Final exam, phil 105 a+ rated

I. Questions 1-6: Which of the two speakers in each example provide or give an argument (or arguments) for their belief, view, or position? Answers can be “none,” “one” (say who it is), or “both.”

1.        larry: Before we go to Turkey, let’s go to a tanning salon and get a tan.

        laurie: I don’t think we should. . . . Taning salons can be dangerous. Don’t forget “Final    Destination”!

2.   she: Of course women soldiers shouldn’t be allowed to volunteer themselves or be ordered to serve in combat.

he: Actually, I don’t think anyone should serve involuntarily in the armed forces and engage in combat against their will.

3.   insurance executive: Insurance is expensive because accident victims hire lawyers to take insurers to court and soak us.

attorney: Well, we shouldn’t set limits on how much lawyers can extract from insurance companies. What if someone’s medical expenses exceed those limits? We cannot just say “tough noogies” to these victims.

4.   first citizen: There has been a lot of talk in favor of having police-review boards composed of ordinary citizens who would monitor law enforcement activities. That sounds like a great idea to me. You can’t let a fox guard the chickens from foxes.

      second citizen: I’m sure I would say that the ethics of law enforcers is as important as the ethics of law makers.

5.   terry: You don’t need to spend a lot of money on a home stereo system. If you want to be able to listen to high-quality music, just buy a good car stereo system. They’re just as good as home stereos. All you need is a power converter, and you’re in business.

larry: Fine, except good car speakers cost more than home speakers; it isn’t exactly cheap to replace your car music system if the car and/or the sound system get ripped off.

6.   worried university athletics supporter: I’m particularly concerned with the proposed cuts in the university athletic program. If something has to be cut, let’s start with something like dance, basket weaving, and Philosophy 105, instead.

unworried supporter: Don’t worry. A strong athletic program that includes tennis is excellent publicity and brings in commercial contributions.

II. Questions 7-14: Which item in each of the following sets of claims has the most negativeemotive force?

7.  Mrs. Gardner

 a. is a social drinker.

      b. is alcohol-dependent.

      c. is a heavy imbiber.

      d. is usually sloshed.

8.       a.  He had done some unfortunate deeds in his day.

      b. He had on occasion gone astray.

c. He had broken a few rules.

      d. He had the moral sensitivity of a camel.

9.  a. She occasionally lapsed in her doing her duty toward others.

b. She didn’t care a whit how her actions would affect others, one way or the other.

      c. She made use of every opportunity to cause a multitude of innocuous misfortunes for others.

      d. She was vicious toward others.

10. a. He was a circumspect sort of person.

      b. He was deliberately heedful of his own safety.

c. He was afraid to take the slightest risk.

      d. He never wanted to break his mother’s back by walking on a crack.

11. When he told others what he thought of them, he was almost always

      a. honest

      b. candid

      c. ruthless

d. blunt

12. Luigi

      a. tends to be clumsy.

      b. is like a mosquito in a china shop.

      c. is a klutz.

d. is not well coordinated wheh he wakes up.

13. That Henry James novel you gave me to read

      a. put me right to sleep.

      b. was a little boring.

c. wasn’t as intriguing as some other things I’ve read lately.

      d. was way too thick to fit in my narrow pack.

14. a. Making intelligent conversation is not Daryll’s forte.

      b. Daryll decends from simple folk, “people of the earth.”

      c. Daryll is not very clever.

d. Daryll would lose a debate with a well-sharpened javelin.

III. Questions 15-21: Multiple choice questions.

15. “Emotive force” refers to a term’s

      a. analytical definition

b. connotation

      c. literal meaning

      d. negative tone

16. The distinction between “they’re” and “they are” is

a. syntactic

      b. semantic

      c. connotative

      d. none of the above

17. The distinction between “its” and “it is” is

      a.   syntactic

b.   semantic

      c.   connotative

      d.   none of the above      

18. In order to be sound, an argument must be

     a. valid and strong

        b. deductive and strong

c. valid and have a true conclusion

       d. none of the above

19. “The ensemble played an encore at last year’s concert, and I’m pretty sure they played one the year before as well. So they will most likely play an encore at this year’s concert.”

      This argument is which type of argument?

a. weak inductive

    b. deductive

    c. strong inductive

    d. abductive

20. “Sheila’s clarinet is French. It’s a Leblanc, and all Leblanc instruments are made in France.”

      This argument is which type of argument?

a. very strong inductive

    b. valid deductive

    c. loosely reductive

    d. abductive (IBE)

21. [Not multiple choice] Consider this argument: Moral Oral repeatedly stole money from the charity collection bottle in the Portuguese Bodega, until he amassed thousands. He used that stash to buy dope. He slipped it into his GF’s sugar bowl, and she nearly died. Moral Oral is fourteen and is in the 8th grade. Therefore, Moral Oral deserves to spend at least 15 years incarcerated.

      Turn this argument into a deductively valid argument. List each individual required additional premise:

IV. Questions 22-27: True/False

22. Any valid argument that has all true premises has a true conclusion.

23. No invalid deductive arguments are strong inductive arguments.

24. Valid deductive arguments are also strong inductive arguments.

25. A weak inductive argument can be turned into a deductively valid argument by eliminating its false premises.

26. A weak inductive argument can sometimes be turned into a deductively valid argument by adding false premises.

27. If the argument from a lone premise to a conclusion is deductively invalid, then (turning it around) the argument from that conclusion (which is now the premise) to the single premise (which is now the conclusion) is also invalid.

V. Questions 28-36: Indicate for each passage whether it contains a hasty generalzation or contains no fallacy. (Those are your only two options. And I swear that there’s no “false dilemma” here.)

28. Stratton takes one look at the new cool teacher and concludes he is going to like the course. “You can just tell from his shades,” he says to his friend, “it’s gonna be a great course.”

29. The cocktail Beatrice orders before dinner is not dry enough for her taste, so she decides not to eat at that place after all. “I suspect that they cannot scrammble up decent entrees if they can’t make a decent martini,” she mutters.

30. Mason recommends the latest James Paterson novel to Roth. Roth decides not to bother with it, because every other novel Parker has recommended – quite a few – turned out to be a dud and was expensive.

31. Walking along, Jimmy notes that the pavement deteriorates immediately as he crosses the border into the next state county. “Guess they don’t keep up their roads very well,” he thinks.

32. Agnes has read that genetically and phylogentically Aryan people are more likely to develop skin lesions, even cancer, from overexposure to the Nordic sun, but she blows off these reports. “After all,” she reasons, “my Swedish uncle Schleefensteel works on a boat and I never heard of him having any skin problemos.”

33. “How come the people in these big motor homes always have midget dogs inside,” Jasper wonders. “And how come they are always the first to be whisked away by a twister?”

34. Victor has just heard somewhere that regular injections of testosterone (for “Low-T”) help improve the memories of men his age. Ironically, he can’t recall, however, exactly, where he heard it. “Probably was on the TV news,” he figures. “I don’t read newspapers very often.”

.

35. Gridley has been going to the Idaho Silver Dollar Fair every year for the past fifteen years. An acquaintance from Montana suggests they go to the fair, but (says the acquaintance) “For God’s sake, let’s don’t eat there, we’ll die like Kazinski.” Gridley knows better; he’s never even once gotten sick from Silver Dollar food.

36. More of the answers in this section of the exam have been “X.” So, the answer to this question (#36) is also “X.”

VI. Questions 37-39: Identify the rhetorical devices or fallacies (if any) in the following passages.

         37. she: We’d do well to get a Gramophone, not a Phonograph. The Gramophone saleslady told me that her company has the better cylinder repair record. 

          he: Well, forget that. She sells Gramophones, for crying out loud; of course she’d tell you they have the better record. Let’s go ask the Phonograph salesman and listen to what he says. Or, better, find Consumer Reports online.

38. first speaker: [Standing outside a gun ship in Alabama.] Think about it. A seven-day waiting period to buy a gun would give people a chance to cool off; it would also give police a chance to make psychological and criminal background checks. Are seven days that much of an inconvenience? 

second speaker: I wouldn’t talk that way around here, friend, stirring up trouble. Lots of people in this here town own guns, they’re pretty sneaky, and they don’t take kindly to people with liberal views who want to make them register and restrict access to their their guns.

39. “Love it or Leave it! It’s my way or the highway! Give me freedom or give me death!

FINALLY,

40. What is right or wrong about Mr. Smith’s reasoning?

Noting that recent scientific research suggests that a daily glass of wine or two might be good for the heart, Mr. Smith decides to drink even more than that. “Why not?” he says. “If one or two glasses of wine are good for you, most likely five or six are really good for you.”