Phil 1010, Practice Final Exam George Rainbolt s Section, Fall 2008

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1 Phil 1010, Practice Final Exam George Rainbolt s Section, Fall 2008 I. Statement Types: for each of the following statements, identify its type. If a statement contains two or more types, choose the type best represented by the main connector. Choose from the options given below. A. Simple Statement B. Negation C. Conjunction D. Disjunction E. Conditional F. None of the above. 1. Bert and Ernie are characters on a popular children's television show. 2. Bert and Ernie live together. 3. If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! 4. Every time you cheat on a test, God kills a kitten. 5. There are no unicorns, unless you count the ones in my back garden. 6. Don t eat that! II. Propositional Arguments: identify the forms of the following arguments. 6. If there is no God, then everything is permissible. But not everything is permissible, so there is a God. A. Affirming the Antecedent B. Disjunctive Syllogism C. Denying the Consequent D. Tri-Conditional 1

2 7. Capitalist economies will fall to the communist revolution unless the accumulation of capital is perpetually outstripped by wage increases. However, in capitalist economies this will not happen because wages will decrease as capital is accumulated. Hence, capitalism is doomed. A. Tri-Conditional B. Affirming the Consequent. C. Denying the Antecedent D. Disjunctive Syllogism 8. If Brenda Brucker is elected senator, Nazis will ride dinosaurs through the streets and rivers will run red with blood. Fortunately, she was not elected, and therefore we will not see either blood-tinged rivers or dinosaur-riding Nazis. A. Disjunctive Syllogism B. Denying the Antecedent C. Affirming the Antecedent (also called Modus Ponens) D. Denying the Consequent (also called Modus Tollens) 9. Eating meat or other factory-farm food products is sufficient for contributing to the pain and suffering of millions of animals. Furthermore, if you contribute to that, you are behaving immorally. So if you eat meat or other factory-farm food products, you are behaving immorally. A. Tri-Conditional B. Disjunctive Syllogism C. Affirming the Antecedent (also called Modus Ponens) D. Affirming the Consequent 10. For the passage below, select the type of disjunction used. Assume that the argument has good form. Hera will turn Callisto into a bear unless Zeus stops trying to sleep with her. Since Callisto was turned into a bear, Zeus must not have stopped. A. Inclusive B. Exclusive C. None of the above. 2

3 III. Analogical Arguments Consider the following passage: "The Homosexual Conduct L aw interferes with more than specific sex acts - it strikes at gay relationships in a deeply harmful manner. For gay adults, as for heterosexual ones, sexual expression is integrally linked to forming and nurturing the close personal bonds that give humans the love, attachment, and intimacy they need to thrive" [and hence the Homosexual Conduct Law should be overturned as it unjustifiably deprives gay persons of many opportunities to flourish as their heterosexual peers do]. [from Lawrence v Texas, the 2003 Supreme Court case that overturned Texas' ban on same-sex sexual behavior, accessed from FindLaw for Legal Professionals: Identify the conclusory feature given in the argument above. A. The homosexual conduct law B. The need for love, attachment, etc. to thrive C. The moral right to thrive D. Sexual expression E. None of the abvoe. 12. Identify the analogue used in the argument above A. The Homosexual Conduct Law B. Heterosexual couples C. Gay Couples D. Sexual expression 13. What kind of analogical argument does the Supreme Court employ in the above passage? A. Non-Empirical - Equal Treatment B. Empirical - Temporal C. Non-Empirical - Logical D. Empirical - Environmental E. Empirical - Standard F. None of the above. 3

4 14. What is the primary subject of the analogical argument above? A. The Homosexual Conduct Law B. Heterosexual couples C. Gay Couples D. Sexual expression IV. Statistical Arguments Consider the following data, collected from a 2005 University of Michigan study concerning the acceptance of atheism by Americans. The data pertains to the percentage (rounded to the nearest whole number) of respondents who would approve of a marriage between an atheist and a member of their family (called an "intermarriage"). The survey had 2081 respondents. Intermarriage Attend Church? Religious? No Yes No Yes Approve No Difference Disapprove [from Edgell et al., Atheists As Other : Moral Boundaries and Cultural Membership in American Society in American Sociological Review, 2006, VOL. 71 (April: ), 219] Suppose that one were to make the following argument: The UM study demonstrates that religiosity is a more polarizing factor than church attendance with respect to the private attitude that Americans have towards atheism. While religious persons were roughly five times as likely as their non-religious counterparts to disapprove of intermarriage, church attendees were approximately three times as likely to disapprove as non-attendees. 15. In the above argument, which of the following is the relevant property? A. Religiosity B. Disapproval of intermarriage C. Approval of intermarriage D. Polarization 4

5 16. In the above argument, what is the target? A. Americans B. Atheists C. The respondents to the survey D. Church attendees E. The non-religious F. None of the above. For the following questions, consult the chart below, concerning public acceptance of the theory of evolution as it pertains to humans. Nation Percent Who Accept Evolutionary Theory Iceland 86 France 62 Norway 75 Belgium 75 Turkey 28 United Kingdom 76 Switzerland 60 United States 40 [from Science Magazine, VOL August 2006, accessed from What is the mode of the data above? A. 64% B. 68.5% C. 64% D. 28% E. 75% F. None of the above. 18. What is the mean of the data above? A. 64% B. 68.5% C. 64% D. 28% E. 75% F. None of the above. 5

6 19. What is the median of the data above? A. 64% B. 68.5% C. 64% D. 28% E. 75% 20. Which of the following nations is the most likely candidate for being an outlier? A. Belgium B. Switzerland C. United States D. Turkey V. Causal Arguments 21. Which of the following errors or fallacies is NOT associated with causal arguments? A. Hasty Cause B. Slippery Slope C. Ad Hominem For the next questions, suppose a scientist wishes to determine whether or not a history of breast cancer is a cause of heart attacks in women over the age of Which of the following discoveries would, if true, support such a finding? A. Breast cancer is more common in women above the age of 50 than women below the age of 50. B. Heart attacks are equally likely to affect women with breast cancer as those without it. C. More women over 50 who experienced breast cancer at some point in their lives have heart attacks than women who did not ever experience breast cancer. D. Women over 50 are equally likely to experience breast cancer as they are a heart attack. 6

7 23. Which of the following discoveries would, if true, count as strong evidence against such a finding? A. Breast cancer and heart attacks are correlated for women over the age of 50. B. Breast cancer and heart attacks are correlated for women over the age of 50, and most of the women who experience both are smokers. C. Women over 50 are equally likely to experience breast cancer as they are a heart attack. D. There is no correlation between breast cancer and heart attacks in women under the age of Which of the following is the most complete reason why causal arguments are inductive? A. You can never rule out reverse causation. B. You can never rule out the possibility that the data you have are incorrect. C. Verification of a correlation between E1 and E2 can never establish conclusively the lack of correlation between some E3 and the other two events. D. Scientists, who frequently make causal arguments, are willing to say anything to get grant money. VI. Moral Arguments Timothy J. Dailey of the Family Research Council argues that Once marriage is no longer confined to a man and a woman, and the sole criterion becomes the presence of "love" and "mutual commitment," it is impossible to exclude virtually any "relationship" between two or more partners of either sex. To those who scoff at concerns that gay marriage could lead to the acceptance of other harmful and widely-rejected sexual behaviors, it should be pointed out that until very recent times the very suggestion that two women or two men could "marry" would have been greeted with scorn. The movement to redefine marriage has already found full expression in what is variously called "polyfidelity" or "polyamory," which seeks to replace traditional marriage with a bewildering array of sexual combinations among various groups of individuals. [accessed from 7

8 25. What kind of moral argument is Dailey making? A. Aretaic B. Deontological C. Consequentialist D. None of the above. 26. Which action is being morally evaluated in the argument? A. The act of a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman B. The act of altering legal codes to recognize marriages between couples of the same sex C. The acts of polyamory or polyfidelity D. The act of discriminating against gay couples Suppose your instructor responded to such an argument as follows: Making a case against gay marriage that is grounded on an objection to any positive evaluation of an expanded variety of meaningful human relationships is both authoritarian in its political aspirations and morally stingy in its undertaking. It is in effect saying that the only valuable form of deep, long-lasting human relationship or romantic partnership or at least the only one valuable enough to receive social sanction is that which is possible between a man and a woman. When put in those terms, this argument is exposed for what it truly is: a naked attempt to suppress any values not shared by the arguer. An expansion in the types of romantic relationships that are seen as socially valuable provides more opportunities for individuals to develop positive, meaningful attachments to each other and as a result to acquire more valuable and excellent character traits an opportunity currently denied to gay and lesbian persons due to the state s failure to recognize gay marriage. 27. What kind of moral argument is your instructor making? A. Aretaic B. Deontological C. Consequentialist D. None of the above. 8

9 28. Which of the following is NOT a premise in the above argument? A. Allowing gay marriage would enable the development of various character traits. B. Character traits associated with forming and maintaining deep romantic relationships are valuable. C. Romantic relationships between persons of the same sex are potentially valuable. D. Romantic relationships between those of the same sex are more valuable than romantic relationships between those of the opposite sex. 29. Which of the following could NOT be a premise in an argument made by a noncognitivist? A. 63 percent of Americans find the television show Family Guy to be very entertaining. B. Black holes are the collapsed remnants of dead stars from which no matter can escape. C. It is good that women are allowed to vote. D. It frightens me that only two-fifths of the population believes in evolution. VII. Essays A. Evaluate the following definition by the rules for good definitions and the criteria for appropriate expertise. Be sure to identify (i) what word is being defined, (ii) what type and method of definition you are evaluating, (iii) who is offering the definition and (iv) why it breaks or meets each and every rule (do not simply state that it does or does not meet a rule, say why in each case). Thinking is not the [mental] reproduction of that which exists. As long as thinking is not interrupted, it has a firm grasp on possibility... beyond all specialized and particular content, thinking is actually and above all the force of resistance, alienated from resistance only with great effort. [from Theodor Adorno s Culture Industry, (New York: Routledge 2006), p. 202] 9

10 B. Standardize and evaluate the following argument, including any unstated premises or conclusions and any sub-arguments, and rephrasing as needed. If it is a linked argument, evaluate all sub-arguments as well. Be sure to include all aspects of evaluation, such as (i) whether the premises are dependent or independent, positively or negatively relevant or irrelevant to the conclusion and (iii) whether or not the argument would be stronger with sub-arguments that have not been provided. Also be sure to consider whether any key terms defined have been given good definitions and whether any fallacies have been committed. In addition provide the specific evaluation called for by the argument s specific type according to the list below; i.e. your standardization should be one of the five types (deductive, analogical, statistical, causal, moral). If the argument is deductive, (a) put the argument into proper standard form. (b) identify the elementary argument form of the argument. (c) evaluate using TP and GF tests. If the argument is analogical, (a) identify the type of analogy (b) put into the proper standard form of an analogical argument. (c) identify the primary subject, the analogue(s), the similarities, and the conclusory feature. (d) evaluate using the TP and GF tests. If the argument is statistical, (a) identify and evaluate the sampling technique; if no technique is given, suggest which technique would be best for finding the results needed by the argument and which techniques would prohibit the argument from passing GF test (b) put into the proper standard form of a statistical argument. (c) identify the sample, the target, the relevant property, the P%, and the N. (d) evaluate using the TP and GF tests If the argument is causal, (a) identify which type(s) of causal claim is/are made in the conclusion (necessary cause, sufficient cause, contributory cause, etc). (b) put the argument into the proper standard form of a causal argument, (c) evaluate using the TP and GF tests If the argument is moral, (a) standardize it in the proper form (b) identify exactly the specific type of moral claim the main argument is (c) evaluate it using the TP and GF tests 10

11 Because they both fall under the principle of freedom of conscience, both education and religion are analogous in all the morally relevant ways. For parents this means that they should have the freedom and authority to determine which sort of schooling their children get, just as they have the freedom and authority to determine which religious education their children get. This freedom should therefore disallow state intervention in educational practice, including subsidies drawn from taxes, compulsory attendance laws, and mandatory curriculum standards, just as it disallows religious subsidies drawn from taxes, compulsory church attendance, and state-prescribed religious ceremonies, rites or doctrines. Hence public schooling should be abolished on exactly the same grounds that state-enforced public religion, wherever it exists, should be abolished. [from James Otteson s Actual Ethics (New York: Cambridge 2006), pp ] 11