Midterm 3

Philosophy 010 -- Introduction to Logic

Write your name here: ______________________________

The exam consists of 20 questions, each worth 5 points.

Part One. Short Answer.

Provide a brief and clear answer to each of the five questions below.

1. The fallacy of false dichotomy rests on the misapplication of a valid rule of inference. What rule?

2. When would an argument with the form of a straw man fallacy not be a fallacy?

3. Explain the difference between a hasty generalization and a false cause.

4. When would an argument with the form of an appeal to ignorance not be a fallacy?

5. True or false: if there is no mention, either explicit or implicit, of physical violence, then no appeal to force fallacy can have been committed.

Part Two. Informal Fallacies.

For each passage below, identify the informal fallacy committed. If no fallacy is committed, write 'no fallacy'. Briefly justify your answer ('briefly' means one or two short sentences).

6. If we legalize abortion, we will soon see a flood of elder abuse, child abuse, and child pornography. Lack of respect for life leads to lack of respect for the living.

7. Nine days after a member from the Red Indian tribe performed a rain dance in the middle of California's biggest drought of the decade, a major rainstorm appeared, providing 2 inches of rainfall. Paul Steigen of the local water district is convinced that it was no accident. "They came, they danced, it rained." he sad.

8. Bill said that all Catholic traditions come from the Bible or from events surrounding the life of Jesus. But in fact many of the traditions, ceremonies and even stories have much older histories in various polytheistic traditions. So Bill's contentions is simply incorrect.

9. American: Your Spanish custom of bull fighting is cruel and dangerous, and should be stopped.

Spaniard: But fewer people are injured bull fighting than are injured every year playing American football.

10. I know you want to major in philosophy. But I think it would be better for you to major in business or engineering. If you change your major to philosophy, I will no longer pay your tuition.

11. Of course taxes are too high. In a recent poll, over 80% of all Americans said that they thought taxes are too high. What better proof could you want?

12. Mike Shanahan, coach of the Denver Broncos, has argued that Davis should be on the Pro Bowl team because of his high total yards, and high average per rush. But Shanahan is Davis' coach, so of course he will say this. So someone else should go to the Pro Bowl.

13. I think you should change my grade, since I surely don't deserve a D. I know what your car looks like, and where you park.

14. Ted Nugent says that deer hunting is OK because hunting is part of nature (all predators do it) and it helps to strengthen the deer herd. But it is ridiculous to defend hunting on the ground that they don't mind being killed. Every animal, human or otherwise, strives to continue to live.

15. As much as we dislike racial epithets, we have to put up with them. The only alternative is to silence everybody, which would be too much of an infringement on personal liberty.

16. Marriages are like horse races. Some are sure things, while others are losers out of the gate. The moral is, check out all the contestants before placing a bet.

17. Our boss said that we couldn't leave early today even though tomorrow is Thanksgiving. He said that there is too much work that needs to be done. Our boss wants us to be a bunch of over-worked zombies. But that sort of thing is not good for morale, and will be very bad for the company in the long term.

18. You know, I thought the argument by that guy was the dumbest argument I'd ever heard. But your stupid argument just trumped his stupid argument.

19. American: Your Spanish custom of bull fighting is cruel and dangerous, and should be stopped.

Spaniard: But the bulls that die in the bullfighting events live twice as long as those that end up as McDonalds Big Macs.

20. Father to mother: I think we should ground little Billy. He got another bad grade in his logic class. If this slack behavior continues, soon he will be failing his classes, then hanging out with delinquents, and getting hooked on drugs.