature of lettuce: it is 96% water and only 4% lettuce.

5. Every time we drop a physical object and measure how quickly it descends to earth, we get the same answer. No matter how much these objects have weighed—whether they were pennies or pick- up trucks—they fell at the same rate, so long as we dropped them from the same height. Therefore, it seems clear that all objects fall to earth at the same rate.

6. 34 is even, so it can’t be prime.

7. Bill Clinton is a democrat, so he can’t be conservative.

8. Bill Clinton is a democrat, so he probably isn’t conservative.

9. All androids are emotionless and Spock is emotionless, so he must be an android.

10. I took sixteen different samples of water from the pond, from various different areas, and all of them were contaminated. So I think we can safely conclude that the whole pond is contaminated.