The Little Blue Reasoning Book - Brandon Royal [35]
A) Without quality equipment, a golf player cannot improve his or her game.
B) The new Sweet Spot Putter will improve an amateur’s game more than it will improve a professional’s game.
C) The quality of a person’s golf game is largely determined by the accuracy of his or her putting.
D) The new Sweet Spot Putter is superior to any other putter currently on the market.
E) Lessons are not as effective at improving the accuracy of a player’s putting as is the use of quality equipment.
See solution
Tip #28: Check to see whether evidence has been handpicked to support a claim being made. Otherwise we may fall victim to “proof by selected instances.”
Problem 17: Critic’s Choice
In a newly released book, Decline of the Novelist, the author argues that novelists today lack technical skills that were common among novelists during the past century. In this regard, the book might be right, since its analysis of 200 novels — 100 contemporary and 100 non-contemporary — demonstrates convincingly that few contemporary novelists exhibit the same skill level as that of non-contemporary novelists.
Which of the following points to the most serious logical flaw in the critic’s argument?
A) The title of the author’s book could cause readers to accept the book’s thesis even before they read the literary analysis of those novels that supports it.
B) There could be criteria other than the novelist’s technical skills by which to evaluate a novel.
C) The novels the critic chose to analyze could be those that most support the book’s thesis.
D) The particular methods novelists currently use may require even more literary skill than do methods used by writers of screenplays.
E) A reader who was not familiar with the language of literary criticism might not be convinced by the book’s analysis of its 200 novels.
See solution
Tip #29: “Evidence omitted” may hold the key to determining an argument’s validity.
Problem 18: Temperament
Steve: “Rick and Harriet, two of my red-haired friends, are irritable. It seems true that red-haired people have bad tempers.”
John: “That’s ridiculous. Red-haired people are actually quite docile. Jeff, Muriel, and Betsy — three of my red-haired friends — all have placid demeanors.”
Which of the statements below provides the most likely explanation for the two seemingly contradictory statements above?
A) The number of red-haired people whom Steve knows may be different from the number of red-haired people whom John knows.
B) The number of red-haired people whom both Steve and John know may not be greater in total than the number of non-red-haired people whom both Steve and John know.
C) It is likely that Steve or John has incorrectly assessed the temperament of one or more of his red-haired friends.
D) It is likely that both Steve and John have friends who are not red-haired and yet also have bad tempers.
E) The examples that Steve uses and the examples that John uses to support their conclusions are likely both valid.
See solution
Tip #30: Correlation does not equal causation.
Problem 19: Cyclist
Touring professional cyclists have been shown to have between 4% and 11% body fat. If we could all decrease our body fat to that level, we could all cycle at a world-class level.
Which one of the following most accurately characterizes the method of reasoning used in the above statements?
A) Its conclusion is based on evidence, which in turn, is based on its conclusion.
B) It illustrates the absurdity of the argument by reaching an illogical conclusion.
C) It assumes a causal relationship between two highly correlated events.
D) It uses flawed evidence to support its conclusion.
E) It assumes what it seeks to establish.
See solution
Tip #31: Cause-and-effect assumptions are grounded in the idea that because one event follows another in time, the first of the two events is the cause and the second is the