Arguments and Validity

Section 1

• The statement, "My folks, who were Chinese immigrants, used to love to have the opportunity to vote...I'm not sure whom I'll vote for, but I am going to vote for sure," represents an argument with the conclusion that the speaker is going to vote for sure
• The assertion "Cinema rarely rises from craft to an art...usually it just manufactures sensory blizzards for persons too passive to manage the active engagement of the mind" constitutes an argument with the conclusion that cinema rarely rises from craft to an art
• An inductive argument is either strong or intended to be so, whereas a deductive argument is either valid or intended to be so and valid arguments have predictive power
• Sound arguments are valid arguments, and their premises are all true
• A definiendum is what is to be defined
• It is false that a true conclusion cannot be derived validly from false premises
• In the argument "The battery is still in good condition, after all the headlights are still plenty bright," the implicit premise that makes it valid is, "If the headlights are bright the battery is still in good condition"
• The stated reasons for going to war with Iraq (weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein being an evil tyrant, democracy) while the real reason was oil, commits the fallacy of smokescreen.
• The statement "Why do I spend so much on clothes? Well, it's either that or look like a bum" uses a false dilemma
• Labeling someone a "Republican" as "just a name for a power hungry oil-loving warmonger in disguise" is an example of a rhetorical definition

Section 2

• The passage "If I go to Vegas I'll wind up at the casino and if I wind up at the casino I'll end up at the craps table. So you know if I go to Vegas I'll end up at the craps table," demonstrates hypothetical syllogism
• "If she were still interested in me, she would have called, but she didn't call, so she isn't interested" exemplifies Modus Tollens
• The reasoning pattern in the passage "If Donna really loved me she'd stay home tonight and watch the game. But she doesn't so she certainly isn't staying home tonight to watch the game" is Modus Ponens.
• Witnessing at least 20 Disney movies without violence and concluding "the Disney people just don't make violent movies" is an inductive generalization.
• Noticing Christmas decorations appear earlier each year and predicting they'll be up by Halloween next year is an argument by analogy.
• Experiencing mushy peaches from the store and assuming future peaches will also be mushy uses a sample which is, "The peaches I bought yesterday"
• In the problem of evil, the premises include that God is wholly good and omnibenevolent

Section 3

• In the argument regarding Mary confined to a black-and-white room, the premises include that Mary learns everything there is to know about the physical nature of the world and that Mary doesn't know all there is to know
• In evaluating moral defects vs intelligence, the premises include that intelligence is easily improved
• An ontological argument relies on an analysis of the very concept of God, to prove that God must exist
• Saint Anselm's ontological argument's premises include that something than which nothing greater can be conceived exists in both reality and the understanding
• St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica includes the Cosmological argument as one of his 5 arguments for God's existence
• Contingent things come into and go out of existence
• An a priori argument is one with premises not based on questions of fact
• Choosing between a "9 comes up, win 10 bucks" game or a "Take a roll, hit a SIX" game, the game "Take a roll, hit a SIX" has the lowest expected utility
• Blaise Pascal doesn't think that the probability that God exists is zero
• The Holocaust is an example of a moral evil
• In "Evil and Omnipotence," J.L. Mackie's argument from evil includes the premise that evil exists
• A common response to the Higher Good Theodicy is, "Why doesn't God prevent 2nd order evils such as cowardice?"