PHILOSOPHY QUESTIONS
- A) Identify the most prominent fallacy
My chance of being born on December 25 was the same as yours. So, the chances we were both born on December 25 have to be twice as great.
= Composition (Gwartney et al 15)
2. “Aw c’mon Jake, let’s go hang out at Dave’s. Don’t worry about your parents; they’ll get over it. You know the one thing I really like about you is that you don’t let your parents tell you what to do.”
= denying the antecedent (Morrow et al 242)
3. The paint store is the best place to work on your diet. After all, you can get thinner there.
= Square of opposition
4. All the members of this club have strong views, and all the men in this community have strong views. So all the men in this community are members of this club
= Bivalent Logic (Castillo 129)
5. I believe that Tim is telling the truth about his brother because he just would not lie about such a thing.
= equivocation (Al-Aabedi 59)
B) Supply a claim to turn the following into valid arguments
1. Jesse Ventura, the former Governor of Minnesota, was a professional wrestler. He couldn’t have been a very effective governor
X = Jesse Ventura, the former Governor of Minnesota
Y= professional wrestler
Z= Not effective governor
Then if X, the Y
If Y, then Z
Therefore all X are Z
2. Half the people in the front row believe in God. Therefore, half the class believes in God.
X = Half the people in the front row
Y= believe in God
Z= half the class believes in God
Then if X, the Y
Z is Y
Therefore Z is X (Kapsner 2)
C) Put into standard form.
1. Plato was a philosopher
=All philosophers are like Plato
2. Assuming "All woodpeckers sing really well," is false, put this claim into standard write the corresponding AEIO claims (whatever this isn't), and where possible determine the truth values of these claims.
Standard form
= Woodpeckers really sing well
AEOI claim
A claim = All woodpeckers really sing well
Asserts that every member of the set woodpeckers is also a member who really sings well
E claim = No woodpeckers really sing well
Denies that no woodpecker can sing well
I claim = some woodpeckers really sing well
Asserts that at least there is one woodpecker that can sing well
O claim = some woodpeckers are not birds that can really sing well
Asserts that there is at least one woodpecker that in this bird category that doesn’t sing well
- Do the same for "No Norwegians are Slavs" (assume true)
Standard form
= Norwegians are not slaves
AEOI claim
A claim = All Norwegians are not slaves
Asserts that every member of the Norwegian is not a slave
E claim = Norwegian are slaves
Denies that there is no Norwegian who is not a slave
I claim = some Norwegians are slaves
Asserts that at least there is at least one Norwegian who is a slave
O claim = some Norwegians were not slaves
Asserts that there is at least one Norwegian who is not a slave
D) Use Venn diagrams to determine whether this is valid. Please show your work
Only systems with removable disks can give you unlimited storage capacity of a practical sort. Standard hard drives never have removable disks, so they can’t give you practical, unlimited storage capacity.
B= the wanted region
(Hurley 281)
- E) Construct Truth Tables (short or long) to determine which of the following are valid
Pv(Q->R) 2. Lv~J
Q&~R R->J
--- ----
~P L->~R
1)
|
P |
R |
P & R |
|
T |
F |
T |
|
T |
T |
F |
|
F |
F |
T |
|
F |
T |
F |
2)
|
L |
J |
L & J |
|
T |
F |
T |
|
T |
T |
T |
|
F |
F |
T |
|
F |
T |
F |
(Fisher 181)
F) Derive one of the following (5 pts). Extra Credit, derive both
Q->L (P&S)v(T->R)
P->M ~(S&P)
RvP -----~M->R
R->(Q&S) T->R
----- ~(S&R) ~M->L
Work cited
Gwartney, James D, Richard Stroup, Russell S. Sobel, and David A. Macpherson. Macroeconomics: Private and Public Choice. , 2015. Print.
Morrow, David R, Anthony Weston, and Anthony Weston. A Workbook for Arguments: A Complete Course in Critical Thinking. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co, 2011. Print.
Al-Aabedi, Haidar K. Equivocation in the Theatre of the Absurd: Discourse Analysis. Berlin: Logos Berlin, 2015. Print.
Kapsner, Andreas. Logics and Falsifications: A New Perspective on Constructivist Semantics. , 2014. Internet resource.
Castillo, Oscar. Theoretical Advances and Applications of Fuzzy Logic and Soft Computing. Berlin: Springer, 2007. Internet resource.
Hurley, Patrick J. A Concise Introduction to Logic. , 2014. Print.
Fisher, Alec. The Logic of Real Arguments. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004. Print.
