Deck 13: Argument, Reasoning, and Evidence

Question 1

The American Tobacco Institute claims that e-cigarettes are perfectly safe. This source for the claim is

A) credible
B) inherently biased due to the profit motive
C) deserves to be considered seriously so as not to be closed-minded
D) none of the above

Answer 1

B

Question 2

You claim that county supervisor Reynolds is corrupt, and you provide convincing evidence to support this claim. Reynolds, however, accuses you of being biased without providing any evidence. This illustrates

A) an ad hominem attack
B) an ad hominem fallacy
C) a personal attack
D) all of the above

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Your latest issue of Cosmopolitan includes a survey of readers on jealousy. You are asked to mail in your responses, and 19,000 responses are received. The results appear in the next issue. The results cannot validly be generalized to a population beyond the readership of Cosmo because

A) the sample size is inadequate
B) the sample is self-selected
C) the sample merely gathers testimonials
D) the survey is a correlation, not a causation

Answer 3

B

Question 4

You are asked by a speaker to accept her point of view because most people already do, as indicated on several national surveys using random samples of more than 1,000 subjects. She has committed a fallacy called

A) ad hominem
B) biased source
C) false analogy
D) ad populum

Question 5

When three states reinstituted capital punishment, the number of murders went down. In two states where capital punishment was repealed, murder rates went up. "Capital punishment obviously deters murder" is a fallacious claim based on this evidence because

A) it is only a correlation, not a causation
B) it is insufficient evidence for asserting causation
C) it is a self-selected sample
D) a and b

Question 6

John Jacobs, astrophysicist, claims that earthquakes can be predicted. This is an example of

A) a biased source
B) an expert quoted out of his field
C) an ad populum fallacy
D) a false analogy

Question 7

"The National Anthem is sung by more than 50 million people each year" is an example of

A) a questionable statistic
B) a biased statistic
C) a statistic with a weak margin of error
D) none of the above

Question 8

Fallacies relate to persuasive speeches but are not relevant for informative speeches.

Question 9

An argument is the thought process of drawing conclusions from evidence.

Question 10

A syllogism is a form of informal logic.

Question 11

Grounds in the Toulmin model of argument represent the backing for the warrant.

Question 12

The basic structure of an argument in formal logic is called a syllogism.

Question 13

The credibility of evidence refers to its believability as determined by consistency and accuracy.

Question 14

Accuracy as an element of credibility of evidence means that what a source of information says and does are in agreement, and accuracy means that the evidence has no error.

Question 15

"Studies show" is a perfectly acceptable citation of evidence to support a claim.

Question 16

An ad hominem attack and an ad hominem fallacy are really the same thing.

Question 17

A margin of error of 4% means that the poll is never off by more than 4% from the actual results if the entire population were surveyed.

Question 18

Research shows that ideologically leaning Internet news sources have a strong biasing effect that produces a distorted understanding of evidence and promotes inaccurate beliefs.

Question 19

The more people who support a belief, the stronger is the argument and its validity.

Question 20

A survey's margin of error increases as the size of the sample surveyed increases.

Question 21

Inductive reasoning is a process of drawing conclusions from specific instances.

Question 22

Correlations suggest only possible causations but are not actual causes for phenomena.