Problem Set

watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2ch0-YvzgY
Part I.
(1) According to the video, what is an objection to an argument? (1-2 sentences)

(2) According to the video, what is the difference between an objection to an argument and an argument against another argument’s conclusion? (2-3 sentences)

(3) According to the video, what is the difference between a premise-challenger type of objection and an inference-challenger type of objection? (2-3 sentences)

Part II. For each of the following arguments, do the following:
(i) summarize the argument in standard form
(ii) make two objections: a premise-challenger and an inference-challenger. Make the strongest objections that you can.
(iii) NOTE: If you find you’re having trouble making a strong objection of a certain type, try to say why you’re having trouble. (Hint: You will have trouble making objections of certain kinds to some of these arguments.)

(1) We should get a cat rather than a dog because we’re not home enough to walk a dog.
(2) Philadelphia is no longer the capital of the United States, so Congress must meet elsewhere.
(3) The woman in the hat is not a witch since witches have long noses and she doesn’t have a long nose.
(4) Dissecting creatures in the biology classroom teaches students that animal life is expendable and unimportant. Also a recent study showed that certain companies who supply these creatures are careless of the suffering and pain inflicted on them. Furthermore, there are good alternatives available now in computer simulations, which teach the lessons taught by dissection just as well. So for all these reasons we should no longer use dissection of animals to teach students in the biology classroom.