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Logic questions
Analysing arguments for validity
This exercise is fun and should help students develop their scientific writing
techniques and will help deconstruct multiple choice questions. We can also use the
answers in the session to show some descriptive statistics.
Time: 5-10 minutes for questionnaire, then roughly 10 mins to go through answers,
and 10 mins to discuss.
Procedure:
- The questions should be done individually and then the scores tallied quickly (The
quick answer key is at the end of this document).
- One PASS facilitator should go to each of the students and tally the data (on the tally
sheet provided) and display the tabulated and/or graphed data on the white board for
the class to see.
- Meanwhile the other PASS facilitator can work through the problems with the group
with the help of the long answer key.
A good argument should be convincing. An argument is a set of statements consisting
of premises (the data/information) and a conclusion (inferred from the data).You
should find your self believing the claim, or at least finding the conclusion reasonable.
This entails several things:
that the premises are acceptable or reasonable (likely to be true)
that the evidence or reasons are relevant to the claim
that the reasons provide sufficient grounds to lead us to accept the claim.
These things are based on logic. Logic is the analysis and appraisal of arguments. The
best introduction to logic is to DO some logic problems, give them a try DONT
WORRY most people get a lot of them wrong.
Each problem gives you premises (data/information) and asks which conclusion
follows logically. Don't worry about whether the premises are true; instead, ask
yourself, "If these premises WERE true, then what else would HAVE to be true?"
1. All humans are mortal.
Socrates is human.
So ???
{1} - Socrates is mortal. (CORRECT ANSWER)
{2} - Socrates is Greek.
{3} - None of these validly follows.
2. Some cave dwellers use fire.
All who use fire have intelligence.
So ???
{ 1 } - All who have intelligence use fire.
{ 2 } - Some cave dwellers have intelligence.
8. If theres knowledge, then either some things are known without proof
or we can prove every premise by previous arguments infinitely.
We can't prove every premise by previous arguments infinitely.
There's knowledge.
So ???
{ 1 } - Some things are known without proof.
{ 2 } - Everything that's known is provable.
{ 3 } - There's no knowledge.
{ 4 } - None of these validly follows.
1 Aristotle (the first logician) used this to argue that every argument ultimately rests
on unproven premises.
2 The premises prove the opposite of this!
3 Huh? The third premise says that there's knowledge!
4 No, we can draw one of the conclusions.
9. No person desiring to help others is reluctant to make sacrifices.
Some masochists aren't reluctant to make sacrifices.
So ???
{ 1 } - Some masochists don't desire to help others.
{ 2 } - All masochists desire to help others.
{ 3 } - Some masochists desire to help others.
{ 4 } - None of these validly follows.
1 We can't conclude this from the premises. Maybe ALL masochists desire to help
others
2We can't conclude this from the premises.
3 Not necessarily! The second premise tells us that SOME masochists aren't reluctant
to make sacrifices. These masochists might not care about others. They might make
sacrifices just because they like to do so. The premises don't tell us that they desire to
help others.
4Given our premises, we can't draw any of these conclusions.
This one is difficult!