Deck 12: Causal Reasoning

Question 1

Our experience is of particular events.Causal laws, however, refer to all events of a cer- tain type.Therefore, in order to use our experience to test causal assertions, we must:

A)gather as many confirming instances as we can before declaring that we know any causal fact with certainty
B)not become confused by the apparent contradiction.Just because our experi- ence is only of particular events does not mean we cannot definitely declare
general laws to be true
C)remember that every time we confirm a causal assertion we are only confirm- ing a single instance of it
D)remember that no causal assertion is ever completely confirmed

Answer 1

remember that no causal assertion is ever completely confirmed

Question 2

Which of the following statements is not true of induction by simple enumeration?

A)It is a trustworthy way to generate basic hypotheses in science to use for fur- ther testing.
B)It is really extended argument by analogy and differs from analogy only in that it has a more general conclusion.
C)It makes no distinctions between genuine confirming instances of a law and sheer coincidence.
D)It takes no account of critical disconfirming instances of causal laws, and thus does not work for testing causal hypotheses.

Answer 2

It is a trustworthy way to generate basic hypotheses in science to use for fur- ther testing.

Question 3

The method of agreement is particularly useful when:

A)we want to narrow down the range of phenomena in question for possible further scientific research.
B)we are interested in pinpointing the exact cause of a phenomenon such as an epidemic.
C)we cannot separate the cause we are interested in from the effects it is entan- gled with though we do know what some of the other causes are.
D)we have a phenomenon to study that cannot be disconnected from a network of other significant factors, and any experiment involving the elimination of factors one by one is impossible.

Answer 3

we want to narrow down the range of phenomena in question for possible further scientific research.

Question 4

The joint method of agreement and difference is commonly used in medical investigation because:

A)it allows researchers to double-check their results.
B)other methods are forbidden by laws against human experimentation.
C)it prevents wasted time and research money by doubling the possibility of obtaining results.
D)it allows a substance to be suggested as a cause while allowing other candidate substances to be eliminate

Question 5

"I was wondering why my houseplants were dying.Perhaps I was watering and fertilizing them incorrectly.Then I realized that my apartment got pretty hot when the air conditioning was off when I was away.I decided to try to find the right temperature to keep my plants healthy.For three days, I left the air conditioner set on one particular temperature, and in five-degree increments I tried temperatures from sweltering to chilly, until I finally found the temperature they liked best." This experiment used:

A)the method of agreement
B)the method of concomitant variation
C)the joint method of agreement and difference
D)a poor approximation of the method of concomitant variation

Question 6

Which of the following actions is not an example of the application of the method of residues?

A)Moving guests at a hotel where large numbers of guests became ill out of a suspected wing to see if the wing's climate control system is at fault.
B)Weighing an inflated balloon to find out how much the air inside it weighs.
C)Identifying all of the possible causes for an irregularity in the orbit of a planet concluding that they do not completely explain it and hypothesizing on that basis that there must be some other unknown cause.
D)Running a truck over a truck scale and concluding that it is carrying too much freight

Question 7

The method of residues is designed to deal with situations where

A)a cause that operates within a complex set of effects is sought and while the exact variable cannot be isolated it is possible to manipulate it experimentally.
B)a cause is sought for a similar effect occurring in disparate circumstances and the major candidates for possible causes can be eliminated or produced experimentally.
C)a cause that operates within a complex set of effects is sought and many but not all of the contributing causes are already known.
D)a cause, the necessary cause of an effect, is sought-investigators wish to confirm that an effect simply cannot happen without this antecedent event.

Question 8

Which of the following situations would not be a likely candidate for the use of the joint method of agreement and difference?

A)Allergists suspect that some common substance is causing my rash; they decide to conduct experiments to track down the exact cause.
B)Epidemiologists suspect that a high intake of salt is related to heart disease so they decide to investigate the question.
C)Medical researchers want to know the cause of a nerve disease; they hope to study a population which has a high incidence of the disease to see if they can learn something about it and if possible develop a treatment and test it on the same population.
D)A dentist wants to know if her new denture linings are as good as she thinks, so she phones all of her denture-wearing patients, including those wearing other linings, and asks them how their denture linings are holding up.

Question 9

Which of the following phenomena would be best investigated using the method of residues?

A)Researchers want to study the relationship between drinking wine and heart disease in humans.
B)A detective wants to determine who last touched a murder weapon; he has a fingerprint dusting kit.
C)The government wants to know the weight of the freight a semi-truck is carrying.
D)A professor of logic wants to know how much lecturing is optimal for teaching about the method of residues.

Question 10

We can legitimately infer cause from effect only in the sense of:

A)proximate cause
B)sufficient condition
C)necessary condition
D)remote cause

Question 11

A necessary condition for the occurrence of an event is a circumstance in whose
presence the event must occur.

Question 12

We can never completely confirm a causal assertion, no matter how many confirm-
ing instances we accumulate.

Question 13

"Double-arm" trials, in which one group receives a treatment while another does
not, and then the treatment groups are reversed, are based upon the joint method of agreement and difference.

Question 14

Scientists cannot use the method of residues when they cannot conduct experi-
ments to produce one isolated effect in the lab.

Question 15

When using the method of concomitant variation, it is necessary to have a measur-
ing system already established.

Question 16

Matching:

-When researchers study hundreds of families to try to find something unique to the genetic makeup of persons suffering from a particular disease, they are using
the method of _______

A)Agreement
B) residues
C)Difference

Question 17

Matching:

-"Knockout mice" that are missing a crucial gene are specifically bred for use in experiments that use the method of ________.

A)difference
B)residues
C)agreement

Question 18

Matching:

-The method of ________ differs from the other methods in that it may be used to examine only one case.

A)residues
B)agreement
C)difference

Question 19

Matching:

-To say that A causes B is to claim that there is some ________ law determining that A will always generate B in this way

A)particular
B)general
C)necessary

Question 20

Matching:

-A ________ condition describes a circumstance in whose absence an event cannot occur

A)Sufficient
B)true
C)necessary